April 11, 2024
By Bill Raftery
In the last five years, five states have moved to mandate or fund lactation spaces within state courthouses.
- California: SB 133 of 2023, now codified as CA GOVT §69894, provides that each superior court shall provide any court user access to a lactation room in any courthouse in which a lactation room is also provided to court employees in compliance with existing law. The lactation room shall not be a bathroom, shall be shielded from view and free from intrusion while it is being used to express milk, and shall otherwise be compliant with this section. The law goes into effect in July 2026. AB 103 of 2023 also provides that $15,000,000 is appropriated to provide for such a room.
- Florida: SB 144 of 2023, now codified as FL ST §29.24, requires that by January 1, 2024, each county courthouse must provide at least one dedicated lactation space outside the confines of a restroom for members of the public to express breast milk or breastfeed in private. It offers specific details of what that space must be: “hygienic, clean and sanitary, and conducive to maintaining and preventing disease; shielded from public view; free from intrusion while occupied; and contain an electrical outlet.”
- Illinois: S.B. 3503 of 2019, now codified as IL ST CH 55 § 5/5-1106, provides that starting June 1, 2019, every facility that houses a circuit courtroom shall include “at least one lactation room or area for members of the public to express breast milk in private, outside the confines of a restroom and contains, at a minimum, a chair, a table, an electrical outlet, and a sink with running water where possible.” Moreover, these rooms must meet the Minimum Courtroom Standards in the State of Illinois 21.0: Lactation Rooms or Areas.
- Nevada: A.B. 196 of 2021, now codified as NV ST 1.095, provides that each courthouse must contain a lactation room that members of the public may use to express breast milk. This does not apply where:
- The courthouse does not contain a lactation room for employees; or
- The courthouse does not have a room that could be repurposed as a lactation room; or
- The courthouse does not have a space that could be made private at a reasonable cost using portable materials; or
- New construction would be required to create the lactation room and the cost of such construction is unfeasible.
- Washington SB 5187 of 2023, the state’s 2023-2025 fiscal biennium operating appropriations bill, provides $250,000 of the general fund solely for the administrative office of the courts to provide grants to superior courts to create or expand sanitary lactation spaces or pods that provide privacy for visitors needing to breastfeed or express breast milk. This language is repeated in the state’s supplemental operating appropriations bill (SB 5950 of 2024) currently on its way to the governor for approval.
The National Center has information on the topic of lactation spaces and courts in Family Friendly Amenities in the Court (March 2023).
What steps are your courts taking to provide lactation spaces in your courthouses? For more information, contact Knowledge@ncsc.org or call 800-616-6164. Follow the National Center for State Courts on Facebook, X, LinkedIn, and Vimeo. For more Trending Topics posts, visit ncsc.org/trendingtopics or subscribe to the LinkedIn newsletter.