What Title IX Law Means for Lactation Support

Generations of women have grown up playing sports, but before 1972 there were no protections in place to provide equal educational opportunities. (Ask your grandmother about it!)

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (known as Title IX) was the first time that federally funded elementary, secondary, and postsecondary institutions were required to protect students, teachers, and employees from all forms of sex discrimination. Which meant providing access to sports and other activities that had previously been denied to girls.

Title IX was updated in 2024 to provide clearer guidelines about the scope of sex discrimination that covers sexual harassment, sexual violence, and gender identity—as well as expanded anti-discrimination protections, including those related to pregnancy. However, the 2024 ruling was vacated in January 2025 by a federal district judge, which left the Department of Education unable to enforce the 2024 Title IX Rule nationwide. Going forward, institutions should apply the pre-existing Title IX Rule—which was amended in 2020—as a baseline for compliance.

Title IX has long had existing protections against discrimination based on conditions related to pregnancy and childbirth, so while the 2020 law does not explicitly state that lactation accommodations are required, the standard is inferred based on the language of protection for “pregnancy-related conditions” (which includes lactation), and best practices for institutions continue to be:

• Provide reasonable break time for milk expression
• Access to a clean, non-bathroom private lactation space

In addition to federal lactation accommodation protections in both the PUMP Act and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, many states have implemented specific lactation accommodation laws to protect students. Arkansas, Illinois, and Missouri have lactation accommodation laws that require schools to provide break time and a private place to pump. California law requires postsecondary institutions to have lactation rooms for breastfeeding students. Title IX is an important complementary law to existing labor laws as it is designed to support pregnant and breastfeeding students in schools and postsecondary institutions across the country.