Filed Under: Parents
ATIXA has a few members who have raised an issue that I don’t really know the answer to, and I am hoping that you can ask Program Legal to provide us with some guidance that I can share with members broadly on the intersection of Title IX pregnancy protections and international students whose visas may be in jeopardy if they have to take a reduced course-load as a result of pregnancy-related complications. I think the field is caught between competing sets of regulations. Title IX requires that we try to accommodate pregnant students, but when they are international students, there is no pregnancy exception with respect to their F-1 status. If a recipient fails to accommodate a pregnant student under Title IX with a leave of absence because that student is international, does that run afoul of Title IX? Is there some workaround that means that pregnant international students who cannot maintain a full course load don’t have to leave the country for five months? Please provide any advice you can.
Thank you for your January 17, 2024, email to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) regarding the application of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) to pregnant students. In your email, you asked for information on how a recipient’s obligations to pregnant students under Title IX—such as providing a reduced courseload—may impact the students’ international visa statuses.
Please note that in all cases, OCR refrains from offering opinions about specific facts without first conducting an investigation.
OCR enforces Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX), 20 U.S.C. §§ 1681-1689, and its implementing regulations at 34 C.F.R. Part 106, which prohibit sex discrimination in education programs and activities operated by recipients of Federal financial assistance. The Department’s Title IX regulations were amended in 2020 (2020 Notice of Final Rule; 2020 Title IX regulations) and again in 2024 (2024 Notice of Final Rule; 2024 Title IX regulations). On January 9, 2025, a federal district court issued a decision vacating the 2024 amendments. Pending further court orders, the Department’s Title IX Regulations, as amended in 2020 are in effect. See OCR’s February 4, 2025, Dear Colleague Letter.
Title IX protects all students at recipient institutions in the United States regardless of national origin, immigration status, or citizenship status. The Title IX regulations as amended in 2020, at 34 C.F.R. § 106.8(b)(1) (2020), require a school to notify all students that it does not discriminate on the basis of sex, as required by Title IX and the Department’s Title IX regulations.
Title IX regulations as amended in 2020
Under the Title IX regulations as amended in 2020 at § 106.40(b)(1), a recipient—including an elementary or secondary school or a postsecondary institution—must not discriminate against any student, or exclude any student from its education program or activity, including any class or extracurricular activity, on the basis of such student’s pregnancy, childbirth, false pregnancy, termination of pregnancy or recovery therefrom, unless the student requests voluntarily to participate in a separate portion of the program or activity of the recipient.
To ensure a pregnant student’s access to its educational program, when necessary, a school must make adjustments to the regular program that are reasonable and responsive to the student’s temporary pregnancy status. For example, a school might be required to provide a larger desk, allow frequent trips to the bathroom, or permit temporary access to elevators.
Additionally, under the Title IX regulations as amended in 2020 at § 106.40(b)(4), a recipient must treat pregnancy, childbirth, false pregnancy, termination of pregnancy and recovery therefrom in the same manner and under the same policies as any other temporary disability with respect to any medical or hospital benefit, service, plan or policy which such recipient administers, operates, offers, or participates in with respect to students admitted to the recipient’s educational program or activity.
Additional information
Students who believe they may have been discriminated against based on pregnancy or related conditions may file a complaint through their school’s grievance procedures. Every school covered by Title IX is required to prominently display—on its website and in student handbooks and catalogs—contact information for the Title IX Coordinator, who is responsible for overseeing all Title IX complaints, including for discrimination based on pregnancy and related conditions. 34 C.F.R. § 106.8(b)(2).
Anyone who believes that an entity that receives federal financial assistance from the Department has discriminated against someone on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age may file a complaint with OCR using OCR’s electronic complaint form. Additional information about how to file an OCR complaint and OCR’s complaint process is available within resources on OCR’s website, including: How to File a Discrimination Complaint With the Office for Civil Rights; Questions and Answers on OCR’s Complaint Process; and OCR Case Processing Manual (CPM). OCR’s CPM provides information about timelines for filing OCR complaints. In general, OCR will take action only with respect to those allegations that have been filed within 180 calendar days of the date of the alleged discrimination, unless the complainant is granted a waiver by OCR. (See Sections 106 and 107 of OCR’s CPM).
To the extent that U.S. Department of Homeland Security enforces laws that impose additional obligations for recipients beyond Title IX, the Department does not enforce those laws and cannot provide information about them.
Please note that correspondence issued by OCR in response to an inquiry from the public, including this message, does not constitute a formal statement of OCR policy and should not be construed as creating or articulating new policy. OCR’s formal policy statements are approved by a duly authorized OCR official and made available to the public via OCR’s Policy Guidance Portal.
We hope that you find this information helpful.
Sincerely,
Program Legal Group
Office for Civil Rights
U.S. Department of Education