Colleges Must Accommodate Pregnant Students Under New Title IX
Johanna Alonso
August 27, 2024
Pregnancy was always implicitly protected by Title IX. But Biden’s new rules formalize the rights of pregnant and parenting students, making higher ed more accessible.
Lacy Guzman decided to go back to college when she was pregnant with her first child. She and her husband had both lost their jobs around the same time, and they wanted to set their family-to-be up for a more stable future.
By the time she started her associate program, her son, now 9, was 6 months old. Throughout her undergraduate and master’s programs, she had two more children.
Getting even simple accommodations during her pregnancies was frustrating, Guzman says. The semester that she was pregnant with her second child, she notified each of her professors early on that her due date was around finals week and asked if she could take exams early, just to be safe.
