Alabama State Board of Education to adopt policy for paid parental leave at June meeting
State Superintendent Eric Mackey speaking to board members at the May 8 work session in the Gordon Pearsons Building in Montgomery, Alabama. Mackey and the board discussed rules for a paid parental leave policy, which passed the Alabama Legislature in April.(Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector)
The Alabama State Board of Education will adopt temporary rules for paid parental leave for public education employees at its June meeting, State Superintendent Eric Mackey said Thursday.
The move comes a few weeks after Gov. Kay Ivey signed a law extending the benefit to the workers. SB 199, sponsored by Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, goes into effect on July 1.
Mackey said the board will have to adopt an emergency rule in order to approve temporary rules on the paid leave because of the turnaround for the effective date of the benefit. Once the board adopts temporary rules, there will be a 35-day public comment period before the permanent rules are adopted in July.
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'All that's to say there could be changes between the two, so during the public comment period, obviously,' Mackey said Thursday during the board's work session.
The law allows women who give birth; have a stillbirth or experience a miscarriage after 12 weeks to receive eight weeks of paid leave. It also allows the father to take two weeks of paid leave under those circumstances. If a couple adopts a child under three years old, either parent may have eight weeks of leave if they are both eligible employees.
The benefit can be taken within a year of the event. Mackey said, though, that a parent that gives birth or any other related event on June 30 will not be eligible for the benefit. Also, employees must be employed for one year before they are eligible for paid leave.
'Let's say somebody has a baby July 1 this year. They qualify if they have been employed the last year,' he said.
Mackey also said that the benefit can only apply once every 12 months. However, the benefit can be taken at any time within those 12 months after the event. A teacher who gives birth during the summer while she is not working can take eight weeks off when school starts in August, Mackey said.
'They could say, start their leave (when) their first day back to school is August 8. They can wait and start their leave on August 8 and then take their leave, you know, for eight weeks,' he said.
The program did not receive supplemental funding for fiscal year 2025, so Mackey said the individual school districts would have to pay employees that take the leave between July 1 and Sept. 30. Once the FY 2026 Education Trust Fund budget takes effect on Oct. 1, the state will reimburse the districts at $120 per day.
He said the Legislature likely underestimated the number of related events that happen in a year. The line item for the benefit received $9.6 million, but Mackey said it is likely closer to a $12 million expense.
'So $9.6 (million) covered what was originally written, but it got changed, when they put in the father's leave for fathers' two weeks, which was not in the calculation,' Mackey said..
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