FORT SMITH, Ark. — The CARES Act funding that was providing covid-19 sick leave for teachers across Arkansas is set to expire Thursday, December 31st.
When the school year started in August, Arkansas teachers were given 20 paid days off to use if they were to come down with covid-19 or have to quarantine because of exposure to the virus.
“If you have not utilized your 20 days, you can utilize those in the second semester. If you have utilized those then you are going to have to use your sick days or personal days in that situation,” Rick Schaeffer with Springdale Public Schools said.
Media relations at Springdale Public Schools, Rick Schaeffer says this plan still has to be approved by the school board at their January meeting. If approved, this does mean that any teacher who has already used all 20 days will have to use their own paid time off.
“Hopefully, as a vaccine becomes available that may be a real help for us in the second semester. I don’t know how soon that will be implemented with our teachers and staff. That would be a major plus if that happens so you have to kind of take it day by day which is what we’ve done throughout the first semester of the year,” he said.
The Fort Smith Board of Education voted to give all employees up to 10 days of covid leave if they get the virus or need to quarantine. The incoming superintendent, Dr. Terry Morawski, says it was important for them to support their employees.
“We didn’t want to put them in a negative situation where they would be losing all their sick days or even worse case going into a doc situation. We just wanted to provide that protection for them,” Dr. Morawski said.
He says they’ll watch their case numbers as students and staff return to the classroom next week but overall, the transmission rate that’s been tied to schools has been one percent or lower so far this school year.
“We do expect for it to continue to have an impact on us, but we have been making efforts to get kids back in school, engaged in school because we’ve created a safe environment there for them,” Dr. Morawki said.
The Arkansas Department of Education says the CARES Act funds for paid leave have run out and there are no additional funds at the state level right now. ADE says with the new round of stimulus money they will work with districts to use their local federal funding to explore options related to covid leave.