I live in upper Michigan. Today I had a meeting with the HR rep, director, and assistant director to discuss my maternity leave. This is my first year at this school. So I don’t qualify for FMLA until I hit my 12 month mark at the start of next school year. I’m due July 3rd and I have summers off automatically due to being a teacher. They said that I can take 12 weeks because they want to keep me as an employee, however, the 12 weeks starts whenever baby is born...while I’m already off on vacation. So in reality, I’m only going to get maybe a month off at the beginning of the school year. I asked if I could help out getting the classroom and sub prepped in the beginning of the year so I can hit my one year mark and then take my FMLA (12 weeks off). They said I still wouldn’t be able to use my FMLA because the “incident”, aka birth, did not happen after my one year mark. I don’t care about going unpaid. I’m worried about not getting time that is supposed to be given to me to bond with my baby. This is my first. I feel like I’m missing something or that my maternity rights are being skewed. Am I just thinking wrong? I want my summer vacation and my maternity leave....not both at the same time. They actually ‘lay off’ all teachers for the summer and then give us a call back date for the beginning of the school year. So how can they count that lay off time towards maternity leave? This isn’t a public school. It’s an agency that is a holder of the head start grant (state funded preschool program).

I just want to be clear on my rights! Thank you to any help in advance.