Title 17. Education

Chapter 1. General School Law

Part III. Public Schools and School Children

Subpart C. School Attendance

17:221.8   Pregnant or parenting students; policies; attendance, breastfeeding, and child care

A. The governing authority of each public high school shall adopt an attendance policy for pregnant and parenting students that shall: 

(1)(a) 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. 

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

(2) 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 weeks to continue at the same pace and finish at a later date, or receiving home-based instruction services. 

(3) Provide that for absences or checkouts for reasons provided in Paragraph (1) of this Subsection, a school shall accept either of the following: 

(a) Documentation from a physician. 

(b) Permission from a parent or legal guardian. 

B. The governing authority of each public high school shall adopt a policy relative to breastfeeding that 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: 

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

(b) Permission to bring a breast pump and any other equipment used to express breast milk to school. 

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

(d) Access to a place to store breast milk safely. 

(2) 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. 

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

C. If a public high school provides access to child care either on campus or off campus, the school’s governing authority shall adopt a policy for notifying students of such child care options, which shall be available to both student mothers and student fathers. If a public high school does not provide such child care, its governing authority shall adopt a policy for assisting parenting students in identifying child care providers. 

Added by Acts 2022, No. 472, § 2.