JANESVILLE — The Janesville School District seems poised to make Title IX adjustments to go along with recent legislation that protects LGBTQI+ students and employees, as well as pregnant students and employees.
The new policy, if approved, will address allegations of sex-based harassment on Aug. 1 or after. Any incidents July 31 or earlier would be addressed under the current policy.
The new policy is based on legislation passed by the Biden Administration that recently had a final rule by the U.S. Department of Education. It would ban discrimination based on sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation and gender identity.
“The board is committed to maintaining an education and work environment that is free from sex discrimination (including sex-based harassment), responding promptly and effectively when it has knowledge of conduct that reasonably may constitute sex discrimination, and addressing sex discrimination in its education program or activity,” a memo from the district states. “Persons who commit sex-based harassment are subject to the full range of disciplinary sanctions set forth in this policy. The board will provide persons who have experienced sex-based harassment ongoing remedies as reasonably necessary to restore or preserve access to the district’s education program or activity.”
Pregnancy or related conditions is defined as not just pregnancy, but childbirth, termination of pregnancy, childbirth and lactation.
The board will treat pregnancy or related conditions as temporary medical conditions for all job-related purposes, according to the memo.
That includes commencement, duration and extensions of leave, as well as payment of disability income, accrual of seniority, other service benefits, reinstatements and other fringe benefits offered to employees by virtue of employment.
“If an employee has insufficient leave or accrued employment time to qualify for leave under the board’s leave policy, the board will treat pregnancy or related conditions as a justification for a voluntary leave of absence without pay for a reasonable period of time, at the conclusion of which the employee shall be reinstated to the status held when the leave began or to a comparable position, without decrease in rate of compensation or loss of promotional opportunities, or any other right or privilege of employment,” the memo states.
According to the memo, the board will provide “reasonable break time” for an employee to breastfeed and will provide a space for the employee with access to a lactation space, which must be a clean space other than a bathroom that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from others. That space could be used by an employee for expressing breast milk or breastfeeding as needed, according to the memo.
The memo also outlines the district’s responsibilities when a student is pregnant or has related conditions, including prohibiting sex discrimination and sex-based harassment. The district would be required to provide the student with the option of reasonable modifications to the board’s policies, practices or procedures because of the pregnancy or related conditions. The district would also have to allow access, on a voluntary basis, to any separate and comparable portion of the district’s education program or activity, allow a voluntary leave of absence, provide private lactation space that’s clean and maintain grievance procedures that provide for the “prompt and equitable resolution” of complaints of sex discrimination, including sex-based harassment.
The policy also states that the board will not adopt or implement any policy, practice or procedure, or take any employment action on the basis of sex concerning the current, potential or past parental, family or marital status of an employee or applicant for employment, which treats persons differently. It also bans the board from adopting policies or practices based on whether an employee or applicant is the head of a household a principal wage earner in such employee’s or applicant’s family unit. The board also won’t make a pre-employment inquiry into the marital status of an applicant, including whether such applicant is a “miss or mrs.”
Under a section called “Specific offenses” the district detailed forms of harassment. The policy gave specific offenses as examples of sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence and stalking.
Per the legislation, the district would be required to assign Title IX coordinators, who would be Director of Pupil Services Kim Peerenboom and Assistant Superintendent of Administration and Human Services Scott Garner.
The Milton School Board updated its policy last month to align with the new federal guidelines, trying to pass it ahead of Aug. 1 out of fear that a lack of a policy would leave its district vulnerable to a lawsuit, and thus lose federal funding and insurance carriers, Milton Superintendent Rich Dahman said in July.
