AB 302
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 302 (Cristina Garcia)
As Amended June 1, 2015
Majority vote
Committee
Education
Votes
6-1
Ayes
O'Donnell, Chávez,
McCarty, Santiago,
Thurmond, Weber
Noes
Kim
Appropriations
12-4
Gomez, Bonta, Calderon,
Daly, Eggman,
Eduardo Garcia, Gordon,
Holden, Quirk, Rendon,
Weber, Wood
Bigelow, Gallagher, Jones,
Wagner
SUMMARY: Requires that schools provide reasonable accommodations to breastfeeding students
on school campuses. Specifically, this bill:
1) Requires schools operated by school districts, county offices of education, the California School
for the Deaf and the California School for the Blind, and charter schools to provide reasonable
accommodations to lactating students to express breastmilk, breastfeed, or other address other
needs related to breastfeeding.
2) Defines reasonable accommodations as:
a) Access to a private and secure room, other than a restroom, to express milk or breastfeed a
child.
b) Permission to bring a breast pump and related supplies onto a high school campus.
c) Access to a power source to run a breast pump.
d) Access to a place to store breastmilk safely.
3) Requires that a lactating student be provided a reasonable amount of time to express milk or
breastfeed.
4) Permits schools to use existing facilities to meet the requirements for providing reasonable
accommodations.
5) Prohibits students from being penalized academically for their use of the accommodations, and
requires that they be provided the opportunity to make up any missed work.
6) Makes these requirements subject to the Uniform Complaint Procedures (UCP), requires the
California Department of Education (CDE) to respond to appeals within 30 days, and requires
that if merit is found in an appeal the local educational agency must provide a remedy to the
affected student.
7) States that these requirements apply to schools where there is at least one lactating student.
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EXISTING LAW:
1) Requires (Labor Code Section 1030 et seq.) employers to provide break time and a location
which is not a bathroom stall in which employees can express milk.
2) Federal law, known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (42 United States Code
Section 18001 et seq., 2010) requires that employees covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act be
given break time and a place which is not a bathroom to express breastmilk.
3) Prohibits (Government Code Section 12926) discriminatory practices in employment or housing
accommodations on the basis of sex. For purposes of the act, the term sex also includes
breastfeeding or medical conditions related to breastfeeding.
4) Requires, in federal (34 Code of Federal Regulations Section 106.40(b)(1)) and state law
(Education Code Section 200) that pregnant students and those recovering from childbirthrelated conditions must be provided with the same accommodations and support services
available to other students with temporary medical conditions.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee:
1) Unknown, likely minor, Proposition 98 (1988)/General Fund state mandated costs for schools to
provide reasonable accommodations to breastfeeding students using existing facilities.
2) Unknown, likely minor, Proposition 98/General Fund state mandated costs related to the
expansion of the uniform complaint process (UCP). The existing UCP mandate is currently
included in the K-12 Mandate Block Grant. If the Commission on State Mandates determines the
requirements of this bill impose a higher level of service, this could place pressure on the
Legislature to increase funding under the K-12 Mandate Block Grant.
COMMENTS:
Need for the bill. The author’s office states, "Lactation is indisputably related to pregnancy and
childbirth, and students who are nursing may need to express milk or breastfeed as frequently as
every two to three hours. The California School Boards Association has a model policy for
parenting students that includes optional lactation language, but few schools adopt it. Current law
specifies how lactation accommodations are to be provided to school staff, but there is nothing in the
Education Code that specifies how schools should meet parenting students' rights to lactation
accommodations.
"Pregnant and parenting students should not be forced to make decisions about where to attend
school or whether to breastfeed their child solely based on whether they can access appropriate
lactation accommodations at school. California law should be clear that accommodations for
lactating students include access to a private, secure room to breastfeed or express milk."
State and federal law extend rights to employees but not to students. Both state and federal law
require most employers to provide reasonable accommodations to lactating employees, including
break time and the provision of private space in which to express milk. Though Title IX of the
Education Amendments of 1972 requirements, given recent changes in state housing and
employment non-discrimination law which define "related conditions" of pregnancy to include
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lactation, might be understood to include lactation accommodations for students, these rights are not
explicitly extended to students in state law.
Schools already required to provide space for employees. The requirements of this bill largely
mirror those required under state and federal law for employees. As a result, schools may not have
to designate a space for students beyond what they have already established for employees. Recent
amendments make clear that an existing facility set aside for other mothers on a school site may be
used to meet the requirements of this bill.
Lack of accommodations may affect educational choices. In a 2015 report titled, "Breaking Down
Barriers for California’s Pregnant and Parenting Students," the American Civil Liberties Union
found:
Failure to provide adequate lactation accommodations at one school site may
result in a student’s decision to forego breastfeeding altogether or enroll in a
school site exclusively based on the ability to pump or breastfeed during school
hours. During focus group discussions, some pregnant and parenting students
shared that school administrators discouraged them from expressing breast milk
at school. Two out of the nine pregnant and parenting students interviewed said
that their decision to leave regular school was based entirely on their inability to
breastfeed or pump milk.
Analysis Prepared by: Tanya Lieberman / ED. / (916) 319-2087
FN: 0000786