AB 2785: Student services: lactation accommodations.

Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, and the California State University, under the administration of the Trustees of the California State University, as 2 of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state.

Existing federal law requires an educational institution to treat pregnancy, childbirth, recovery from childbirth, and other specified conditions in the same manner and under the same policies as any other temporary disability. Existing law also prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability, gender, or other specified characteristics in any program or activity conducted by any postsecondary educational institution that receives, or benefits from, state financial assistance or enrolls students who receive state financial aid. Existing law requires a school operated by a school district or a county office of education, the California School for the Deaf, the California School for the Blind, or a charter school to provide, if there is at least one lactating pupil on the school campus, reasonable accommodations to a lactating pupil on a school campus to express breast milk, breast-feed an infant child, or address other needs related to breast-feeding, as prescribed.

This bill would require the California Community Colleges and the California State University, and encourage a satellite campus of these systems and the University of California, to provide reasonable accommodations to a lactating student on their respective campuses to express breast milk, breast-feed an infant child, or address other needs related to breast-feeding, as specified. The bill would require the respective educational institution to provide a sink, in addition to the accommodations described above, upon the construction of a new campus of the California Community Colleges or the California State University, the replacement, expansion, or renovation of an existing building regularly used by students, or the construction of a new building designed for use by students, as specified. This bill would not require an existing room designated for the specified purposes to contain a sink. The bill would also require that a lactating student on a college or university campus be given a reasonable amount of time to accommodate the need to express breast milk or breast-feed an infant child, and that the accommodation be available whenever a student is required to be on campus. The bill would prohibit students from incurring an academic penalty as a result of their use of these reasonable accommodations. The bill would authorize a complaint of noncompliance with the requirements of the bill to be filed in accordance with specified procedures, and, if the complaint is found to have merit, would require the respective campus or appellate body to provide a remedy to the affected student. This bill would require that these accommodations be implemented no later than January 1, 2020, and urge the University of California to implement the bill provisions by this date. By imposing additional duties on community college districts, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.