Denver High School Students Seek Maternity Leave

by Taryn Wilgus Null, MARGARET Fund Fellow
National Women’s Law Center

Students at a Denver high school are advocating for a policy that would allow pregnant students to have four weeks of maternity leave after giving birth. According to the Denver Post, the current policy at East High School charges new mothers with unexcused absences unless they return to school the day after being discharged from the hospital. Yes, you read that correctly – after they give birth, teen mothers are required to return to school the day after returning from the hospital. If they fail to do so, they start racking up unexcused absences.

Fortunately, at least some guidance counselors and school board members have recognized that this policy is both unfair and counterproductive. Like all students, pregnant and parenting students should be encouraged to stay in school. As reported in When Girls Don’t Graduate, We All Fail, the National Women’s Law Center’s groundbreaking report on the dropout crisis for high school girls, about one-third of female dropouts cite pregnancy and parenting responsibilities as a major reason that they dropped out. Of dropouts, these students were most likely to say that they would have stayed in school if their schools had done more to support them. And because the economic consequences for female dropouts are especially severe, it is critical that young mothers complete their educations, so that the cycle of dropout and poverty does not continue with their children.

What’s also clear is that East High School’s policy is not merely unfair, it's also likely to violate the law. Title IX regulations protect pregnant and parenting students from discrimination. Specifically, the regulations provide that if a student has to miss school for reasons related to pregnancy or childbirth, the time missed must be considered a justified leave of absence for as long as is deemed medically necessary by the student’s doctor. At the time the student returns to school, she must be reinstated to the status she held when the leave began. Moreover, a school must treat recovery from pregnancy like the recovery from any other temporary disability. That means that if a student in the hospital for an illness is not required to return to school the day after being released, Title IX prohibits schools from requiring new mothers to return to school a day after being released from the hospital.

We urge East High School’s administrators to adopt the maternity leave policy proposed, comply with all other aspects of Title IX’s requirements and provide the support that pregnant and parenting students need to stay in school.

Comments

[Defendusa]

The use of the word "fortunately" makes me ill. You are advocating acceptance of teen pregnancy. I have no sympathy regarding the students who have had sex and now are failing to deal with the consequences. When children in high school become severely ill, they must hire a tutor to keep up with their classmates. And the illness is completely out of their control. Pregnancy is not an accident. By allowing this, should we allow the drug addicted teens to come to the school health office and get their methadone as well? Maternity leave for high school students is not acceptable.