Womenstake

Standing Up for the Education of Teen Parents

by Lara S. Kaufmann, Senior Counsel, 
National Women’s Law Center 

For me, Wednesday was an "electric" day this week. Not only did my house finally get power back after a 4-day blackout following severe storms here in the D.C. area, but also (and far more importantly) Representative Jared Polis (D-CO) introduced the Pregnant and Parenting Students Access to Education Act, which has the potential to spark real change in the educational outcomes for pregnant and parenting students! 

The bill (H.R. 5894) is designed to address the educational and related needs of pregnant and parenting teens, to improve their high school graduation rates and their access to postsecondary education and career opportunities. The legislation sets up a grant program to provide states and local school districts with a framework and needed funds so they can offer academic support and related services to pregnant and parenting students, designate a coordinator to oversee the education of pregnant and parenting students, and revise school policies that create barriers to the success of these students, some of which discriminate based on pregnancy in violation of Title IX. It aims to change the culture at schools, so that pregnant and parenting students are no longer stigmatized and instead are encouraged to reach their educational goals—which will benefit not only them but also their children, their communities, and our nation as a whole. 

Here at NWLC, we have been working to improve educational outcomes for pregnant and parenting students, and this is a very important step forward. For further information about what the Pregnant and Parenting Students Access to Education Act does, check out this new fact sheet. We hope the provisions of this bill will be incorporated into a new and improved Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the reauthorization of which is a work in progress. Stay tuned for more information!

White House Calls on Congress to Pass Paycheck Fairness Act

by Lara S. Kaufmann, Senior Counsel, 
National Women’s Law Center 

This morning, Vice President Biden hosted a White House event on solutions for families balancing the dual demands of work and caring for family.  At that event – attended not only by many top Administration officials, but also by everyone’s favorite fair pay spokesperson, Lilly Ledbetter – the Vice President and members of the White House Middle Class Task Force and Council on Women and Girls announced the recommendations of the National Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force. 

The list includes Passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act, which cleared the House of Representatives long ago but is still awaiting a Senate vote. The Paycheck Fairness Act will strengthen current (outdated) laws against wage discrimination and provide tools to enable the federal government to be more proactive in the fight for fair pay. The Senate must act quickly to pass this bill, which is the key next step to achieving pay equity in this country. It's time to get it done.

Pssst . . . Pass it on!

by Lara S. Kaufmann, Senior Counsel, 
National Women’s Law Center 

Today is the 38th anniversary of the passage of Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bans sex discrimination in education. Unfortunately, far too many schools, administrators, teachers, counselors, students, and parents still are not aware of what Title IX encompasses and what they can do to help ensure that all students get equal educational opportunities, regardless of their sex.

That’s why we are so excited to announce the release of our new guide, It’s Your Education: How Title IX Protections Can Help You. This easy-to-use tool provides information for students at all levels of education about their rights under Title IX, to ensure that male and female students receive the education they deserve. It’s Your Education lays out the key protections under Title IX—such as protection against sexual harassment in schools, equal treatment for pregnant and parenting students, and equal (non-stereotypical) encouragement in all fields of study—and gives tips on what students can do if they suspect that they are experiencing discrimination in school.

Please share this information far and wide, with the students, parents, and teachers you know, because what they don’t know CAN hurt them!

Feeling Blue (Not Pink!) About Gender Stereotypes in Education

by Lara S. Kaufmann, Senior Counsel, 
National Women’s Law Center 

Last Friday, we filed an amicus (“friend of the court”) brief in the appeal of an ACLU case challenging the legality of single-sex classes in a public school in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana. Hopefully the brief—submitted on behalf of NWLC and 38 other organizations and individuals who signed on in support—will help to convince the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to reverse the harmful decision handed down by the district court.

The Supreme Court has made it very clear, for decades, that the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause safeguards the rights of all children to equal educational opportunities and a public education free of gender stereotypes. Because state actions that classify students by sex are so often based on overbroad generalizations about the different abilities and interests of males and females—thus limiting the opportunities available to members of both sexes—the Court reviews such classifications with heightened, "skeptical" scrutiny. 

To survive heightened scrutiny, schools must show that they have an "exceedingly persuasive justification" for separating students by sex. And the Supreme Court has explicitly said that the justification must be "genuine," not "hypothesized or invented post hoc in response to litigation," and that it cannot be based on stereotypes about males and females. It is a tough standard to meet, and the state has the burden of proving the justification for its program. 

What the Pill Means for Educational Success

by Lara S. Kaufmann, Senior Counsel, 
National Women’s Law Center 

Every year in the United States, there are approximately 750,000 teen pregnancies and 400,000 teen births. Overall, nearly 3 in 10 girls in the United States become pregnant at least once by age 20, and the rates are even higher for girls of color. Our teen pregnancy and birth rates are higher than those of any other Western industrialized country. 

This is not just a public health issue and an economic issue; it is also an education issue. Pregnant and parenting students often face major barriers to enrolling, attending, and succeeding in school, including, for example: outright discrimination and stigmatization by their schools (in violation of their civil rights); the difficulty of keeping up while out of school leading up to or following the birth of a child, especially without any school support; the challenge of juggling school work with parenting responsibilities; and the lack of access to affordable quality child care and  transportation  to and from the child care arrangement and school. 

