Title IX and the Protection of Pregnant and Parenting College Students

This book explores the discrepancies among what protections Title IX provides to pregnant and parenting students, what colleges communicate, and what pregnant and parenting students actually experience. To actually protect pregnant and parenting students, the authors argue that a school must provide multifaceted support that is effectively communicated to an entire campus community, including students who are parenting, who are pregnant, and who may become pregnant. The first part of the book portrays the realities of pregnancy and parenting in college. The chapters illuminate related Title IX applications, population demographics, how unplanned pregnancies in college occur, and physical and mental health challenges that these students often experience. The authors then discuss what compliance with Title IX legally entails and why meeting it is often an afterthought. In the second half of the book, the authors use mixed-methods research to map the compliance landscapes of three schools in the southeast as examples: a large state school, a mid-size private university, and a small private college. Offering eye-opening interviews with pregnant and parenting students, interdisciplinary research, and proposals for multifaceted support and communication on college campuses, this volume will engage students, scholars, and activists with an interest in higher education administration, educational policy, reproductive health, bioethics, gender studies, and rhetoric.

Catherine L. Riley is a Part-Time Assistant Professor of Communication at Wake Forest University, USA. This is her first book. It was written while parenting two young children, suffering a miscarriage, and then having and caring for another child. Alexis Hutchinson is a law student at the University of Florida, Levin College of Law, USA. This is her first academic publication. She admires students who balance classes, work, career plans, and the complexities of pregnancy and parenting. Carley Dix is an Equity Compliance Administrator and Title IX Coordinator at Davidson College, USA. This is her first book, written while she was pregnant with and then parenting her first child.

Part 1: Context: The Realities of Pregnancy and Parenting in College 1. Introduction to Title IX as It Relates to Pregnancy 2. "Pregnant Students? We Don't Have Those Here": Seeing the Pregnant and Parenting Student Population 3. "How Could This Happen?": Identifying Students' Knowledge Gaps and Limited Communication about Pregnancy 4. "There's Nothing Else We Can Do for You": Acknowledging the Physical Challenges Surrounding Pregnancy 5. My Dream School Became "Draining": Recognizing the Mental Challenges Surrounding Pregnancy 6. "I Even Wondered, What Are My Rights?": Title IX Compliance and Why It Is Often an Afterthought Part 2: Introduction to the Case Studies 7. Silent Incompliance at a Mid-Size Private University 8. Hospitality as Compliance at a Small Private College 9. Structural Support and Insufficiencies at a Large State School 10. Complying with Title IX Means Making Schools Supportive Spaces