good news about maternity leave!!!!!

I'm a teacher.   Normally, you can use 40 sick days(20 before birth and 20 after).   Then you can take the 12 weeks of family leave(6 of those are paid at 2/3 salary through the state...the other 6 are unpaid)   After the 12 weeks are up, you can extend your unpaid leave for up to 2 years.   However, you need to return either the 1st school day in Sept or Jan(I didn't know that) 

Unfortunately, I cannot use sick days after the birth.   The last day of school is June 23.  I'm due June 22.  I can only take sick days up to the 23.   I can't use sick days in the summer.   I can't use them in Sept because it will be 2 months after the birth.   We knew all of this already.

My plan was to take the 12 weeks and plus some extra time.  We were undecided if I should return Dec 1 or in Jan.    If I return to work on Dec 1, then I would get 2 paychecks in Sept and 1 in Oct.   I wouldn't get a 2nd paycheck for Oct plus no paychecks in Nov. So I would lose 3 paychecks.   If I come back in Jan, I would be out 5 paychecks.

I just verified with the union that I either need to return after my 12 weeks of family leave(which will start in Sept) or Jan(I never planned on taking a full year off)   So I was a little disappointed since I was hoping I would be able to return in Dec.  

Then I did the math.   My 12 weeks would end the week of Thanksgiving.   So I would be going back the last week of Nov.   So it's a couple days earlier than I had hoped for which is not a big deal.  

I need to talk to the union rep again just to make sure I was figuring this out correctly, but it looks like I will be able to go back around Dec 1 after all!   This is great news!   We would have been able to handle the loss of 5 paychecks but it would have made a big dent in the savings we have earmarked for work on the house(we don't plan on doing the work until after I return to work just in case we need extra money for anything) 

So I'll be able to say home until this little guy is 5 months old.   That's about the same amount of time I stayed home with DS(he was 5.5 months when I went back to work)   I'm so happy that it looks like things are going to work out like this!!!!!