Lara S. Kaufmann, Senior Counsel & Director of Education Policy for At-Risk Students
Lara S. Kaufmann is Senior Counsel and Director for Education Policy for At-Risk Students. She works on the advancement of women and girls at school and in the workplace. Lara engages in litigation, advocacy, and public education, with a particular focus on improving educational outcomes for at-risk girls, including pregnant and parenting students. Lara co-authored the Center’s 2012 report, A Pregnancy Test for Schools: The Impact of Education Laws on Pregnant and Parenting Students, as well as its 2009 report, Listening to Latinas: Barriers to High School Graduation. Before joining the Center, Lara was a Staff Attorney with the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, and prior to that she was an Assistant United States Attorney in Chicago. Lara also worked with the law firm of McDermott, Will & Emery, and was law clerk to then-Chief Judge Marvin Aspen of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Lara is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Northwestern University School of Law.
My Take
Seriously??? Teen Mom’s Photo Excluded from Yearbook
Female College Athletes Inspire Little Girls
High School Moms, Episode 6: The Finish Line
High School Moms, Episode 4: The Stigma of Teen Pregnancy is Alive and Well
High School Moms, Week 2: Prom for the Moms
Join the New Reproductive Health Campaign
Go to ThisIsPersonal.org to get the facts and tools you need to help protect women's reproductive health.





When I advocate for better supports for pregnant and parenting students, a lot of people throw back the myth that helping them succeed in school will be seen as an endorsement of teen pregnancy and will encourage other students to get pregnant. And I tell people all the time: girls don’t get pregnant just because they can get subsidized child care or tutoring assistance. It’s far more complex than that, and the idea that “pregnancy is contagious” is old-fashioned and unfounded. To the contrary, the stigma that comes with being a teen parent is alive and well. Movies and TV shows about the subject and celebrities getting pregnant as teenagers have not changed that.

