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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I mean “their teacher going on mat leave”[/quote]

I know!!  Couldn't she just drop the kid and keep teaching?  And then she might have appointments.   Why is she allowed to do that?  I mean, is there a union or something?[/quote]

Do you not know how to read? She was on mat leave for 4 months and just got back in Jan and ever since she has been back she is constantly absent at least two days every week. She was actually absent for one entire week in late Jan.  She is allowed to do whatever she needs for her child and my child is also allowed to get a proper education form a teacher who takes her job responsibilities seriously. [/quote]

They were out a lot... in January... during... the surge... of... ... ... COVID ... ... cases.

What
A 
Terrible 
Woman. [/quote]

Oh being worried about my child’s lack of education makes me a terrible woman? You don’t know how appreciative I always am of teachers but I also expect them to take their job seriously and teach my child. I understand it’s a hard time with an infant and maybe she should have taken an entire year off and given someone else this job while she takes care of her kids and gets into a routine. [/quote]

OP, any time someone posts a similar concern, they are judged, blamed, and scoffed at. However, you are identifying a real problem, which is systemic, and not the fault of any single teacher. Teachers, like all of us, have times when their work attendance is poor and that poor attendance has consequences. It doesn't matter if the absences are justified, the fact is that teachers with excessive absences are not doing their jobs effectively and it hurts their students. DCUM will tell you that you need to fill in the blanks as parents, but I don't agree that every family in a class of 20 should be ready to react based on absences that are not planned or expected. There really should be more backup built into the system with highly trained teachers to step in to help make up gaps in classes where the teachers have used large amounts of leave. This type of backup will probably never be available, but it would take pressure off teachers and benefit students, especially those whose families can't, for whatever reason, step in to fill holes created by circumstances they have no control over (and often no information about).

My best advice grounded in reality and personal experience with a teacher to missed a great deal of time and then left mid-year is that you have to accept that you need to step in to do more.  Rather than complaining about the absences, perhaps you could ask for help working with your child to help keep them on track. [/quote]

My DH has been in a jam at work where an employee of his takes parental leave in drips and drops so that the employee effectively works a full time job half time, and has for a year. There is no back-up. Yet nordic countries clearly allow a lot of parental leave for everyone, men and women. Do they have more backup in each occupation, or do they just not have very many kids, or some of both? I often wonder this - for every part of our society.[/quote]

I was the PP who talked about backup. You are right. We should have it in all professions. In other professions, the gaps created by longer term absences are usually filled by people like your husband who work their own jobs and then some. I've worked in government for many years and have gone almost a year doing two full-time jobs because of an unfilled position. It's totally unfair. No one should have to live like that. I wound up so burnt out that I could hardly function.

At the same time, I don't understand why it is acceptable to do nothing to address gaps created by teacher absences. And I'm not talking about occasional absences, but school years like OP is talking about where cumulative absences care causing real harm to the kids. Maybe the answer is, as a PP suggested, is providing longer periods of paid parental leave. Obviously, districts need a supply of high-quality long-term subs available to fill in. The status quo is so unfair to teachers because it leaves them to manage the fallout of exercising leave to which they are entitled without any support. At the end of the day, the reason your husband steps in to cover for co-workers is that there is an expectation that the work has to get done. Why does that expectation not exist in education? It's not the teachers' responsibility to solve this problem.[/quote]

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