Fight for more parental leave for teachers intensifies

California is currently at the center of the debate, where educators are excluded from any fully paid parental leave.

The fight over paid parental leave is not new in the United States, but it is not expected to get addressed nationally until after the election at the earliest. That means the debate is happening more at the state level, especially when it comes to teachers.

Let's start with the data.

According to the National Council on Teacher Quality and their 2022 survey of the country's 148 largest school districts, only about 18% offered some form of parental leave.

For many teachers, that means planning to have a child means figuring out when summer break is or accruing enough sick time to take a significant amount of time off.

Shannon Holston is the chief of policy and programs at the National Council on Teacher Quality and says the lack of a comprehensive paid family policy is an issue nationally, but it's especially an issue in the teaching profession, where recruiting teachers and keeping them is a challenge.