The
TO: Sue Buckley
FROM: Nancy Williams
Jennifer Modestou
Jane Holland
RE: Adoption Leave
Date: February 1, 2002
Members of the Family Issues Charter Committee and
UI Staff Council received requests from adoptive parents to explore the
feasibility of increasing the amount of adoption leave currently
available. As a result of those
requests, we examined the benefit and the financial cost of expanding adoption
leave from 5 days to 10 days per adoption occurrence. This letter addresses our recommendation.
Recommendation:
We
recommend that adoption leave be increased from 5 days per occurrence to 10
days. The leave would be paid out of
personal sick leave.
If
both spouses/partners are employed at the UI, they would together receive a
total of 15 days, not 20 days. One of the parents would be able to
access the additional 5 days of adoption leave.
Data to substantiate the
recommendation:
Financial cost:
From July 1, 1999 to January 1, 2001, a total of 18
individuals used adoption leave. Ten of
the 18 individuals used their full amount of adoption leave plus supplemented
the 40 hours with another form of UI leave.
Of those 10 individuals, 1 is a faculty member, 5 are
professional-scientific and 4 are merit employees. Added together, one week of adoption leave
for all 10 individuals totaled $6,658 over an 18-month period.
We also gathered data January 1, 2001 through
September 30, 2001. Eleven employees
thus far this year have taken adoption leave.
Of the eleven, 3 are faculty, 6 are professional-scientific and 2 are
merit employees. Added together, one week of adoption leave for all 11
individuals totals $13,634.
From year to year, numbers of employees, types of
employees, and salary of the employees using adoption leave will
fluctuate. For example, the salaries for
the first group were lower than the most recent group, and there was more
faculty in the most recent group taking adoption leave than in the first group. However, it does appear that numbers of staff
taking adoption leave are low overall.
If we consider the most recent year only, permitting 10 days for
adoption leave, the cost for the 11 employees would be $27,268.
Replacement costs have not been factored into either
of the costs identified above.
Family
need:
When an individual or couple adopt, they may or may
not know the date of the adoption, the child’s approximate age or the child’s
sex. International adoptions pose
further challenges since many parents travel to the child’s country of origin
to “pick up” the child and to sign documents.
Adoptive parents have told us that the child must
build trust, deal with separation and attachment, re-establish routines and
accept his/her new home. While the child
may not be medically ill, adjusting to a new home, new people and possibly a
new culture does affect the well being and health of the child.
Parents adopting are often physically exhausted,
especially those involved with international adoptions. Travelling to pick up the child, bringing
the child home and preparing the home are physically draining and demanding,
especially if there are time zone changes.
In summary, we believe that
the following factors make it feasible and appropriate to increase adoption
leave. One, the cost is
relatively inexpensive. Two,
adoption has very specific characteristics that make planning and preparation
for a new child complex. Three,
many adoptive children are adjusting to a new set of parents, a second home and
possibly a new culture. And finally,
adoptive parents experience stress and exhaustion as a result of the adoptive
process.
This recommendation has the
support of the Family Issues Charter Committee, UI Staff Council and the Family
Services Office. Lee Anna Clark will be
presenting this recommendation to the Faculty Senate.