BY DAVID MAMARIL HOROWITZ

david.horowitz@bgdailynews.com

New parents employed by Warren County Public Schools are getting expanded leave benefits codified into the WCPS policy.

WCPS is finishing up revisions to the updated policy, which took effect July 1, according to Wesley Waddle, who’s been the WCPS director of human resources since October. WCPS previously notified staff about the changes through a weekly district email update and multiple videos, Waddle said.

On Monday, the WCPS Board of Education approved the first of the policy’s two readings, and a second reading, expected for the board’s January meeting, would complete the codification. Waddle said he expects no further substantive changes.

The U.S. Family Medical Leave Act entitles school system employees to 60 weekdays’ unpaid leave. WCPS employees who underwent childbirth could previously apply their accumulated, paid sick leave to the first 30 of those days.

Since July 1, this new policy has entitled those who undergo childbirth to receive 30 weekdays of district-provided paid leave beginning the day after childbirth — without needing to use their paid time off, Waddle said. This includes unpaid time off such as fall break and counts paid holidays without adding additional pay, according to Waddle.

And, when a physician’s statement deems extended time off as medically necessary, an employee can request to add on up to an additional 30 weekdays of their accumulated, paid sick leave to the end of the first 30 days — for a total of 60 paid days off. Waddle said that if a medical provider deems these latter 30 days off as necessary, WCPS will always honor the request.

This district-provided paid leave would not apply to summer, Waddle said.

FMLA entitles those who become new parents over the summer to 60 weekdays of unpaid leave beginning in the school year. A new biological or adopting parent who gets a physician’s note over the summer deeming it medically necessary to extend their leave into the school year can apply their accumulated paid leave for that purpose, Waddle said.

WCPS expanded the policy to reward current employees as well as recognize their dual roles as parents and employees, Waddle said. The changes also present additional benefits to prospective employees, he added.

Secondly, the revisions clarify that new parents who don’t undergo childbirth — biological or adopting, but not fostering — can now use their paid sick leave for up to 30 weekdays, Waddle said.

While this wasn’t a change in policy, the new text is clearer in two ways: First, it explicitly labels the section as “non childbirth.” Second, whereas previously it stated that employees receive 30 weekdays of paid time off, it now clarifies that employees are entitled to use up to 30 weekdays of accumulated sick leave.

The third and final main part of the policy has no substantive changes and simply presents a Kentucky law-provided option that parents can apply for: With superintendent and board approval, new biological or adopting parents can request to take unpaid leave for the remainder of a school year, Waddle said.

This comes with the guarantee that they can return to “a comparable position for which they are qualified,” according to the policy. “Placement in the same position or the same school cannot be guaranteed,” the policy adds.