What’s Different About This Year’s National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy

by Lara S. Kaufmann, Senior Counsel, 
National Women’s Law Center 

When I blogged about the National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy last year, I talked about the significant link between teen pregnancy rates and dropout rates. In one sentence, it goes like this: 

Teen pregnancy prevention can help improve graduation rates, because girls who get pregnant as teenagers are less likely to graduate from high school, and dropout prevention is a form of teen pregnancy prevention, because girls who stay engaged in school and believe in their ability to achieve their educational and career goals are less likely to get pregnant as teenagers.

That is still true. But this year, two things are different.

School Reform Must Take into Account the Needs of All Students

by Lara S. Kaufmann, Senior Counsel, 
National Women’s Law Center 

There is plenty to celebrate during Women’s History Month, particularly around the advances women have made in education. The impact of Title IX has been far-reaching, increasing the number of women in athletics and improving educational and career opportunities for American women and girls over almost four decades. But as we celebrate this success, it is critical that we not forget that there is a tremendous amount of work left. It therefore seems fitting that Congress chose this month to solicit feedback from the public about the upcoming reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (aka “No Child Left Behind”). And, as you’d expect, we will have a lot to say. 

The truth is, this is a time of crisis for all students in our nation’s schools. But somehow the voices of girls at risk in school largely have been absent from the debate around education reform. In fact, far too many policymakers and the media have bought into the stereotype that all girls are succeeding in school. Unfortunately that is just not the case: 19% of Asian American female students do not graduate on time, if at all (note: this number may be deceivingly low because it does not take into account variations between female students of different Asian and Pacific Islander ethnicities); and the same is true for 41% of Latina students; 43% of African American female students, and 49% of Native American female students. 

Georgia Board of Education Adopts Non-Discrimination Language from NWLC

by Lara S. Kaufmann, Senior Counsel, 
National Women’s Law Center 

The Georgia Board of Education has corrected a rule that discriminatorily restricted pregnant students from eligibility for hospital/homebound instruction. Prior to this change, Georgia schools treated pregnant students as ineligible for hospital/homebound instruction, in contrast to students with other temporary medical conditions.

Under Title IX, students with pregnancy and related medical conditions must be treated in the same manner as students with other similar medical conditions. NWLC advocated for the rule ultimately adopted by the Board, which now permits pregnant students to obtain hospital/homebound instruction when necessary. Where available, homebound instruction services can be very helpful to students who have to be absent from school for extended periods – because of pregnancy complications, recovery from childbirth, or other related conditions – in keeping up with their studies, so they stay on track to graduate and return to school once they are able. Click here to read the Georgia Board of Education’s revised policy.

What ESPN Left on the Cutting Room Floor

by Lara S. Kaufmann, Senior Counsel, 
National Women’s Law Center 

If you watched ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” yesterday, you know it included a segment on a client of ours, a 17-year old high school senior in Fort Worth, Texas. In case you missed it, here it is:

Watch the Video

Our client is a top student, and she was the starting setter on the school’s varsity volleyball team until the athletic coordinator found out that she was pregnant. She was then denied an equal opportunity to play based on her pregnancy, in violation of Title IX’s prohibition against sex discrimination in education. Just last week, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in Dallas opened an investigation into the matter.

The show was engaging, and I applaud ESPN for devoting media attention to the issue of discrimination against pregnant students, as it is still quite common but most often flies below the public’s radar. Too many people – students, parents, and school staff – still do not know that Title IX applies to schools’ treatment of pregnant and parenting students. (For more information on what Title IX requires in this regard, check out our resources on pregnant and parenting students).

Lots of People Listening to Latinas!

by Lara S. Kaufmann, Senior Counsel, 
National Women’s Law Center 

We are really excited about all of the attention surrounding the report we just released, Listening to Latinas: Barriers to High School Graduation. The report has gotten some good media coverage, and we’ve already been contacted by a number of people who heard about it and want to know what they can do to help address the dropout crisis for Latinas (41 percent of whom do not graduate from high school in four years -– if they graduate at all, which has extremely serious ramifications for their economic security and health). Well, there is a lot that schools and policy makers can do (more on that below), and we need all the help we can get! 

To explore the obstacles they face, we surveyed and interviewed Latinas across the country and the teachers and program staff who work with them every day. The girls we spoke with have very high aspirations. Many of them want to become doctors, nurses, lawyers and scientists. In fact, 98 percent of those we surveyed said that they want to at least graduate from high school, and 80 percent said that they hope to go to college. But far too many of them doubt they can make it: one-third of the girls we surveyed said they do not think they will be able to reach their educational goals.

As my colleague Christie asked in her blog post last week, “Why are so many Latinas forced to abandon their dreams?” They face so many challenges, many of which Christie very eloquently explained:

Many come from low income families, lack educational role models in their lives, and have parents who don’t speak English and have little understanding of the U.S. educational system. And many others end up tracked into lower level classes at underperforming schools — a product of stereotypes or deflated expectations by teachers and counselors. Still others fail to believe in themselves. … They know the financial barriers to affording college, and because they don’t see many professional Latinas around them, they cannot envision themselves succeeding academically or professionally.