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Workplace and Schools

Workplace and Schools

Lactation Accommodation Laws

  1. Sex Equity in Education Act [221.5-231.5]  

    1. (a) A school operated by a school district or a county office of education, the California School for the Deaf, the California School for the Blind, and a charter school shall provide reasonable accommodations to a lactating pupil on a school campus to express breast milk, breast-feed an infant child, or address other needs related to breast-feeding. Reasonable accommodations under this section include, but are not limited to, all of the following:

      1. (1) Access to a private and secure room, other than a restroom, to express breast milk or breast-feed an infant child.

      2. (2) Permission to bring onto a school campus a breast pump and any other equipment used to express breast milk.

      3. (3) Access to a power source for a breast pump or any other equipment used to express breast milk.

      4. (4) Access to a place to store expressed breast milk safely.

      5. (b) A lactating pupil on a school campus shall be provided a reasonable amount of time to accommodate her need to express breast milk or breast-feed an infant child.

  2. Labor Code: Lactation Accommodation [1030-1033]

    1. 1030
      1. Every employer, including the state and any political subdivision, shall provide a reasonable amount of break time to accommodate an employee desiring to express breast milk for the employee’s infant child. The break time shall, if possible, run concurrently with any break time already provided to the employee. Break time for an employee that does not run concurrently with the rest time authorized for the employee by the applicable wage order of the Industrial Welfare Commission shall be unpaid
    2. 1031.
      1. The employer shall make reasonable efforts to provide the employee with the use of a room or other location, other than a toilet stall, in close proximity to the employee’s work area, for the employee to express milk in private. The room or location may include the place where the employee normally works if it otherwise meets the requirements of this section.
    3. 1032
      1. An employer is not required to provide break time under this chapter if to do so would seriously disrupt the operations of the employer.
    4. 1033
      1. (a) An employer who violates any provision of this chapter shall be subject to a civil penalty in the amount of one hundred dollars ($100) for each violation.
      2. (b) If, upon inspection or investigation, the Labor Commissioner determines that a violation of this chapter has occurred, the Labor Commissioner may issue a citation. The procedures for issuing, contesting, and enforcing judgments for citations or civil penalties issued by the Labor Commissioner for violations of this chapter shall be the same as those set forth in Section 1197.1.
      3. (c) Notwithstanding any other provision of this code, violations of this chapter shall not be misdemeanors under this code.
Public
Hospitals

Public

Calfornia Civil Code Laws

  1. Civil Code Section 43.3

    1. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a mother may breastfeed her child in any location, public or private, except the private home or residence of another, where the mother and the child are otherwise authorized to be present.

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Hospitals

Baby -Friendly Hospital Initiative

  1. Health and Safety Code 123367

    1. (a) For the purposes of this section, the following definitions shall apply:

      1. (1) “Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative” means the program sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) that recognizes hospitals that offer an optimal level of care for infant feeding.

      2. (2) “Perinatal unit” means a maternity and newborn service of the hospital for the provision of care during pregnancy, labor, delivery, and postpartum and neonatal periods with appropriate staff, space, equipment, and supplies.

      3. (b) All general acute care hospitals and special hospitals, as defined in subdivisions (a) and (f) of Section 1250, that have a perinatal unit shall, by January 1, 2025, adopt the “Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding,” as adopted by Baby-Friendly USA, per the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, or an alternate process adopted by a health care service plan that includes evidence-based policies and practices and targeted outcomes, or the Model Hospital Policy Recommendations as defined in paragraph (3) of subdivision (b) of Section 123366.

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