Zach Wendling
LINCOLN — Sydney Jensen had scarcely taken a single day off of teaching in eight years before having her first child in 2020, often coming in sick to teach Nebraska students.
She had saved eight weeks of paid leave, but as she faced postpartum depression, she felt returning would be devastating for her mental health, and the eight weeks weren’t enough.
“In truth, I felt like I would not survive it,” Jensen said Monday.
The federal Family and Medical Leave Act allowed Jensen to extend her leave to a maximum of 12 allowable weeks for significant life events, but the final four weeks came without pay, leading to financial strain, worsening her postpartum depression and creating hardships for her growing family.
“I thought I had done everything right,” Jensen said. “But it still wasn’t enough.”Jensen, a ninth grade English teacher, in Lincoln was one of many supporters to speak in favor of Legislative Bill 440 on Monday, seeking to establish an additional 0.35% payroll fee on Nebraska teachers, matched by local school districts, to cover long-term substitute costs for the first 6 weeks of teachers’ leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act.
For a teacher making $60,000, that’s a monthly fee of about $17.50, according to the Nebraska State Education Association, advocating on behalf of more than 26,000 public school teachers.
Federal law protects workers for up to 12 work weeks of unpaid leave in a year, such as for birth and bonding, adoption or foster care placement and serious personal or family health conditions. Teachers’ salaries and benefits are already budgeted for each year, so LB 440 would protect 6 weeks of that federal leave before other accrued paid leave would need to be used.
“For less than $20 a month, we’re gonna give teachers the peace of mind that if they need to take this leave, they won’t have to worry about the financial hardship that accompanies it,” NSEA President Tim Royers told the Education Committee.
No one testified against the bill.
‘Most important industry’
State Sen. Ashlei Spivey of Omaha, LB 440’s sponsor, said she suffered severe postpartum depression but was lucky to have an employer who covered paid leave for three months. But she and many teachers said that isn’t the same for frontline teachers who are helping to shape the next generation of students.
An amendment Spivey offered to the committee would clarify that school districts would still need to pay teachers their full salary and benefits during the covered 6-week leave. Payroll contributions would also be used to cover the operating and administrative costs of the program.
Thirteen states and Washington, D.C., have mandatory paid family medical leave laws, Spivey said. She modeled her bill off of similar teacher payroll contributions toward state insurance and retirement funds.
Spivey noted that the union for most state employees also has negotiated 6 weeks of paid maternity leave, which takes effect July 1.
She said her bill would promote long-term savings by reducing turnover costs through a sustainable, teacher-led funding model, with no state appropriations needed for the program.
“I would always argue that teachers are some of our most important industry and frontline workers,” Spivey said. “They need competitive benefits, they need this … in order to be able to stay in the workforce [and] keep educating our future leaders and workforce.”
Any surplus in the new leave fund exceeding 20% of projected annual needs would be transferred to a separate fund to focus on teacher retention and professional development.
Committee leaders weigh in
State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil, a former central Nebraska school board member and committee chair, asked Spivey if the bill was still needed after voters approved a minimum level of annual paid sick leave for all employees: at least 40 hours of paid leave, or 56 hours for larger businesses.
State Sen. Jana Hughes of Seward, a substitute teacher and committee vice chair, said she appreciated the program being separate from state dollars. She asked what would happen if contributions weren’t enough to cover the required substitute costs in a given year.
Hughes noted LB 440 would increase costs on districts, which Spivey described as an investment that would supplement, not replace, local “sick banks” to pool leave time.
Spivey said the bill was drafted with past leave requests in mind to create the 0.35% payroll but said she would confirm what would happen in the scenario Hughes had described.
Royers, as he did in January, said the legislation is the result of a fall survey of nearly 10,000 Nebraska teachers. The issue encompassed all types of leave, he said, not just maternity or paternity.
“We have a crisis of faith right now for teachers in Nebraska,” Royers said of the survey. “Just 8% of our educators feel that this body takes them into account when it crafts education policy.”
Teachers face guilt, regret
Nora Lenz, a Lincoln teacher with more than 30 years experience, said her parents were placed in a nursing home in the summer of 2019, and Lenz was with her mother Friday through Sunday so she wouldn’t be alone, 150 miles away from Lincoln.
In January 2020, Lenz’s father fell ill, and Lenz said it was clear he was losing his will to live, and his condition got even more fragile in the face of the “looming threat” of COVID-19.
Early retirement wasn’t an option for Lenz, and she couldn’t afford to go without a salary, needing to support her children in high school and college.
Her father was hospitalized, and Lenz’s heart ached to be by his side and by her mother’s side.
“To this day, I regret not being there with them sooner, before he was hospitalized,” Lenz said.
Lenz said she held her father’s hand when he took his last breath and was with him in the final days of his life, but told the committee she believes that had she been with him sooner, he might have lived just a little longer. Lenz’s mother died 17 days later.
Sheila Janssen said that she had a stroke in her brainstem on June 6, 2022, at 43 years old, and was in the hospital for nine days. She spent about five weeks in the hospital but, without enough sick leave, returned to school on the first day, on Aug. 10, 2022.
“I probably had no business being there,” Janssen said. “But I was because I couldn’t do it financially.”
Jake Bogus of Lincoln, an eighth grade U.S. history teacher, said some families are facing scenarios “almost like a Margaret Atwood novel,” trying to time pregnancies to use as little paid time off as possible or asking for donated time to care for their newborn children.
Other testifiers said they were stuck with a choice: family or financial stability as they or loved ones faced cancer, hip replacements, foster care obligations or loved ones in hospice care. Many current and retired teachers said they felt guilty over the choice they made.
Balancing ‘impossible choices’
Now at 32 weeks pregnant with her second child, Jensen has about 30 days of leave saved up from the past few years. However, she noted that one in seven new mothers will face postpartum depression, and her experience increases her future risk.
Jensen said LB 440 would help address a system that is forcing “impossible choices” and disproportionately impacting younger teachers and women, contributing to burnout and turnover.
“Teachers shouldn’t have to choose between their families or financial stability,” Jensen said. “LB 440 aligns Nebraska’s education system with modern workforce needs and demonstrates that we value the well being of those who shape our children’s futures.”
The committee took no immediate action on LB 440.