Paid family leave for teachers set for vote in Assembly
(Calif.) Among the more than 1,000 bills that won passage to the Assembly floor last week was one that would require all K-12 schools and community colleges to provide at least six weeks family leave to employees.
AB 500 by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, would greatly improve the existing pregnancy leave benefit that typically requires teachers and other certified employees to shoulder the cost of hiring their own replacements.
“We are losing so many young women from the teaching profession and one of the big reasons is because of the lack of a family leave benefit,” Gonzalez said in a TV interview last week.
According to estimates from a staff analysis of the bill, providing full-pay for six weeks of pregnancy leave could cost about $20 million per year.
Currently, district employees can take six to eight weeks of leave after their child’s birth and another 12 weeks for bonding—but they don’t get full pay.
Most school employees use up existing sick time and then receive a differential pay for the remaining time off. As currently constructed, the differential pay is calculated by subtracting the cost of hiring a replacement teacher from the district employee’s salary.
Some districts participate in the State Disability Insurance program, which usually requires CONTINUE READING: Paid family leave for teachers set for vote in Assembly :: K-12 Daily :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet