Staff Maternity and Parental Leave Policy

Office of Human Resources

Maternity Leave

The Jewish Theological Seminary's Maternity Leave policy is administered in the same way as our Short-Term Disability policy. If you are pregnant, you are entitled to take leave under our Short-Term Disability policy for any part of the pregnancy and postpartum period that your doctor certifies you unable to work. Please note that the first 12 weeks of Maternity Leave are counted towards the 12 weeks of leave guaranteed by the Family and Medical Leave Act (please see the last section of this document for a brief summary of the Family and Medical Leave Act). Our Short-Term Disability policy is explained below.

If you are out of the office on sick leave for seven or more consecutive days, JTS policy requires that you complete the following steps:

  1. Immediately provide a doctor's note with a diagnosis, prognosis, and expected date of return.
  2. Complete and submit the DB-450 form. You are responsible for Part A and your physician must fill out Part B. Please mail the completed form to the Human Resources office; our mailing address is:

Office of Human Resources
The Jewish Theological Seminary
3080 Broadway
New York, NY 10027

  1. Provide us with your home email address, if you have one, to ease the communication flow.
  2. Submit an updated note from your doctor regarding your status once a month, if applicable.*
  3. Submit a doctor's note clearing you to come back to work approximately two weeks prior to your expected date of return.*

*Policy reviewed and revised 1/18/2011. Original policy required submission of a doctor's note every two weeks.

The completion of the above steps entitles you to the Short-Term Disability benefits (known as New York State Disability [NYSD] partial income replacement benefits) provided by JTS through Standard Security, our Short-Term Disability carrier. It is very important to note that you MUST USE ALL AVAILABLE SICK TIME BEFORE New York State Disability partial income replacement benefits are paid.

Regardless of whether you have any sick leave available, there is a waiting period of seven consecutive calendar days for NYSD benefits. In other words, NYSD benefits will begin on the eighth consecutive day that you are unable to work. If you do not have any sick time available to cover the seven calendar-day waiting period, you may elect to use vacation time.

When you no longer have any available sick or vacation time, you will only receive payment from Standard Security, our Short-Term Disability carrier. Short-Term Disability payments are $170 a week for a maximum of 26 weeks, counted from the first day of disability (which is usually the eighth consecutive calendar day from when you stopped working). These payments are not automatic, and you must complete the DB-450 form in order for the insurance carrier to process your claim. Please note that during the time you receive sick leave pay, you are not eligible to receive the $170 a week.

Parental Leave

Parental Leave is available to employees through the Family and Medical Leave Act, which allows an eligible employee up to 12 weeks of leave. Parental Leave is charged either to an employee's vacation accrual or is unpaid. The information below is a brief summary of the Family and Medical Leave Act:

Time absent from the workplace because of a documented temporary disability is counted as time taken under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). FMLA grants an eligible employee up to a total of 12 work weeks of leave during any 12-month period (JTS calculates FMLA on a calendar basis) for one or more of the following reasons:

  • For the birth and care of the newborn child of the employee;
  • For placement with the employee of a son or daughter for adoption or foster care;
  • To care for an immediate family member (spouse, child, or parent) with a serious health condition; OR
  • To take medical leave when the employee is unable to work because of a serious health condition.

Upon return from FMLA leave, an employee must be restored to his or her original job, or to an "equivalent" job, which means virtually identical to the original job in terms of pay, benefits, and other employment terms and conditions.