diff --git a/Doc/library/pty.rst b/Doc/library/pty.rst
index 2b9385b5f9e..90baec542fe 100644
--- a/Doc/library/pty.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/pty.rst
@@ -45,6 +45,9 @@ The :mod:`pty` module defines the following functions:
    a file descriptor. The defaults try to read 1024 bytes each time they are
    called.
 
+   .. versionchanged:: 3.4
+      :func:`spawn` now returns the status value from :func:`os.waitpid`
+      on the child process.
 
 Example
 -------
diff --git a/Lib/pty.py b/Lib/pty.py
index 3ccf619896c..3b79202199e 100644
--- a/Lib/pty.py
+++ b/Lib/pty.py
@@ -178,3 +178,4 @@ def spawn(argv, master_read=_read, stdin_read=_read):
             tty.tcsetattr(STDIN_FILENO, tty.TCSAFLUSH, mode)
 
     os.close(master_fd)
+    return os.waitpid(pid, 0)[1]
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_pty.py b/Lib/test/test_pty.py
index ef95268e19e..db370391f78 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_pty.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_pty.py
@@ -196,6 +196,12 @@ class PtyTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
         # pty.fork() passed.
 
+    def test_spawn_returns_status(self):
+        status = pty.spawn([sys.executable, '-c', 'import sys; sys.exit(0)'])
+        self.assertEqual(status, 0)
+        status = pty.spawn([sys.executable, '-c', 'import sys; sys.exit(5)'])
+        self.assertEqual(status, 5 << 8)
+
 
 class SmallPtyTests(unittest.TestCase):
     """These tests don't spawn children or hang."""
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 0012f1ea669..04751b710b1 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@ Core and Builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- pty.spawn() now returns the child process status returned by os.waitpid().
+
 - Issue #15756: subprocess.poll() now properly handles errno.ECHILD to
   return a returncode of 0 when the child has already exited or cannot
   be waited on.