California Women’s Law Center Releases Statewide Breastfeeding Report Card for California School Districts

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 24, 2021 – The California Women’s Law Center (CWLC) is releasing an analysis of the status of lactation accommodation policies in 414 California K-12 public school districts in 57 of the state’s 58 counties. The 2021 “ABCs
of Breastfeeding Report Card” grades school districts on whether they have adopted policies to reflect state and federal laws regarding pregnancy and lactation accommodations for students and employees, and whether they have posted required information about Title IX on their website.

Under Title IX and California law, schools must provide accommodations to allow pregnant and parenting students to continue their schooling while receiving the same educational benefits as every other student. Many pregnant or lactating students are unaware of their rights, and without access to proper accommodations are forced into alternative schools or drop out.

Title IX enforcement is a priority for the California Women’s Law Center. In 2015, CWLC, the ACLU of Southern California, and BreastfeedLA partnered to audit the 81 school districts in Los Angeles County and release the initial “ABCs of Breastfeeding Report Card” for Los Angeles County. The last update was released in February 2019 following our efforts to improve the grades of non-compliant districts. Initially, only one district in Los Angeles County earned an A grade but ultimately 61 of the 81 districts earned an A.

Building on this work at Los Angeles County school districts, CWLC expanded our effort statewide. In 2019 we started our review of the remaining school districts in California by evaluating policies and practices at more than 400 school districts representing nearly 3.7 million students and over 350,000 employees. With our hard work and support, district compliance has significantly improved in California. Notably, the average grade statewide was a C when we began, and now 84% of California’s school districts have a grade of A or B.

“To help districts improve, we have created tools and held trainings to assist the implementation of policies supporting pregnant and parenting students and staff. We are pleased with the significant progress we have made by working with school districts to meet the needs of women in California,” said CWLC Executive Director
Betsy Butler.

Combined, we have assisted 495 school districts, approximately 5.2 million students, and 511,000 employees across the state. To review the full 2021 “ABCs of Breastfeeding Report Card,” click here.