More Virginia school districts are starting to offer paid family leave, but over half of the large school divisions across the country don’t offer the benefit, according to an analysis from the National Council on Teacher Quality.
Fifty-seven percent of large school districts across the country aren’t offering paid parental leave for teachers, the organization said.
In Virginia, large divisions such as Fairfax County Public Schools have started giving teachers the paid family leave. That’s a shift from 2022, when the group said none of the eight districts it evaluated in the state offered the benefit.
“Paid family leave helps school districts keep good teachers in the classroom,” NCTQ President Heather Peske said.
Fairfax, the state’s largest district, offers eight weeks of paid leave for childbirth, adoption or foster placement. Loudoun County offers six weeks or a maximum of 30 working days of paid leave, Peske said.
InsideNova reported Prince William County teachers get six weeks of paid maternity or paternity leave as part of an amendment to their union contract.
Elsewhere in Virginia, Peske said Henrico County schools do provide paid family leave, but Norfolk and Virginia Beach City public schools don’t.
“We see that there’s large variety in the number of days that districts are offering to teachers for paid parental leave,” Peske said.
Nationally, Peske said the number of large school districts offering paid parental leave benefits has more than doubled since 2022, citing a sample of 148 large divisions across the U.S.
Not offering the benefit comes with consequences, Peske said. Sometimes, teachers stockpile their sick days or choose to work when they’re sick. Some try to plan to have their babies in the summer, when they’re off.
“Ultimately, a lot of them have to make choices between their own families and the children of other people who they’re teaching,” Peske said.
Districts that don’t offer paid family leave could see teachers leave for nearby counties that do. That comes with a cost, Peske said, because recruiting, hiring and training a new teacher costs about $20,000, “and that’s much more than even the most expensive paid parental leave policy that we looked at.”
“There’s really an opportunity for districts here to put this policy in place in an effort to better attract and retain great teachers,” Peske said.
More information on the analysis is available online.
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