Some Tucson Unified School District employees could soon be eligible for 12 weeks of paid parental leave under a new policy being considered by the governing board.
βAs a recently new father, who about a year and a half ago was constantly logging on to see how many personal days I was burning on my paternity, this is going to be a really good thing for employees in their parenthood journey,β TUSD Superintendent Dr. Gabriel Trujillo said Tuesday at the governing board meeting just before the first reading of the proposed policy.
The policy is the result of an agreement reached between TUSD and the Tucson Education Association that started in the spring, Karla Escamilla, a TUSD spokeswoman, said in an email.
If adopted, TUSD would be the first school district in Arizona to offer 12 weeks of paid parental leave to public school teachers and staff, the teacherβs union said in a news release.
The policy states employeesβ eligibility for paid parental leave in the life events of βbirth, surrogacy, adoption, miscarriage, stillbirth.β
The board unanimously approved moving forward with the policy.
βThis policy is the product of union educators using their voices and practicing their power to bring public schools into the modern era by providing compassionate and evidence-based paid parental leave,β said TEA President Jim Byrne in the news release.
βNot only is this policy the right thing to do for TUSD families, but this policy will help TUSD recruit and retain the highly qualified educators our students deserve on every campus and in every classroom.β
The origin of the policy began at the end of 2023 and early 2024 when educators across TUSD discussed the difficulties of navigating parenthood due to the lack of paid parental leave, said Carmen Smith-Estrada, one of the organizers pushing for the policy and a teacher at Davis Bilingual Elementary Magnet School.
The conversation included educators who had to leave the district after having babies, educators who had stayed on after giving birth, as well as educators who didnβt have children since they didnβt think they could financially support them with no paid time off, said Smith-Estrada.
βA lot of people have been forced to leave the district, forced to leave teaching because they havenβt felt supported,β said Smith-Estrada, stressing the importance of TEA and what educators can achieve.
The policy mandates that employees asking for the 12-week paid parental leave need to be at TUSD for at least a year and includes a βpayback provisionβ in case the employee doesnβt return to work at the end of the time-off period. Exceptions to this would be if the employeeβs inability to return is due to the βonset, recurrence or continuation of a serious health condition of the eligible employee or the child,β the policy reads.
The tentative agreement between the TEA and TUSD also included $1,500-$2,500 raises for classroom teachers and certified staff, 1% raises for education support professionals with an additional stipend for those who qualify and a sick leave sell-back policy, the TEA release reads.
The policyβs full adoption is expected to take place in about four weeks.
