Orange County Public Schools to provide three weeks paid maternity leave for staff

Orlando Weekly | By McKenna Schueler | February 11, 2025

The leave offer was a priority of the Orange County teachers’ union during last year’s contract negotiations

Orange County Public Schools will become one of the only school districts in the state of Florida to offer paid maternity leave for new moms, after reaching an agreement with the local teachers’ union.

According to Orange County Classroom Teachers Association president Clinton McCracken, whose union represents roughly 14,000 teachers and other school employees, the union reached an agreement with the district and another union representing non-instructional school employees in late January.

“It really is a result of a lot of people coming together and then us working with the district to push this,” McCracken told Orlando Weekly in a phone call. As far as McCracken’s aware, only Leon and Brevard counties offer any paid leave for new mothers following the birth of a child. In Broward, school staff get just two weeks of paid leave, whereas in Leon County, it’s five days.

It’s McCracken’s hope that this new program in Orange County will push other school districts to follow their lead. According to Spectrum News 13, the teachers’ union in Osceola County was similarly fighting to secure paid maternity leave for teachers there last year — but was unsuccessful.

“Hopefully all these other Central Florida districts start to do the same, because this is good for everybody,” McCracken said of the union’s victory in Orange. Under the new program, described in a memorandum of understanding between the union and district as a “pilot,” all school district staff who have worked for OCPS for at least one year will be eligible for paid maternity leave, beginning July 1.

After three weeks of paid leave, staff will also be able to use up to nine weeks of unpaid leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, or any other paid sick leave that they have saved up.

“It really is a result of a lot of people coming together and then us working with the district to push this”

One former Orange County teacher told Spectrum News last year that she stockpiled her paid time off for six years in order to prepare to have a child.

“A lot of teachers have timed their pregnancies over the years to be as close to the beginning of the summer as possible, so that they have the two months of the summer months,” McCracken told Orlando Weekly. “And then some didn’t have any leave, or couldn’t afford to take it without pay, so they were immediately then having to start work again.”

This has created a situation, he added, where teachers are expected to devote their lives to supporting the children in the community, “but not really feeling very supported when they’re starting to raise their own families as well.”

McCracken admitted the union originally fought for 12 weeks of paid parental leave that would extend to all employees, including parents of adopted children, and not just new moms. Still, the union sees it as a promising move in the right direction, and the district has agreed to continue discussions on how to potentially further build on the three weeks’ offer.

“We know there is more work to do of course but there is strength in numbers and we could accomplish more with you joining us in this effort,” union leadership wrote in an email to union members, announcing the new leave program. “The best reason to join a union is the collective difference we make together — standing united instead of standing alone.”

McCracken, a former art teacher who recently won re-election to his position as union president, said he believes the leave program will also help make educator jobs more appealing in a state that has made the job significantly more stressful in recent years.

“We’re always fighting for better pay and working conditions and benefits,” he shared. “So like, this is an example of the things that a district can do to make working as a teacher — to incentivize and make it better, more appealing for teachers to want to stay in our county.”

Teacher shortages have been an issue plaguing school districts across Florida — with teacher pay being a driving factor, according to union leaders. Last August, the Florida Education Association — OCCTA’s parent union — identified nearly 10,000 school district staff vacancies statewide.

Florida’s average teacher pay of $53,098 ranks near dead-last nationwide, despite flashy press releases from the Governor’s office touting millions of dollars in investment in teacher pay. Teachers have also been left to grapple with DeSantis and the state Legislature’s actions in recent years to regulate classrooms, instructional materials, school bathrooms and library books as key priorities in the Sunshine State’s culture-wars.

“Educators in Florida want what every hardworking American wants: to pay their bills with a single job, have healthcare without premiums that push them into debt, work without political interference, and retire with dignity after a lifetime of service,” said Andrew Spar, president of FEA, in a recent statement responding to DeSantis’ budget proposal for the 2025-26 fiscal year.

McCracken, the Orange County teachers’ union president, said union members submitted input for what the union should prioritize in bargaining with the school district last year, as part of the process of negotiating a new union contract. The union ultimately came up with three pillars: respect educators, invest in our educators and support our families.

“We’re going to keep fighting for parental leave,” McCracken affirmed. “We think that is the direction across the country where this is getting added.” Most teachers in the U.S. don’t have access to paid parental leave, but a growing number of states and school districts are jumping on the bandwagon in response to teachers’ organizing for the benefit, according to Education Week.

A paid parental leave program in Orange shouldn’t be costly, according to McCracken. One school board member, Angie Gallo, found last year from a source in Brevard County that their program cost the school district roughly $300,000 annually — less than the annual salary of Orange County superintendent Dr. Maria Vazquez. The union managed to get the district to commit to continuing discussions on paid parental leave during an impasse hearing in October.

Vazquez herself praised the new pilot maternity leave program in a recent statement sent to school staff. “This initiative reflects our commitment to creating a workplace that values and supports our team members during life’s most meaningful moments,” Vazquez said in an email, forwarded to Orlando Weekly.