Carroll Independent School District v. U.S. Department of Education
What’s at stake: Protections for pregnant and postpartum students
Summary: In 2024, the U.S. Department of Education published new Title IX regulations. The regulations cover a range of topics, including the rights of LGBTQ+ students, sexual harassment victims, and pregnant and postpartum students. Protections for this last group include explicit rights to lactation breaks in clean spaces and other “reasonable modifications,” such as excused absences to attend prenatal appointments, adjusted deadlines and exam dates, and bigger desks for growing bellies.
In February 2025, in a case brought in the Northern District of Texas by a school district, a judge struck down the entire regulation nationwide. The judge did so even though the school district that brought the suit had only challenged a narrow set of provisions unrelated to pregnancy. After the court’s ruling, the Department of Education, now under new leadership, indicated it will not continue to defend the regulation by appealing the court’s decision.
On March 26, 2025, Public Justice and its cocounsel filed a motion to intervene on behalf of A Better Balance, a nonprofit organization that provides legal services for pregnant and postpartum students. In that motion, A Better Balance asked to join the lawsuit as a defendant so it can appeal the district court’s decision and try to revive the portions of the regulation related to pregnancy. That motion is currently pending before the district court.
Core legal question: The school district that brought this lawsuit has not argued that the portion of the regulation that protects pregnant and postpartum students, 34 C.F.R. § 106.40, is unlawful. Rather, it argued—and the district court appeared to accept—that because other parts of the regulation are unlawful, the entire regulation should be struck down. If permitted to appeal, A Better Balance will argue that the challenged portions of the regulations are severable from the pregnancy-related provisions, and so the latter should be permitted to go into effect.