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Pregnancy discrimination, although illegal, remains a problem for both students and teachers in U.S. school settings. This entry provides a brief overview of forms of discrimination—expulsion, stigma, harassment, isolation, and racial segregation—and highlights underlying attitudes and assumptions that continue to hamper the quest for full equality for pregnant and parenting students. It also reviews the specific requirements of Title IX legislation and special pregnancy programs that evolved in its wake, and how these programs relate to the ongoing debate over equal versus special treatment. It then considers pregnancy discrimination against teachers, acknowledging that it operates differently in the context of higher education than in K–12 settings. Solutions need to equalize opportunities for women and girls—as students, schoolteachers, and faculty members—to ensure that they do not have to choose between motherhood and securing their educations and/or careers.

Overview of Forms of Pregnancy Discrimination in School Settings

Prior to the passage of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, school districts expelled pregnant students as soon as a pregnancy was revealed. The rationale for expulsion was based on the assumption that pregnancy limits a student's ability to function in school situations, as well as fears that there would be detrimental effects on the sexual morals and activities of other students who came in contact with a pregnant student.

Similarly, until the passage of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (PDA), teachers in public schools routinely faced employment discrimination on the basis of pregnancy. Schoolteachers were forced to choose between a limited number of options, including mandatory, unpaid leave; resignation; termination; or choosing an abortion in an effort to keep their jobs. Justifications for treating pregnant women and girls differently—whether students or teachers—have relied on the same concerns, stigmas, and moral injunctions regarding female sexual conduct. On the one hand, policies have been put into place presumably to protect pregnant women's health or to shield them from being embarrassed or harassed by others in the school setting. On the other hand, school policies have sought to insulate children and youth from the topic of sexual activity, especially sex outside of marriage. Contentious national and local debates about sex education in schools have led many school districts to be wary of promoting any policy or practice that might call attention to sexual activity. Such concerns, assumptions, and taboos about pregnancy in school contexts continue to serve as the basis for de facto (in practice) but not de jure (by law) discrimination.

Requirements of Title IX: Legitimizing the Rights of Pregnant Students

Title IX legislation prohibits discrimination based on sex. It has been applied in four main areas: athletics, single-sex education, sexual harassment, and pregnancy. Educational institutions receiving any amount of federal money are required to comply with the following: First and foremost, a public school, college, or university cannot single out a pregnant student for disadvantaged treatment or exclude her from any school program or activity based on her condition. Second, schools must accommodate pregnancy as though it were a temporary disability, which means that pregnant students are entitled to the same scholarship funds, insurance benefits, leave policies, modified course requirements, or at-home-tutoring programs that temporarily disabled students are entitled to. Third, schools are required to allow a pregnant student to take temporary leave, and when she returns, she must be reinstated to her prior status, regardless of whether the school allows temporary leave for other conditions. The length of a pregnant woman's leave is to be determined by her doctor.

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