Parenthood is a big deal. There are babies to feed, diapers to change, naps to take, and bonds to form. And all this takes time—lots of time.

The Federal and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires employers to provide 12 weeks of unpaid leave. FMLA says an employee can use leave for any medical condition for either themselves or a loved one. University Prep’s official policy is a combination of FMLA and accrued sick days.

“You may take up to 12 weeks that you’re entitled to but it is unpaid, however you may take any sick pay that you have built up,” said math teacher Ian McInerney, who left in February on paternal leave.

Chemistry teacher Mikayla Patella-Buckley, who left in March 2015 for the birth of her daughter, was able to overlap some of her accumulated paid time off with her FMLA time off. “I used up every sick day that I had accumulated since the birth of my last child, then I had three weeks that were unpaid,” she said.  

It isn’t just U Prep with complicated parental leave policies—the United States is the only highly industrialized nation in the world without a mandate for paid parental leave, a reality that only adds to the already immense stress of having a child. “[These policies] made it more stressful only because I knew there would be a point where I wasn’t getting paid, and having a baby is a very expensive life event,” said Patella-Buckley.

Both Patella-Buckley and

McInerney remember the parental leave policy being set in stone when they were hired. However, paid parental leave is a hot topic in the U.S., and a few companies have started incorporating paid leave into their benefits programs. Starting in November 2015, Microsoft revised its policies to allow “new birth mothers [to] receive eight weeks of paid maternity disability leave” and all new parents to “receive 12 weeks of fully paid parental leave to bond with their new family.” Netflix, too, updated its benefits policies and now offers up to a year of full-salary parental leave.

And it’s not just companies that are starting to offer paid time off for their employees. Just a few miles north of U Prep, Lakeside School offers paid parental leave. Sara Skinner, Director of Human Resources for Lakeside, says that in addition to state mandated policies they also “offer all employees (both male and female) six weeks paid leave upon the birth or adoption of a child.”

Currently, U Prep is reviewing its employee benefits program. Chief Financial Officer Susan Lansverk said, “We are having conversations [about] benefits…this year we had an outside company come and do a compensation and benefits review.” She said that the administration is “trying to do the things that benefit the most people” but since there are “a limited number of resources,” not all plans can go to fruition.

Despite this, Lansverk remains optimistic that if an addition to the benefits program is decided upon (and isn’t too much of a burden on the budget), it could be implemented as early as next year. Whether or not such an addition will be paid parental leave, however, remains to be seen.

By Emma Kellog