NYC Teachers To Get 6 Weeks Of Paid Parental Leave

NEW YORK, NY — New York City educators will soon have time to bond with new kids without worrying about paying the bills. The city’s 79,000 public school teachers can take six weeks of paid parental leave at their full salary starting Sept. 4 under a deal city officials and the teachers union announced Wednesday.

“No teacher should have to come to school sick because they’re saving their sick days to have a baby,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement.

The agreement with the United Federation of Teachers will give school workers six weeks off to care for a newborn child or a newly adopted or fostered child who is younger than 6.

Birth parents can get as many as 14 weeks off if they combine the new benefit with their current sick leave package, the mayor’s office said.

The new deal applies to 120,000 workers represented by the United Federation of Teachers, including teachers, school nurses, therapists, guidance counselors, secretaries and others.

The city estimates that more than 4,000 of them will take advantage of the benefit each year. Employees must be on the payroll for a full calendar year before they can use it, the mayor's office said.

De Blasio offered a similar parental leave package to about 20,000 city employees in starting in 2015, and a statewide paid family leave program began this year. But city teachers — about three quarters of whom are reportedly female — were forced to use sick days to have an income while on maternity leave, teacher Emily James wrote in a Huffington Post op-ed last month.

"Our educators give so much to the children in their classrooms," Michael Mulgrew, the teachers union president, said in a statement. "Now, New York City has a way for educators to spend more time with their own children."

Under the agreement, the city will contribute $51 million a year to the union's Welfare Fund, offset by a two and a half month extension on the union's current contract and other savings, the mayor's office said.

(Lead image: Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a paid parental leave package for New York City teachers on Wednesday. Photo by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)