Lactation Spaces

The Equity and Access Office (EAO) manages dedicated, private lactation rooms across NAU facilities. These spaces are not open access but require an access code to protect their availability for, and the privacy of, nursing parent employees covered under the Affordable Care Act of 2010, the PUMP Act of 2022, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act of 2024, and Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972. The spaces listed below represent the current, complete list of fully compliant lactation spaces at NAU. Other spaces at NAU facilities which may be marked as lactation rooms but do not appear on this list are not considered fully compliant. Individuals are welcome to discuss access to those or other spaces which may be more conveniently located near work or classroom spaces as part of the interactive accommodation process with the EAO.

Lactation Spaces and the Affordable Care Act

The Affordable Care Act states in part:

Employers are required to provide a reasonable amount of break time and a space to express milk as frequently as needed by the nursing mother, for up to one year following the birth of the employee’s child. The frequency of breaks needed to express breast milk as well as the duration of each break will likely vary. The space provided by the employer cannot be a bathroom, and it must be shielded from view and free from intrusion by coworkers or the public…. Employers are not required under the FLSA to compensate nursing mothers for breaks taken for the purpose of expressing milk. However, where employers already provide compensated breaks, an employee who uses that break time to express milk must be compensated in the same way that other employees are compensated for break time. In addition, the FLSA’s general requirement that the employee must be completely relieved from duty or else the time must be compensated as work time applies.

The State of Arizona does not have any additional requirements.

How to Access the Spaces

If you need access to a lactation space when you return to work from parental leave, or any other time, please complete and submit the form to the right. The EAO will follow-up with you to begin the interactive accommodation process.

The EAO manages 13 dedicated spaces across the NAU Flagstaff Mountain campus and one space at the Phoenix North Valley campus.  If you are an employee and there is not a space close enough to your worksite, the EAO will work with your supervisor and building manager to find a suitable space.

If you are not an employee and are in need of a lactation space, please submit the form to the right describing your request. The EAO will follow-up with you on available options.

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