Saige Dahmen was eager to learn the basics of hair cutting and coloring in cosmetology school in Beaverton, Oregon, in 2023. There was just one hiccup: She needed a 20-minute break during her five-hour school day to express milk for her nearly 1-year-old daughter, and the school only allowed 15 minutes.
Dahmen, 24, was told to submit a request under the Americans with Disabilities Act to the school’s Title IX coordinator, but it was denied, according to interviews and correspondence reviewed by NBC News, on the grounds that it did not meet the requirements for an ADA accommodation.
Instead, the coordinator said she’d have to clock out and make up the time. The cosmetology school declined to comment other than to say Dahmen’s account was “inaccurate.”
Dahmen said she tried for roughly two months to keep up her pumping schedule but grew frustrated and stopped expressing at school. She ultimately completed her program but worries that other parents in similar situations might not.
“I can’t imagine how many mothers drop out,” Dahmen said.
Last April, the Biden administration issued updates to Title IX aimed at helping students like Dahmen. Rather than rely on schools to interpret the law, the Biden-era rules explicitly outlined certain accommodations, including the right to eat and drink water in class, adjust exam dates and receive excused absences for prenatal care and breaks to breastfeed or express milk.
But those new rules were reversed in January after nearly two dozen states sued the Biden administration to block separate parts of the measure aimed at protecting LGBTQ students from discrimination. In January, a federal judge struck down the changes, which tossed out the expanded protections for pregnant and parenting students, too.
Now advocates are hoping to restore them. In late February, Public Justice and two other legal organizations filed a motion to intervene in the case on behalf of A Better Balance, a national nonprofit that advises student parents on their rights under Title IX.
“If the new regulations were in effect, there would have been no argument to be had, because Saige could have directly pointed to the provision in the rule that says that students have this right,” said Alexandra Brodsky, a senior attorney at Public Justice. “That would have been the end of the conversation.”
A spokesperson for the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office, which led the suit, declined to comment. The White House and U.S. Department of Education did not respond to requests for comment.
In the motion, Katherine Greenberg, director of strategic litigation for A Better Balance, describes some of the situations callers to the group’s hotline had reported.
One said she had to log in for an exam-related call from her hospital bed after giving birth, according to an affidavit from Greenberg.
Another said she was told she couldn’t reschedule an exam that was on the same day as her due date.
“Really what it comes down to is that students deserve to go to school, and they shouldn’t need a lawyer to help them stay in school,” Samantha Hunt, a legal fellow with A Better Balance told NBC News. Only 37 percent of student parents finish a degree within six years compared with roughly 60 percent of students without children, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy and Research.
Similar examples of parents’ struggles have cropped up nationwide both before and since the new regulations were enacted.
Last year, the Department of Education found that a Mississippi community college violated Title IX when it failed to provide a young mother with “necessary adjustments” during her pregnancy and early parenthood. Among other issues, she reported being offered a glass-walled room to express milk in, leading her to pump in a bathroom stall for privacy.
Last fall, Georgetown Law School denied a student’s request to take an in-person final remotely or move up an exam to accommodate her due date, before relenting amid a public outcry.
The federal ruling came as schools are navigating a new administration hostile to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Jessica Lee, director of the Pregnant Scholar Initiative, a nonprofit that advises students and school staff on Title IX protections, said some administrators she’s spoken with have wondered if running inclusion programs for pregnant and parenting students could threaten their funding.
“We were seeing such great progress last year, which I think is part of why this is so gutting,” Lee said.
Legal experts interviewed by NBC News emphasized that Title IX is still intact and pregnant and parenting students still have rights. They’ve just lost the rules that made them more explicit.
In February, the U.S. Department of Education sent out a memo saying it would adhere to 2020 Title IX guidelines from Trump’s first term, rejecting the Biden-era changes. In the wake of that directive, The Guardian reported that CUNY’s Graduate Center sent an email stating that employees no longer have to make students aware of their rights under Title IX.
In a statement, a CUNY spokesperson statement defended the move. “CUNY works to protect all its students, including its pregnant students,” a CUNY spokesperson said in a statement to NBC News, noting that work would continue. “We wanted our community to know there had been a change in law.”
The Department of Education did not respond to questions about its plans.
“My worst fear is that we are going to see a mass exodus of pregnant and parenting students from higher ed,” Lee said. “People are hearing that regulations have been pulled back. That’s really, really scary when you are not only caring for yourself but also trying to support a family.”
