07-02-2025
Paid maternity leave could be coming for Alabama teachers, giving hope to pregnant Houston County educators
DOTHAN, Ala (WDHN) — The state of Alabama could soon ease the burden for expecting mothers in education while trying to eliminate any hardships they may face before or after birth.
Teachers all around the state are banning together in hopes that a proposed bill will allow them to be paid when they go on parental leave. A bill that died in the state house last year but is being deemed as one of the priorities during this year's legislative session.
'Having a paid leave would be so beneficial for us and it would be one less struggle for us to worry about,' said Webb Elementary teacher Lydia Stevens.
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Stevens is a pregnant 5th-grade teacher, currently in her second year as an educator.
Right now teachers can struggle financially when they have to build up a bank of sick leave days or they don't get paid to care for a newborn or adopted child.
Normally they start out with 10, but that's not enough if you have been out sick or in this case getting ready to have a child to be on leave for two months.
'Me and my husband really had to decide whether we wanted to chose family or not being paid and we chose family and had to find a way to make it work,' said Stevens.
Jacea Youmans, an expecting first year teacher in Alabama with little to no days of leave, had to make sacrifices and pinch pennies when she had her first child. She previously taught in Georgia before making the move to Webb Elementary.
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'We were going off my husband income, he works at a family business and just sold a couple of cows to get through it, fortunately we had that to fall back on but I took the unpaid time,' said Youmans.
Kaylee Pelham, a 15-year educator and local reading specialist, had 70 sick days in the bank when she had her first child who was born prematurely and had to be out for a year.
'So when I got back I had zero days when I had my second child and my child was also a NICU baby and had a 4 month hospital stay, so a paid leave would work out for all of us,' said Pelham.
They say the perk would also pay off for the profession.
'It would definitely attract more teachers,' said Youmans. 'It's a hard job.'
The teachers believe if they spend their time taking care of everybody else's children they should be able to spend time taking care of their own.
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