Know your benefits
Maternity and child care leaves
Dec 11, 2008 1:15 PM
Are you pregnant or planning to start a family? You should know that you have the right to take a leave of absence at any time during your pregnancy with medical documentation or during your baby’s first years.
The federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides up to 12 weeks of paid or unpaid leave for maternity and unpaid for care of a child under age 1, adoption or the start of foster care. Either parent can take an unpaid child care leave under FMLA. You are eligible for FMLA if you have worked for a total of at least 12 months as of the date that the leave commences (the 12 months need not be consecutive) or for 1,250 hours over the previous 12 months. Your health benefits will continue during a FMLA leave. The Department of Education must take you back after the 12 weeks.
If you are a regularly appointed female staff member, you are also entitled to a paid or unpaid maternity leave of absence, which runs concurrently with your FMLA leave for the first 12 weeks. A maternity leave of absence can begin in your ninth month—or earlier with medical documentation — and continues during your recuperation period, which is six weeks after your baby’s birth in a routine pregnancy and eight weeks with a C-section with medical documentation.
Be aware that if you choose to extend your leave of absence beyond 12 weeks for child care, the DOE is under no obligation to approve your leave with a midterm return date.
During a maternity leave, you must use the days in your sick bank (Cumulative Absence Reserve, or CAR) if you have them. To extend your paid leave, you can also borrow up to 20 sick days. You are also entitled to a “calendar month” grace period, which pays you for all weekends and holidays for the “calendar month” following the exhaustion of the days in your sick bank and/or your borrowed days. Your payroll secretary can advise you as to how many days you have in your sick bank and can give you the necessary forms to apply for your leave of absence.
In a routine pregnancy, your health benefits continue until your baby is six weeks old or until you have been on leave for 12 weeks. If you have used up your 12 weeks of health benefits under FMLA and want to stay home with the baby longer than the recuperation period —and you are not otherwise ill — then your leave becomes an unpaid child care leave without health benefits.
If you are disabled as the result of pregnancy or other illness, you can apply for a restoration of health leave. This extended unpaid leave, which requires medical documentation, will provide you with up to a year of health benefits. Call your UFT borough office for details.
Either parent can also apply for a child care leave, though you and your spouse cannot take a child care leave at the same time if you are both DOE employees. This unpaid leave, which does not include health benefits, begins after the six- or eight-week recuperation period and can last for up to four years from the first day of the school year following the leave. Your school secretary can give you the necessary forms to fill out.
If you have additional questions about maternity or child care leaves, call your UFT borough office for assistance.
