TUSD approves parental leave policy

As of Tuesday, the Tucson Unified School District officially became the first school district in Arizona to offer 12 weeks of paid parental leave.

The policy first presented to the Tucson Unified School District governing board in August was approved Tuesday night. Board members Val Romero was the sole no vote.

The policy will be going into effect July 1.

“It’s big, it’s important, (and) TEA is super happy to celebrate the win with the district and you all giving progressive, forward-thinking leadership,” said Jim Byrne, president of the Tucson Education Association at the governing board meeting Tuesday. “The achievement here is also going to stand in national relief, with 12 weeks of paid parental leave, the addition that it’s both employees (and) to have it start at the beginning of the school year.”

Included in the policy will be employees dealing with the life events of “birth, surrogacy, adoption, miscarriage, stillbirth,” as well as spouses of employees dealing with these events, according to the Family and Medical Leave Act.

Certain conditions of eligibility include the employee having been with the TUSD for 12 consecutive months as well as that the parental leave must be taken consecutively under the act. Such conditions have been met with resistance, as seen through the written comments listed in the Policy Review Feedback document connected to the FMLA.

“Employees should not be required to take parental leave days consecutively,” wrote a retired teacher. “Depending upon circumstances, some parents of newborns or adopted children may not need that many consecutive days off in the beginning, (but) may need some days off because of medical issues or other circumstances that arise.”

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Also addressed in the policy’s first reading was the fact that, in the event of both parents being employed by the school district, both parents were eligible for a “total” of 12 weeks paid parental leave.

By the second read, this was changed to “employees may each take a total of 12 consecutive workweeks of paid parental leave” and that “the leaves may be taken at the same time or at different times, as long as they are taken within the first six months after the qualifying event.”

“We know from studies we’ve seen, especially in places like Europe and other places, where it has to be divided or has to be taken by ‘a’ parent, (it’s) always going to be the mom,” said board member Dr. Ravi Shah at the first read about a month ago.

“And that really devalues fathers and their role in childcare as well. As a father who’s very engaged with my children and very engaged with childcare, I think they should be as involved as mothers and should be taking time off to be with their kids when they’re born.”

The policy, which was born out of an agreement between the TUSD and the TEA, was initiated by educators across the TUSD towards the end of 2023 and beginning of 2024, said Carmen Smith-Estrada, one of the organizers pushing for the policy and a teacher at Davis Bilingual Elementary Magnet School, to the Arizona Daily Star after the policy’s first brought to the board.

The discussion between educators involved each of their difficult experiences in navigating parenthood in different ways due to the lack of paid parental leave, said Smith-Estrada. It involved educators who had to leave the district after having babies, educators who had stayed on after giving birth, as well as educators who didn’t have children since they didn’t think they could financially support them with no paid time off.