Period products will be provided free in public schools across California starting next school year as required by new legislation signed into law on Friday.

Public schools with students in grades six to 12, community colleges and the California State University System — a network of 23 campuses with more than 485,00 students — will be required to provide free period products in restrooms starting in the 2022-2023 academic year.

The legislation, named the Menstrual Equity for All Act, was introduced by Cristina Garcia (D), a member of California’s State Assembly, and signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).

The law is the latest step toward “menstrual equity” in the nation’s most populous state, which has a history of implementing laws that are later echoed in other parts of the country. This year it also eliminated a tax on menstrual products (also led by Garcia), which Garcia said in a statement costs Californians more than $20 million annually.

Free period products are already required in low-income schools, under 2017 legislation that was introduced by Garcia, who has deemed herself the “Period Princess.”

Garcia said providing period products free in schools will “alleviate the anxiety of trying to find a product,” eliminating a potential distraction and barrier to education for students who menstruate.

“Just as toilet paper and paper towels are provided in virtually every public bathroom, so should menstrual products,” she said in the statement. “It is time we recognize and respond to the biology of half the population by prioritizing free access to menstrual products, and eliminating all barriers to them.”

Scotland last year became the first country to provide free period products nationally in community centers, pharmacies and youth clubs. The country had previously provided the products free in schools and universities.

That legislation was not only about “normalizing menstruation in Scotland,” lawmaker Monica Lennon said at the time, but also about “sending out that real signal to people in this country about how seriously Parliament takes gender equality.”

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern moved this year to provide free period products in schools across the country. The government there will allocate about $18 million over three years for the products, but schools are not required to opt in to the program.

Some local and school officials in the United States have moved to improve access to the products: The New York City Council in 2016 approved a measure to provide free period products in public schools, prisons and homeless shelters, and Chicago the same year lifted a tax on period products.

And last year, Congress passed the Cares Act, which classified menstrual products as qualified medical expenses, meaning they can be bought with pretax dollars via health savings and flexible spending accounts.

But advocates say there is still work to do.

Many states tax period products as nonessential goods, a practice that President Barack Obama called out in 2016, saying in a YouTube interview, “I have no idea why states would tax these as luxury items.”

“I suspect it’s because men were making the laws when those taxes were passed,” he added.

The state of Michigan is one of those wrestling with the issue. On Saturday, advocates from the group Period rallied outside the state capitol, urging lawmakers to approve a pair of bills that would eliminate sales tax and use tax (which covers items bought online, for example, from out of state) on the products. At the same time, a class-action lawsuit is making its way through the state’s court system, after three women sued the state’s Treasury Department last year, alleging that the taxes were discriminatory. They also asked for a refund.