Federal and State Laws

Chart of Federal and State laws requiring school districts accommodate and not discriminate against lactating employees and students

California Law

Pupil Services: Lactation Accommodation 2015, Assembly Bill 302, Garcia, Education Code 222

Requires a school operated by a school district or a county office of education, the California School for the Deaf, the California School for the Blind, and a charter school to provide, only if there is at least one lactating pupil on the school campus, reasonable accommodations to a lactating pupil on a school campus to express breast milk, breast-feed an infant child, or address other needs related to breast-feeding. Requires that these reasonable accommodations include, but are not limited to, access to a private and secure room, other than a restroom, to express breast milk or breast-feed an infant child, permission to bring onto a school campus any equipment used to express breast milk, access to a power source for that equipment, and access to a place to safely store expressed breast milk.

It also requires that a lactating pupil on a school campus be given a reasonable amount of time to accommodate the need to express breast milk or breast-feed an infant child.

This code prohibits a pupil from incurring an academic penalty as a result of her use, during the schoolday, of these reasonable accommodations.

A complaint of noncompliance with the requirements of the code to be filed with the local educational agency, and would require the local educational agency to respond to such a complaint, in accordance with specified procedures. A complainant to appeal a decision of the local educational agency to the State Department of Education and would require the department to issue a written decision within 60 days of its receipt of the appeal. Requires a local educational agency to provide a remedy to the affected pupil if the local educational agency finds merit in a complaint or if the Superintendent of Public Instruction finds merit in an appeal.