The Pregnant Public School Student: Legal Implications for School Administrators.

This study had two purposes. The primary purpose was to determine the current legal status of pregnant students in the public schools in the fifty states in 1972. The secondary purpose was to examine implications of the findings for administrators faced with this student problem. The design of the study included a combination of the following research methods: historical, legal, survey and comparative. The results of the study indicated that restrictive attitudes toward sex and pregnancy continue to exert considerable influence on student personnel policies of the public school. It was also evident that the total number of school-age girls desiring to complete their education was increasing. The following implications drawn from the findings were offered to school administrators: (1) some repressive attitudes toward sex continue to be harbored; (2) the increasing number of pregnant students demanding an education will mandate that formalized procedures be evolved for their education; (3) in the common law, pregnant students have the constitutional right to an education; (4) discrimination based on sex, motherhood, pregnancy are subject; etc. (Author/WS)