LAUSD teachers will get paid parental leave for the first time

Los Angeles Unified teachers will get paid parental leave for the first time under a tentative agreement the teachers union reached with the district this week.

The new contract with United Teachers Los Angeles includes four weeks of district-paid leave for employees to bond with a new child. The union represents 35,0000 teachers, counselors and other educators in the second-largest school district in the country.

“I cried when I found out about it,” said Erika Jones, secretary-treasurer of the California Teachers Association and an elementary school teacher in LAUSD. “It’s precedent-setting.”

While a handful of teachers unions have gotten paid leave through bargaining over the last several years, like in San Diego, the majority of teachers in the state don’t have access to paid family leave. Jones said teachers have had to plan their pregnancies for summer break, or use their sick and vacation time to cover their time away.

Stephanie Castro, a middle school teacher in Highland Park, said she was still feeling the repercussions of taking unpaid leave when she had her son almost two years ago.

“For teachers to have to feel like they're deciding between spending time with their new child and being able to pay their bills just feels like a terrible situation for humans to be in, at such a very critical, important moment in their lives and their child's lives,” Castro said.

Why many teachers don’t have paid parental leave

Unlike most private sector workers in California who are automatically eligible for paid family leave through the state’s disability insurance program, public sector workers like teachers are not. (The way the SDI program works for private sector employees is that they pay into the program through payroll deductions, and can get 70%-90% of their wages while on leave).

As a result, advocates have been pushing for years for legislation that would grant paid family leave for teachers. Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill in 2019 that would have given teachers at least six weeks of leave, saying it would be too costly. Bills that would have given teachers up to 14 weeks of pregnancy leave also failed to pass the legislature over the last couple of years.

Jones said they’re continuing to fight for AB 65 in this year’s legislative session, which would give educators statewide paid leave — so that it doesn’t have to come down to the bargaining table.

“We're hoping that the state recognizes that this is something that we need to fix within the public education system,” she said. “Four weeks is something, it's not nothing. Is it where we need to be? No ... but it is a huge first step.”

K-12 Reporter Mariana Dale contributed to this story.