How does your district/state handle maternity leave?
Are you allowed to use accrued sick days? Are you allowed (or given) STD? Does your state have any additional laws regarding pregnancy or maternity leave? How does your district handle FMLA (I just found out there are special rules for school employees!)?
And finally, how much time did you end up taking and why?
pomelo / 5132 posts
I work at a private HS. We do STD for our leave. It kicks in 2 weeks after the "incident", so we are told to use our sick/personal days to cover those days until it kicks in (we get 8 sick and 2 personal). The STD covers 4 weeks plus the 2 of your sick time, so 6 weeks, unless your doctor specifies otherwise. I had my son mid-November, and I came back to work mid-Jan at the start of the new semester. Between Christmas Break and Thanksgiving, I think I only took about 2-3 weeks unpaid. Supposedly, if I'd like to take a year leave (unpaid after STD), they would hold my job, but not my specific classes.
pomelo / 5132 posts
@Anagram: No, we have over 50 employees
ETA: I took off the week after my due date (he was 10 days late), so he was a little over 8/9 weeks old when I went back to work. I felt the transition was easier at the semester.
pear / 1580 posts
I work in a public school district in MA, and our maternity leave rules suuuuck. Basically, the standard leave is 8 weeks. It's unpaid unless you have accrued sick/personal leave which you can use. After that, if you want to use your FMLA leave, you have to give a doctor's note saying why it's necessary, and the remaining 4 weeks are definitely unpaid no matter what. Getting any leave more than that has been outright denied by our superintendent. No additional state laws that I know of. 
I've told my superintendent that I intend to apply for the full 12 weeks under FMLA, which will take me into the summer. Ideally, I'd like to take an additional year off and then come back in Fall 2016, but I think I'm probably going to have to resign instead.
eggplant / 11716 posts
@ineebee: Does your district offer STD that you can sign up for, and pay an extra premium?
pear / 1580 posts
@Anagram: My union is working on getting STD into our contract, but as of now, no.
eggplant / 11716 posts
@ineebee: and I think a doctor's note for FMLA is fairly standard--or at least a "return to work" release or something.
eggplant / 11716 posts
@ineebee: oh wow--that's kind of shocking! so if a person is in a severe car accident or has a shorter-term cancer treatment, they get no pay at all?
In our district, we can op into STD and LTD, but the district pays nothing toward it. We also have state disability in NJ for people without STD or who are unemployed.
eggplant / 11716 posts
@ineebee: Last time, I was told so much crazy stuff and I ended up taking 12 weeks totally unpaid. I was even told I couldn't use accrued sick days (I only had 10 at the time, but that still would have been over $2000).
This time around, I'm finding out so much more!
pear / 1580 posts
@Anagram: Re: STD. Maybe my answer wasn't complete... All I know for sure is that for women who have recently given birth, there is no STD option. Maybe there is for other issues? But we also have a sick leave bank which people use for longer-term sickness/injury issues.
eggplant / 11716 posts
@ineebee: gotcha. I was just asking because MA has a law that if a company offers STD for any reason, they have to offer it to preggos!
apricot / 431 posts
@Anagram: I work for a public school system in CA. I got 4 weeks before my due date and 6 weeks (vaginal birth) after the baby is born. My district paid my pay minus sub pay and then I had The Standard disability (I pay $34/month through my teacher union) covered the rest. I did have to exhaust all my sick leave before disability kicked in. The 4 weeks before the due date could not be added to the end so I used them. After 6 weeks, I could take up to an additional 12 weeks of FMLA, which was completely unpaid (but my district did still pay my benefits). If you're looking for a short term disability plan, I've heard great things about Afflack.
persimmon / 1147 posts
If I remember correctly my district allowed up to 6 weeks post baby using sick/ personal days if you had them to use (we would get 8 sick and 2 personal days a year and I was never sick so I had a lot). That was paid and with benefits. Then you could take the 12 weeks family leave act time unpaid but with benefits. Then if you choose you could finish out the year unpaid with no benefits but holding your position until the end of that current school year. Fortunately for our family money was alright financially on one income and we got insurance under DH so I took the maximum amount of time before eventually resigning and becoming a SAHM. I live in NJ if that makes any difference 
eggplant / 11716 posts
@MommySLP: I have Aflac this time! I'm excited about it, haha. But last time, I didn't have it.
pomelo / 5628 posts
I'm in CA. I was allowed my 6 weeks of sick leave for a vaginal birth.
Since I was hospitalized at 23 weeks, and was released 23 days later, that time was sick leave plus the 6 weeks after. But Dylan was still in the NICU, so I had to go to Psych services to try to get additional sick leave. It worked, but I had to jump through tons of hoops.
After sick leave, I took unpaid FMLA. My benefits were paid during FMLA, but if I took additional time after, it would be Parental Leave (I can take up to 1 year and return to my site and up to 5 and return to the District without site privileges). Benefits are not paid during Parental Leave.
I was out for a total of 7 months, 4 sick leave (I took all my full days, and some of my half days...after 9 years of employment I had a lot), 3 FMLA.
nectarine / 2667 posts
I took 15 weeks. I had 25 sick days (they don't give vacation time) accrued. The rest was unpaid. My district offers unpaid Parental Leave until the child turns 1 year old, with a spot at your site/school. It cost us $9000 for those 3 months.
A year after my leave, the district began telling mothers that any time after the 6-8 weeks of recovery MUST be unpaid because they are not "sick". There was some dispute about this because HR told a co-worker of mine that it was 6 or 8 weeks regardless of doctors notes & I told her that's illegal as f**k but I don't know if she argued it.
We get an option to purchase a STD add-on to our plans, but I was pregnant before I could pursue that.
What are the special FMLA rules?
eggplant / 11716 posts
@JoyfulKiwi: that any week where the school would be closed cannot be counted against FMLA weeks.
When I lived in Texas, my old school district didn't give 12 weeks of (unpaid) school days, just 12 weeks period, so if you gave birth over the summer, you might start back 3-4 weeks after school started.
That's illegal apparently! Since 2009.
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