Could paid parental leave for Arizona educators improve teacher shortages?

PHOENIX – Arizona does not offer guaranteed paid parental leave for teachers, and that could be a reason for the state’s teacher shortage.

A new study from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) shows two-thirds of teachers nationwide do not have access to paid parental leave.

Heather Peske, NCTQ’s president, explained that provides little to no options for teachers who have to take time for family reasons.

“Teachers have to do things like hoard their sick days or try to plan their pregnancies in the summer when they’re off. Both of those things are just an absurd requirement of professionals and of teachers,” she said.

Currently, Arizona requires employees to be given 12 weeks of unpaid parental leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

How paid parental leave could keep Arizona teachers from leaving jobs

According to the NCTQ study, about 580 of Arizona’s approximately 49,000 teachers are expected to leave their job each year for family reasons. Paid parental leave could potentially prevent nearly 120 of those departures, the study says.

Peske said if paid leave was guaranteed, that could get some of those teachers to return to classrooms, improving shortages and retention rates.

“We know that when teachers leave the classroom, large districts spend roughly $25,000 to replace a single teacher. So the costs of not providing paid parental leave are much higher than the cost of providing it,” she said.

Peske added that teachers ranked paid leave among their priorities for staying in their jobs.

Currently, Delaware and Arkansas are the only states to offer teachers 12 weeks of paid parental leave.

Any paid leave policy would have to be implemented at a state level in Arizona, Peske said.

“It’s really up to state legislators to enact legislation that would require paid parental leave for teachers for 12 weeks and support them with full salaries while also paying the cost of a substitute. So, the first step is really up to the Legislature in Arizona,” she said.

Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.

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