Parental Leave

(Board Policy 420.1, 420.2; Universitywide Administrative Memorandum 435.2, 435.3, Fayetteville Policies & Procedures 419.0, 419.1)

Maternity/paternity leave is treated as any other leave for sickness or disability, except that an employee may elect to take maternity leave without pay without exhausting her accumulated annual leave and sick leave. An employee may elect to take paternity leave without pay without exhausting his accumulated annual leave and sick leave. If you take maternity/paternity leave, you should discuss with your supervisor and your departmental leave representative how you want to use your leave balances prior to beginning your leave. You should give your supervisor as much notice as possible before you begin maternity/paternity leave and two weeks notice before returning to work from maternity/paternity leave. Both notices should be in writing. Upon your return from maternity/paternity leave, you will be given the same position or one which is comparable in pay, benefits and working conditions to the one you held before you went on leave. Any time that you use maternity/paternity leave, it will be counted as FMLA leave if you meet the FMLA eligibility requirements (see Section 7.6).

Faculty and staff may choose to seek modified work assignments following childbirth and/or adoption. For more information on modified work assignments for faculty, view the Faculty Modified Work Assignment for Maternity/Paternity policy in the Faculty Handbook or Fayetteville Policies and Procedures 419.0. For more information on modified work assignments for staff, view Fayetteville Policies and Procedures 419.1.