Pregnancy Discrimination

Last reviewed October 1, 2026

Pregnancy is the one status where a school’s obligations are unusually clear and unusually ignored. Title IX has required colleges to treat pregnancy and related conditions like any other temporary medical condition since 1975, and to grant leave for as long as a doctor says is medically necessary and then reinstate the student to where she was. Most students never hear this, and many programs act as though the rule does not exist.

What the regulation actually requires

The operative provision is 34 C.F.R. 106.40(b). In substance:

• A school may not discriminate against any student because of pregnancy, childbirth, false pregnancy, termination of pregnancy or recovery from any of them.
• It must treat those conditions in the same manner as any other temporary disability — the same leave rules, the same make-up work, the same extensions, the same coverage under any student health plan.
• It must grant a leave of absence for as long as is medically necessary, and on return reinstate the student to the status she held when the leave began.
• It may require medical certification only if it requires certification for other conditions requiring a physician’s care.
• It may not run a separate program or activity for pregnant students unless participation is entirely voluntary.

Two notes on what governs. The 2024 Title IX rule, which expanded these provisions substantially — lactation space, more detailed modification obligations, explicit notice duties — was vacated nationwide in January 2025, and the 2020 framework applies — recodified in the Code of Federal Regulations by final rule effective September 29, 2026 (91 Fed. Reg. 61,308) again. The 1975 pregnancy provision above was not part of that dispute and survives. Further rulemaking is expected, so the detail may change; the core obligation has been in place for fifty years.

Where schools get it wrong

• Attendance policies applied mechanically. Absences for pregnancy-related medical appointments, and for childbirth and recovery, have to be treated the way any other medical absence is treated. Programs with a fixed absence ceiling routinely count them anyway.
• Clinical and rotation programs. Medical, nursing, PA, dental and therapy programs are where this goes wrong most often — a rotation cannot be rescheduled, a clinical year cannot be interrupted, a student is told to withdraw and reapply. Being told to reapply is not reinstatement.
• Forced leave. A school cannot require a pregnant student to take time off. The decision is medical and it belongs to the student and her physician. See leave of absence and forced medical withdrawal.
• Loss of status on return. Reinstatement means the status held before the leave — the same standing, the same cohort placement where possible, not a probationary re-entry or a repeated year. Where a program insists on deceleration, that is a decision that has to be justified against this obligation.
• Progression and dismissal. Absences that should have been excused are counted, performance during pregnancy is judged without context, and the file ends in an academic dismissal or a progression committee decision that never mentions pregnancy at all.
• Funding and assistantships. Graduate students lose stipends, teaching assignments and research positions during leave, in circumstances where another medical leave would not have cost them.

Parenting students, and where the protection ends

Title IX’s pregnancy protection covers pregnancy and related conditions. Marital and parental status discrimination is also prohibited, and a school may not apply a rule that treats students differently because they are parents. What Title IX does not do is require accommodation of ordinary childcare obligations the way it requires accommodation of a medical condition. Deadline flexibility for a sick child is usually a matter of the instructor’s policy or the handbook rather than federal law — which does not make it unwinnable, it changes where the argument goes.

Where a pregnancy-related condition rises to a disability — severe hyperemesis, preeclampsia, postpartum depression, complications requiring bed rest — Section 504 and the ADA apply in addition, and the accommodation obligation is stronger and more specific. See disability accommodations under Section 504 and the ADA.

How to make the record

• Notify in writing, to the Title IX Coordinator as well as the program. The Coordinator has an institutional obligation the department does not.
• Say the words. Ask for the treatment given to other temporary medical conditions, and cite the obligation. It changes who has to answer.
• Get every refusal in writing, with a reason.
• Agree the terms of leave and return before the leave starts — status on return, cohort placement, what happens to funding, what has to be repeated.
• If a complaint is followed by a bad grade, a professionalism referral or a progression finding, that is retaliation, which stands on its own. See discrimination, harassment and retaliation.

Common questions

Can my program make me take a leave of absence because I am pregnant?

No. It cannot require leave, and it must grant leave for as long as is medically necessary if you want one.

Do I have to make up the work I missed?

Generally yes — on the same terms as a student who missed the same amount for another medical reason. The comparison is the test.

My clinical rotation cannot be rescheduled. Is that the end of it?

Rarely. It is an assertion about administrative convenience that has to be examined, and a program that reschedules rotations for other medical absences has already answered the question.

Who do I complain to?

The Title IX Coordinator first, in writing. After that, the Office for Civil Rights, generally within 180 days of the act complained of. See OCR complaints and federal agency filings.