FILE:  JQA

Cf:  IDDC

 

EXPECTANT AND PARENTING STUDENTS

 

 

The Lafayette Parish School Board is committed to the protection of the educational rights of expectant and parenting students.  Expectant and parenting students, regardless of their marital status, have the same right as any other student to attend school and to do so in an environment free of discrimination or harassment.  The School Board shall make reasonable adjustments to facilitate the equal access and full participation of expectant and parenting students and encourage expectant and parenting students to continue their education.

 

No student shall be excluded from, denied the benefit of, or discriminated against under any educational program or activity because of pregnancy or parenting responsibilities, and marital, maternal, or paternal status shall not affect the rights and privileges of students to receive a public education nor to take part in any extracurricular activity offered by the schools.

 

Should the student need to be absent from school for a prolonged period of time, the student may enroll in the School Board's homebound instruction program or any other available alternative education program until released by her physician to return to regular classes.  Any student who is not able to return to regular classes shall be encouraged to enroll in an appropriate alternative education program.

 

In regard to each expectant and parenting student, each school and the Lafayette Parish School Board shall

 

  1. Maintain confidentiality in regard to the student.

  2. Ensure a safe and supportive learning environment for the student.

  3. Promote academic success for the student.

  4. Utilize sensible attendance policies, taking into account all necessary factors

  5. Provide a supportive school environment that promotes high school graduation.

  6. Excuse absences due to conditions related to pregnancy or parenting, including but not limited to labor, delivery, and recovery; prenatal and postnatal medical appointments and other medically necessary pregnancy-related absences; a child's illness or medical appointment; and legal appointments related to pregnancy or parenting, including but not limited to adoption, custody, and visitation.

  7. Provide at least ten (10) days of excused absences for both a parenting mother and a parenting father after the birth of a child.

  8. At the conclusion of any pregnancy-related or parenting-related period of absence, allow a student to make up missed work in a reasonable amount of time that shall not be less than the number of days the student was absent and choose from various options to make up the work, including retaking a semester, participating in an online course credit recovery program, being granted six (6) weeks to continue at the same pace and finish at a later date, or receiving home-based instruction services.

  9. Provide that for absences or checkouts for reasons provided above, a school shall accept either of the following:

 

  1. Documentation from a physician.

  2. Permission from a parent or legal guardian.

 

BREASTFEEDING

 

The high schools of the Lafayette Parish School Board shall:

 

  1. Provide for reasonable accommodations for a lactating student on a school campus to express breast milk, breastfeed, or address other breastfeeding needs, which shall include, at a minimum:

 

  1. Access to a private and secure room other than a restroom to express breast milk or breastfeed a child.

  2. Permission to bring a breast pump and any other equipment used to express breast milk to school.

  3. Access to a power source for a breast pump or any other equipment used to express breast milk.

  4. Access to a place to store breast milk safely.

 

  1. Provide that a lactating student shall be provided a reasonable amount of time to accommodate the need to express breast milk or breastfeed a child while at school. 

  2. Provide that a student shall not incur an academic penalty as a result of use, during the school day, of the reasonable accommodations specified herein and shall be provided the opportunity to make up any work missed due to such use.

 

CHILD CARE

 

The Lafayette Parish School Board shall provide both high school student mothers and student fathers information regarding availability of child care options within (if available) and outside the school system, and shall provide them assistance in identifying child care providers.

 

Adopted prior to 1975 as JQE Revised:  December 5, 2018
Revised:  October 7, 2015 Revised:  August 10, 2022

 

 

Ref:    U.S. Constitution, Amend. XIV, Sec. 1

20 USC 1681 et seq. (Discrimination Based on Sex or Blindness)

34 CFR 106.40 (Guidelines on Marital or Parenting Status)

La. Rev. Stat. Ann. ยง17:221.7, 17:221.8

Davis v. Meeks, 344 F.Supp. 298 (N.D. Ohio 1972)

Holt v. Shelton, 371 F.Supp. 821 (M.D. Tenn. 1972)

Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur, 94 S.Ct. 791 (1974)

Board minutes, 12-2-98, 10-7-15, 12-5-18, 8-10-22

 

Lafayette Parish School Board