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  • Does paid parental leave for teachers pay off?

    January 9, 2025

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    Endnotes
    1. Pawlewicz, D. D. A. (2020). Blaming teachers: Professionalization policies and the failure of reform in American history. Rutgers University Press.
    2. Heymann, J., Raub, A., & Earle, A. (2011). Creating and using new data sources to analyze the relationship between social policy and global health: The case of maternal leave. Public Health Reports 12(3), 127–34.
    3. Berger, L. M., Hill, J., & Waldfogel, J. (2005). Maternity leave, early maternal employment, and child health and development in the U.S. The Economic Journal, 115(501), F29–F47.
    4. Dagher, R., McGovern, P. M., Dowd, B. E., & Lundberg, U. (2011). Postpartum depressive symptoms and the combined load of paid and unpaid work: A longitudinal analysis. International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, 84, 735–743.
    5. Bütikofer, A., Riise, J., & Skira, M. M. (2021). The impact of paid maternity leave on maternal health. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 13(1), 67–105; Jou, J., Kozhimannil, K. B., Abraham, J. M., Blewett, L. A., & McGovern, P. M. (2018). Paid maternity leave in the United States: Associations with maternal and infant health. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 22(2), 216–225.
    6. The sample for this analysis, drawn from NCTQ’s Teacher Contract Database, consists of 148 school districts in the United States: the 100 largest districts in the country, the largest district in each state, and the member districts of the Council of Great City Schools.
    7. These states include Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Utah. Because these policies have not yet gone into effect, districts in these states are only counted as having a paid parental leave policy if it is included in the teacher contract.
    8. These states include Arkansas, Colorado, New York, North Carolina, and Massachusetts. Districts in these states are only counted as having a paid parental leave policy if it is included in the teacher contract.
    9. One district does not clearly state the length of leave and another offers varying leave periods based on a teacher’s length of service to the district. These two districts are noted as “other” in Figure 2 and are not included in the average calculation.
    10. Gault, B., Hartmann, H., Hegewisch, A., Milli, J., & Reichlin, L. (2014). Paid parental leave in the United States: What the data tell us about access, usage, and economic and health benefits. Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
    11. This district does not offer a different pay rate for long-term substitutes.
    12. This district does not offer a different pay rate for long-term substitutes.
    13. Garland Independent substitute pay ranges depending on the qualifications of the substitute teacher. We use an average of the daily rate for long-term substitutes (11+ days) across qualification categories.
    14. Oklahoma City substitute pay ranges depending on the qualifications of the substitute teacher. We use an average daily rate across qualification categories. The district does not offer a different pay rate for long-term substitutes.
    15. The daily pay rate of substitutes teachers in Elk Grove is $250, thus for a 100-day leave period, the total payment for a substitute is $25,000.
    16. Per Elk Grove, days 1–20 are docked at $135 per day and days 21–100 are docked at $175 per day.
    17. The low end of the range is calculated by using the salary of a teacher with a bachelor’s degree and 5 years of experience. The high end of the range uses the salary of a teacher with a master’s degree and 10 years of experience.
    18. We do not include the costs associated with normal sick leave because this benefit is not exclusive to parental leave. We consider it a “business-as-usual” cost rather than one specifically related to parental leave.
    19. As reported by the Texas Education Agency, the average teacher in Garland Independent has a salary of $64,591. The daily rate is calculated by dividing the average salary by 187, which is the number of contracted days stipulated in Garland Independent’s teacher contract. The daily rate multiplied by the number of leave days (30) is $10,362. Thus, $4,575 is 44% of $10,362.
    20. The daily pay rate for a teacher in Oklahoma City is calculated by dividing the salary (of a teacher with a masters and 10 years of experience) by the total number of contracted days (181). The daily rate is multiplied by 30 to arrive at the on-leave teacher’s normal wages during the leave period.
    21. Berger, L. M. & Waldfogel, J. (2004). Maternity leave and the employment of new mothers in the United States. Journal of Population Economics, 17(2), 331–349; Joesch, J. M. (1997). Paid leave and the timing of women’s employment before and after birth. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 59(4), 1008–1021; Jones, K., & Wiltcher, B. (2020). Reducing maternal labor market detachment: A role for paid family leave. Washington Center for Equitable Growth.
    22. Bassanini, A., & Venn D. (2008). The impact of labour market policies on productivity in OECD countries. International Productivity Monitor, 17, 3–15.
    23. Boston Public Schools (MA), Broward County School District (FL), Chicago Public Schools (IL), Milwaukee Public Schools (WI), and Tulsa Public Schools (OK).
    24. Ronfeldt, M., Loeb, S., & Wyckoff, J. (2013). How teacher turnover harms student achievement. American Educational Research Journal, 50(1), 4–36; Sorensen, L. C., & Ladd, H. F. (2020). The hidden costs of teacher turnover. Aera Open, 6(1).
    25. The TPS is a follow-up survey to the National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS), which is a nationally representative survey administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
    26. This assumes that the nationally representative survey sample generalizes to our sample of large, urban districts.
    27. The survey item reads “Because of other personal life reasons (e.g., health, pregnancy/childcare, caring for family).” Three additional “personal life factor” survey items cover relocation, retirement, and changes in childcare caused by COVID-19.