Laws protect teen parents at school

Title IX shelters pregnant teens and new parents from discrimination at school. Districts are responding with programs to further their academic development and life chances.

Teen pregnancy is never easy. Expectant young parents are often forced to cope with complex feelings. Quite suddenly, they might envision a new, uncertain, and perhaps scary version of their future. Then, in the midst of all this, they must decide how education fits into their lives.

From a school district perspective, the law makes it simple. Educators must treat soon-to-be moms and dads or school-age parents the same as other students. While pregnancy and childbirth affect boys and girls alike, the most dramatic changes touch female students. That more intense effect frames the legal and policy discussion for this column.

Most prominently, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 forbids pregnancy discrimination. While most people associate Title IX with sports equity, the law is much broader. It prohibits public schools and colleges from treating female students differently based on sex. Pregnancy falls naturally within its protections.

Not so long ago, an unmarried girl would be judged harshly for getting pregnant. Almost inevitably, she faced shaming in the community, dropping out of school, and a bleak future. But no more: Fifteen years into the 21st century and its more enlightened outlook, one might guess teen pregnancy is no big deal. That conclusion would be premature. We should hasten to add, however, that teen pregnancies have steadily declined over the last 20 years in all 50 states and among all racial and ethnic groups.

Educators must treat soon-to-be moms and dads or school-age parents the same as other students.

Last spring, a community kerfuffle developed in Mesa, Ariz., surrounding images in the high school yearbook. The two-page spread featured cute toddlers and cute high school parents under the title, “I’m Working a Double Shift.” The reference acknowledges the challenge of being parents while also attending school. A word balloon above one young mom’s head says, “She’s my bundle of joy.” The photos also showed happy dads. A large, circular graphic, however, countered with the words, “Mixed Emotions.”

Some parents, grandparents, and students worried that the yearbook profile served to glamorize teen pregnancy. Shelly Adams, a Mesa High School parent, told Today.com, “It’s wonderful that they’re still in school, and they’re trying to finish up their education, but, at the same time, it doesn’t really convey the reality of what they are going through.”

A click poll at the end of the Today.com story asked if teen parents should be featured prominently in high school yearbooks. Among 22,730 respondents, 37% said yes, 54% said no, and the rest were unsure.

A sporting chance

In 2009, high school senior Mackenzie McCollum was a regular in the starting lineup of the Arlington Heights High School varsity volleyball team. The Fort Worth, Texas, athlete was also pregnant. When school officials discovered her condition, they barred her from playing until she could produce a doctor’s note certifying her fitness to continue. She received a doctor’s note, but district officials refused to put her back in, saying they could not make arrangements to monitor her heart rate and explaining that physical contact is inherent to the game of volleyball.

A second medical note reinforced that McCollum could play without restrictions. While she was away, however, the coach told the rest of the team she was pregnant. When McCollum returned, her playing time was drastically reduced. Ultimately, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) declined to pursue the case. The federal agency concluded there was not enough evidence that McCollum was treated differently from other students, received more limited playing time, or was retaliated against for complaining.

However, incidents like the McCollum case might be what OCR had in mind when it issued an advisory to school districts in June 2013. The 26-page document, Supporting the Academic Success of Pregnant and Parenting Students Under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, reviews the legal mandates and answers frequently asked questions. Among them:

May a school district require a pregnant student to participate in a separate program? (No.)
What types of assistance must a school provide to a pregnant student at school? (A school must make adjustments to the regular program that are reasonable and responsive to the student’s temporary pregnancy status.)
Is a school required to excuse a student’s absences due to pregnancy or childbirth? (Yes.)
Is a school district required to allow a student to participate in extracurricular activities, including sports? (Yes.)

The OCR advisory includes strategies to support pregnant and parenting students and provides examples of legally compliant and educationally sensitive programs. Title IX’s implementing regulations also address the topic.

Pursuing policies

Thankfully, most school districts get it. Nearly all have policies, and many have programs specifically designed to accommodate the special needs of pregnant students and new parents. All parts of the nation are affected.

In New England, Boston Public Schools took the spring and summer of 2014 to begin updating its policy on expectant and parenting students. The core principles: maintaining confidentiality, ensuring a safe, supportive learning environment, promoting academic success, implementing sensible attendance polices, and using liaisons to share information.

In the Midwest, the Saint Paul (Minn.) school district includes AGAPE High School, which stands for Adolescent Girls and Parenting Education. It describes itself as a “small learning community [offering] numerous courses, as well as intervention services . . . [including] social, emotional, and physical health services or referrals, English language learner and special education support.”

In the South, Orange County (Fla.) Public Schools offers the Teenage Parent Program (TAP), which entitles teen parents to receive funded childcare by a licensed provider of their choice and still earn a diploma. The program features lessons on “prenatal and postnatal health care, parenting skills, the benefits of sexual abstinence, and the consequences of subsequent pregnancies.”

Healthy and wise

Teen pregnancy is also a public health issue, so schools are not the only ones seeking solutions. The Chicago Department of Health stirred a conversation in 2013 with its advertising campaign on trains and buses. The advertisements star teen boys who are visibly pregnant, showing big stomachs and grim faces. One ad features the words “Unexpected? Most Teen Pregnancies Are” in big letters. In smaller type, it advises “Avoid Unplanned Pregnancy. Use a Condom. Or Wait.”

The ads were displayed near schools and in areas of Chicago with the highest teen pregnancy rates. A spokesman for the Chicago health department told the New York Daily News, “The point was to get people’s attention and get conversation started about teen pregnancy and teen births, and how they really affect a community.” A slightly different version of the ad campaign was first used in Milwaukee, and coincided with a 10% dip in teen pregnancy.

Even without a provocative message, teen pregnancy can be an occasion to examine values. Clashes are inevitable. At one intersection are people who urge others to accept reality and respond by helping students seek a brighter future. Others see teen pregnancy as a life lesson: Two students made a choice to have sex and should suffer the consequences. This topic also gets caught up in the often-emotional sex education versus abstinence vortex.

But Title IX does not say suffer; it says support. The most forward-thinking school districts understand that the endgame is to have girls and boys graduate from high school and become productive citizens. Our democracy needs that, our compassion as educators demands it, and the law requires it.