Maryland public colleges must plan for pregnant and parenting students

Every Maryland public college must adopt a plan for pregnant and parenting students. Covered students are pregnant, care for a child of any age, or share parenting responsibilities with someone in the same or another household. Plans must follow federal Title IX rules against sex discrimination. Plans must include assistance and adoption referrals, available campus accommodations, and a network of health care providers. The deadline to post plans on college websites was October 1, 2026.

Public colleges must collect parenting information and make it available to the Maryland Higher Education Commission. Questions cover enrolled students’ parenting responsibilities, their children’s ages, and whether they parent alone or share responsibility. Colleges must put the Commission’s questions on forms used to collect students’ demographic information. The Commission must set a common format and schedule for collecting and reporting the data. The Commission’s first summary report is due on or before September 1, 2027, with another due each September 1 thereafter.

The Maryland Higher Education Commission may share students’ parenting information with the Maryland Longitudinal Data System, the state’s education data system. This permission covers information about students’ parental status. Pregnancy status is excluded from the student data covered by this sharing authority. Parenting information collected under this requirement is not treated as a medical or health record for this definition. The law took effect July 1, 2026.