Preparing for maternity leave as a teacher is a daunting task. It is difficult to leave your kids, classroom, and everything else with someone else. I learned a lot from my first maternity leave and wanted to write everything down, so I won't have to struggle to remember for my second maternity leave. (I am hoping I will eventually have a second child.) **Update! I have had my second child and this advice is still sound!
Without further ado, here are my maternity leave tips and tricks for teachers!
1. Finances - Saving is so Important!
The best thing you can do as an educator preparing to have a baby is to save up as much as you can.
Short-Term Disability Coverage
For my first maternity leave, I just relied on having short-term disability coverage and it really didn't make a dent in my medical expenses. If you haven't looked into your school district's short-term disability coverage, you may want to at least explore that avenue, but I ended up getting out less than I paid for the coverage over the course of the two years I paid into the program. The company I used, required you to have coverage for at least a full year before they would pay out any benefit, so in my case, it just wasn't worth it.
How Much Can I Expect to Spend?
This time around, I plan on saving up as much as I can with every paycheck. I hope to put at least 100-150 a pay period into a special savings account for my maternity-related expenses. With my first child, our out-of-pocket max was 4,500 dollars a person. By the time we were out of the hospital (normal delivery with zero complications), we both had hit our out-of-pocket max for the year. Then I also had to figure out how to cover the time I took unpaid. I wanted to be home with my baby as long as possible.
Luckily, I planned/timed it right and had a baby in late April. I was able to take 6 weeks off at the end of one school year, enjoy summer vacation with my baby, and then take 6 weeks off at the beginning of another school year. My son was almost 5-months-old when I went back to work! How did I afford this? It wasn't easy.
First, it is important to note that I rarely ever take off work and had four years' worth of sick and personal leave saved up. I used almost all of my days on my leave. I saved a bank of 8-10 days in case my son was sick or an emergency turned up when I went back to work. I have to take about 12-15 days unpaid to cover the difference in my leave. (I forget the exact amount I had to take unpaid because it has been two years since my first leave.) That ended up costing me over 4,000 dollars as we only work a 190-day contract. Additionally, I had to pick up more of the medical costs typically covered by my school district for those days. Luckily my school district was able to break that loss out over the entire school year of paychecks, and it was only a couple hundred a pay period, but it was definitely a huge hit on top of the medical bills coming in. As you can see, it is EXTREMELY important to start saving for your maternity leave as soon as possible. Kids are a huge undertaking and maternity leave is no different.
2. Planning
It is easy to begin stressing about what lesson plans to leave for an extended absence, but you shouldn't have to! First, you need a great teaching binder to help your substitute understand and easily follow everyday procedures and your classroom setup. I spent a long time creating my substitute binder for my super extended absence. Save yourself hours of work and grab a copy of my binder. I even left a lot of my wording in the binder, so you should only need to make minimal changes to the binder.
If you aren't an ELA teacher, you may want to skip this part of my post. I really can only offer advice for ELA teachers as it is the only thing I have ever taught. Guys, you need to leave a novel study and that is that. Why a novel study?
1. It is a concrete plan. Your substitute will have something secure to walk into. I would have to be a long-term substitute and walk into super complex plans. Walk into a 6ish week novel study? Perfect!
2. Novel studies can cover all of your ELA standards.
3. It's easy to have a wide range of graded assignments with a novel.
4. Most people enjoy teaching novels.
5. Students typically enjoy novel studies.
Need help gathering materials for your sub? I have you covered with three different novel study options!
3. General Advice
1. Diaper showers are extremely helpful. If your family can help you throw one, it will help out to start with a stash of diapers.
2. Find a newborn photographer. Newborns are beyond cute and change rapidly. I recommend finding a professional to capture your newborn.
3. Don't check in to school more than needed and keep your baby out of your school building. It isn't worth the risk of exposing your baby to all of the germs we know are at school.
4. Give yourself time to recover after having your baby. See if you can line up relatives to help you around the house your first few weeks home. This ended up being a lifesaver for me.
5. Have something I missed? Please share it in the comments below and I will add it to this resource.
Good luck!
