Casey Robinson was going to give birth to her son, Blue, on a Thursday.

Robinson believed she would have to return to work that Monday.

A single mother and English teacher in the Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District, Robinson said she was confused and frightened about how she was going to manage it all. A law that took effect Aug. 5, mere days after the birth of her son, changed all that.

That law, Act 904 of 2025, requires Arkansas to cover all of the costs for paid maternity leave for public school employees for up to 12 weeks. It builds on a provision in the LEARNS Act in which the state agreed to split with districts the cost of maternity leave for educators — an opportunity few districts took up at the time.

Robinson’s feelings went from scared to hopeful and thankful when administrators told her about the option. Because Blue was born before the law went into effect, she said she had to use some personal leave, but the paid maternity leave she received after was a “blessing.”

“For me, teaching is a calling, and I didn’t want to end something I started,” she said. “Had I not had the maternity leave, I was going to have to leave teaching to find other employment because teaching is my only job. Without that income, I wouldn’t have been able to pay for anything.”

Robinson isn’t alone. Other teachers who have been able to take advantage of paid maternity leave said it was a tremendous relief to spend that time with their newborns without having to worry about sick time or personal days. They also said the option is likely to make teaching a more appealing option for prospective educators and encourage current teachers to stay in the field longer.

Arkansas and Delaware are the only two states to offer full-paid maternity leave for up to 12 weeks, according to a State of the States report published earlier in January by the National Council on Teacher Quality. Just 14 other states offer some form of paid parental leave for teachers beyond sick days, though the offer in those states is either limited or optional for districts to join, the report states.

Studies link returning to work within the first 12 weeks after childbirth to lower breastfeeding and immunization rates, according to the report. Returning to work too quickly is also associated with lower reading and math test scores and more behavioral problems in early childhood.

“Our teachers shouldn’t have to choose between their families and their classrooms, and in Arkansas, we’re making sure they don’t have to,” Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a news release touting the report’s spotlight on Arkansas. “I signed Arkansas LEARNS and started investing in our state’s educators because a great education starts with great teachers. Thanks to these incentives, Arkansas is recruiting and retaining the best, ensuring our students are given every opportunity to thrive and establishing Arkansas as a national education leader.”

Maternal health has been a policy priority Sanders has emphasized since her gubernatorial campaign. In 2023, the same year the LEARNS Act went into effect, she also signed into law a bill that extended paid maternity leave for state employees to 12 weeks.

Rep. Andrew Collins, D-Little Rock, who sponsored Act 904, was quoted in the report. He said his bill avoided partisanship in favor of “building on a good idea and making it work for everyone.”

“Paid parental leave was one of the good things that came out of the LEARNS Act, and I saw an opportunity to take something that worked and make it even better,” Collins said.

Olivia Organ, a science teacher and girls soccer coach at Bryant High School, said she became pregnant last January. When she first heard about the opportunity for roughly three months of paid maternity leave, she was skeptical.

“I was like, ‘I don’t know that this is actually going to play out,'” she recalls saying at the time. “‘I’ll believe it when I see it.'”

Having that leave ended up being a game changer. Organ said after having her baby, using her leave time and returning to work, she became sick enough to land in the hospital for several days. Had she been required to use sick or personal days immediately following her pregnancy, she may not have had any left over to use during her illness.

“I would have probably tried to have gone to school when I shouldn’t have had to go to work,” Organ said. “So I was incredibly thankful for it at that point.”

The National Council on Teacher Quality report includes three recommendations meant to improve a struggling teacher workforce: Require districts to offer at least 12 weeks of paid parental leave for teachers; guarantee teachers on paid parental leave can receive their full salary for the entire duration of their leave; and extend leave eligibility and benefits to all teachers who become parents.

A report published in June by the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Office for Education policy found that, while Arkansas’ teacher retention rate “stabilized” in the 2024-25 year, it may have plateaued “below pre-pandemic levels.” Elsewhere in the nation, many states are likewise struggling to bring their teacher workforce back to what it was before the covid-19 pandemic.

Jonet Washington, a college and career advisor at Kipp Blytheville Collegiate High School, said she thinks the paid maternity leave will help schools to recruit new teachers and to keep those they already have by helping them to feel appreciated.

“If people know that if they are starting or building a family that this is already secure, they won’t have to worry about that aspect of it,” said Washington, who is nine months pregnant and expects her first son to be born “any day.”

As for extending leave eligibility, she, Organ and Robinson all said they supported the idea.

Extended eligibility could lighten the burdens of new motherhood, as partners may be better able to go to doctor’s appointments and run necessary errands, Washington said.

Organ said a male coach at her school took two weeks of sick leave to be home with his wife when she had their baby before returning to work. After that, he had to balance a full work schedule with sharing parenting responsibilities with his wife.

“I know there are days that he’s like, ‘I’m so exhausted, I stayed up with the baby all night,'” Organ said. “Dads are having to pull their weight. They may not have that physical recovery, but sometimes they’re having to pull the weight that their wife can’t do, because she’s recovering from literally having a child. I think being able to be present, being a part of that, is something that should potentially be considered down the line.”

Information for this article was contributed by Neal Earley of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

With support from the ADG Community Journalism Project, LEARNS reporter Josh Snyder covers the impact of the law on the K-12 education system across the state, and its effect on teachers, students, parents and communities. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette maintains full editorial control over this article and all other coverage.