Assessing the quality of lactation accommodation policies in California's higher education system

Aligned with Title IX of the US Department of Education, the State of California requires public colleges and universities to provide lactating student parents access to a private, secure room that is not a restroom to express breastmilk or to breastfeed. Indirect reviews of current lactation policies within these colleges and universities do not assess the quality of the policies. High-quality policies are essential not just for compliance but also for providing meaningful support that addresses the unique needs of lactating student parents.

This study evaluated the quality of higher education lactation policies in California for comprehensiveness (i.e. breadth of areas covered) and strength (i.e. degree to which policies included specific and clear language) and to score these policies for comparative analyses.

Through a policy coding tool (70 content items among 14 domains), all schools within the California State University (CSU) and University of California (UC) systems and a subset of private universities in California (n = 33) were evaluated.

Overall, lactation policies demonstrated greater comprehensiveness than strength. CSUs scored significantly higher across all domains for comprehensiveness and strength of lactation policies (vs. other universities). Additionally, there were almost no strength/comprehensive policies in the education or tools domains.

While results indicate progress within the CSU system, lactation policies overall still lack the specific, enforceable language needed for greater effectiveness. Next steps include identifying the level of implementation of lactation policies and ways to increase communication of these policies to lactating students.