I guess teachers are not allowed to have kids to the Wayside parent posting. Maybe you should not have kids.

Anonymous wrote:most jobs don't have paid maternity leave since it comes out of the company's pockets, not taxpayers'.

Teachers don't have paid maternity leave either. They use up their sick leave for it. Paid sick leave is the law in Maryland.

As PP stated, if the teacher does not have enough sick leave to account for the 6 weeks following the birth of a child, the union pays for it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of our teachers all try to have summer babies.

All of my teachers friends and I have aimed for April babies so we can have our 6 weeks off take us until the end of the year. That way, we can just come back in Sept.

I aimed for March-May baby. I got a late August baby. Time wasn't on my side (I was 38 when I had dd), so I couldn't be too picky about timing.

most jobs don't have paid maternity leave since it comes out of the company's pockets, not taxpayers'.

Oh come on folks, it's all about the kids. We all teach for the kids! Not the pension, not for gaming the system, for the kids!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of our teachers all try to have summer babies.

That because there isn’t paid maternity leave.

They didn't try to have summer babies. They tried to have spring babies so they could use their sick leave until the end of the year, have the summer off and come back in the fall. They just didn't get pregnant as fast as they wanted. I was lucky to have 3 spring babies.

Oh how lucky. paid sick leave (is this vacation days or sick leave or full pay maternity leave) for April, May, June while a sub teaches 3 of your 8 mos of work.

Teachers can take a maximum of 10 weeks of paid child care leave immediately following birth or adoption IF they have accrued that sick leave. That would be five years of sick leave saved up. If they have no sick leave, they can apply to the union sick leave bank, which will pay the mother for six weeks.

Paid sick leave is not lucky, it’s a worker’s right. And you know this.

VThe reality of life is that teachers may or may not be able to complete a whole year of school. It will be the teachers' responsibility to make sure the children make a smooth transition. Your role is to help by being positive about the situation with your child. Even children who get anxious about change have a remarkable ability to cope with change. It will be fine.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of our teachers all try to have summer babies.

That because there isn’t paid maternity leave.

They didn't try to have summer babies. They tried to have spring babies so they could use their sick leave until the end of the year, have the summer off and come back in the fall. They just didn't get pregnant as fast as they wanted. I was lucky to have 3 spring babies.

Oh how lucky. paid sick leave (is this vacation days or sick leave or full pay maternity leave) for April, May, June while a sub teaches 3 of your 8 mos of work.

I don't know of any business where you are not allowed to take your paid sick leave in order to be paid for time off work after giving birth. I know that many retail employees don't get paid sick leave at all, but that is, I think, a different issue. One of the previous posters said something about 6 weeks of leave - FMLA requires that employees be allowed 12 (not necessarily paid) and DC's local FMLA requires 16. I don't know many professional women who take less than 12 weeks off after giving birth. And a lot of them get paid for all or some of it. And definitely you can max out your sick leave. Some employers allow other employees to donate sick leave to extend the paid portion of maternity leave or have other leave-bank type options that allow for longer periods of paid leave. This doesn't sound like an outlier among professional benefits. And 6 weeks at the end of the school year + 10 weeks of summer vacation is still only 16 weeks. Same as what DC requires employers to allow under FMLA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of our teachers all try to have summer babies.

That because there isn’t paid maternity leave.

They didn't try to have summer babies. They tried to have spring babies so they could use their sick leave until the end of the year, have the summer off and come back in the fall. They just didn't get pregnant as fast as they wanted. I was lucky to have 3 spring babies.

Oh how lucky. paid sick leave (is this vacation days or sick leave or full pay maternity leave) for April, May, June while a sub teaches 3 of your 8 mos of work.

We've had a few long term subs through the years, and all have been GREAT. At least one was better than the classroom teacher and others have been just as good.

They are there for a long time, so though your child may have some anxiety with the transition, it will not be a roller coaster.

OP. our kids have to learn to take these things in stride.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This happens quite a bit. We have had two long-term subs with my son's classes.

One was terrible. One was not too bad.

Interestingly, we have learned that the subs do NOT have to have any sort of training in education. One of our subs had zero teaching experience (other than being a sub for MCPS). He had a degree in something totally different.

But, not much you can do. Lots of teachers are females. They have babies!

Not really. Since three years ago MCPS requires that subs be certified teachers. Some uncertified subs were grandfathered in, but for the most part the subs are all certified. Unfortunately that means there are very few subs and the ones we have are mostly retired teachers who are less then eager to teach.

Really? I hadn’t heard this. Is this the reason why there’s a sub shortage in mcps? -teacher

The sub shortage is not unique to MCPS. They aren't exactly people clamoring nationally to be substitute teachers. No benefits, low pay, and the economy is good right now, which means there are fewer people out of work who want to sub to bridge the gap until they get more permanent employment. When the economy is bad, there are more subs, and the districts can get pickier about who they hire (e.g., requiring prospective subs to have a teaching background).