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Even as we mark the fortieth anniversary of Title IX, evidence indicates that pregnant and parenting high school students continue to struggle with stigmatization and discrimination within the public school system. To remind school social work practitioners and other concerned administrators of the provisions of this historic legislation, this article will commemorate its passage by examining the special policies and practices that it mandates for female students who have undertaken parenting responsibilities while attending high school. Specifically, this article will take a historic journey through the development of Title IX by discussing the inconsistencies between fedemlprovisions and educational policies. The recommendations for school social work intervention are intended to ensure that current educational practices comply with Title IX directives. These recommendations include strategies for educating stakeholders, involving teenage fathers, and advocating for gender equality.
Keywords: local school policy, school-based program, teenage parents, teenage pregnancy, Title IX
Four decades after the passage of the highly publicized Title EX legislation originally aimed to ensure gender equality in education, social workers are challenged to hold the public school system accountable to Title IX injunctions as they apply to a vulnerable group of students-pregnant and parenting teenagers. Signed into law in 1972, the Title IX Education Amendments (PL 92-318, 19 72) made student pregnancy and parent- hood the legal responsibility of all federally funded schools (Marital or Parental Status. 2010). This legislation also made it unconstitutional to expel pregnant teenagers from school while ordering the inclusion of supportive provisions for students such that they can continue their education (Stevens-Simon & Beach, 1992). Pregnant and parenting students have the legal right to determine the course of their education and, if they choose to remain in school while pregnant, they are entitled to administrative accommodations. Additionally, if pregnant and parenting students volunteer to attend an alternative school, the quality of the instruction must be equal to that of the instruction provided to nonpregnant and parenting students (Pillow, 2004).
Unbeknownst to most teachers, students, parents, and administrators, Title IX specifically mandates that schools receiving federal funding shall provide equal treatment to students without discriminating or excluding them from their educational programs and/or extracurricular activities "on the basis of such student's pregnancy, childbirth, false pregnancy, termination of pregnancy or recovery therefrom, unless...