5008: Pregnant or Parenting Students
The ESU will not discriminate in its education program or activity against any student based on the student's current, potential, or past pregnancy. Students who are pregnant or parenting are encouraged to continue participating in ESU 4’s educational and extracurricular programs.
- Accommodations Regarding Attendance and Participation
- Generally - Students who anticipate deviations from their regular school experience or accrue absences due to pregnancy or parenting should notify their program administrator as early as possible to discuss their educational programming. The program administrator will work with the student to develop a plan to assist the student in participating in program curriculum and extra-curricular activities. Such a plan may include:
- If the student cannot regularly attend classes, the provision of online courses;
- The arrangement of meeting times with teachers;
- If the student has not identified appropriate childcare, the identification of child care providers that meet statutory requirements for quality and care; and
- All other curricular adjustments, modifications, and means of supplementing classroom attendance deemed appropriate by the program administrators including, but not limited to, modification of attendance policies.
- Students with Disabilities - For students with disabilities who have an IEP or Section 504 plan, the administrators, student’s parents or guardians, and student if appropriate will collaborate with the student’s educational team to coordinate accommodations consistent with state and federal law. As permitted by law, students may be entitled to accommodations as a result of pregnancy.
- Title IX
- When a student, or a person with a legal right to act on a student’s behalf, informs an ESU employee of the student’s pregnancy or related conditions, the ESU will inform the student of the Title IX Coordinator’s contact information. The employee will also inform the student that the Title IX Coordinator can coordinate actions to prevent sex discrimination and ensure the student’s equal access to the ESU’s education program or activity.
- The ESU will make reasonable accommodations to the ESU’s policies, practices, and procedures as necessary to prevent sex discrimination and ensure equal access to the ESU’s education program or activity. The ESU will coordinate reasonable modifications based on the student’s individualized need. The ESU will consult with the student when determining what reasonable modifications may be appropriate, and the student has the discretion to accept or decline the reasonable modifications offered by the ESU.
- The ESU will allow the student to voluntarily access any separate and comparable portion of the ESU’s education program or activity. The ESU will allow the student to voluntarily take a leave of absence from the ESU’s education program or activity to cover, at a minimum, the period of time deemed medically necessary by the student’s licensed healthcare provider. Upon the student’s return, the student will be reinstated to the student’s academic status, and as practicable, to the extracurricular status that the student held when the voluntary leave began.
- Accommodations Regarding Lactation and Breastfeeding
- Accommodations
- In order to accommodate lactating and breastfeeding students, the ESU will provide reasonable opportunities to express breast milk or breastfeed in a place, other than a bathroom, which is shielded from view and free from intrusion from ESU students, employees, and the public.
- Students who wish or need to express breast milk on a regular schedule will work with program administrators to create a schedule which accommodates the student’s needs while facilitating education to the maximum extent possible.
- The ESU will provide a location for students to store expressed breast milk in or near the location designated for students to express milk to create the least amount of disruption to the student’s participation in class or activities.
- Educational Process - In order to prevent interference with the educational process, no student shall express breast milk within classrooms or buses. Nothing in this policy limits the authority of the program administrators to impose consequences consistent with ESU policies and state and federal law.
Adopted on: June 8, 2009
Revised on: May 13, 2019
Reviewed on: November 14, 2011
Reviewed on: April 10, 2023
Revised on: August 12, 2024