Family Friendly

Baylor now offers paid parental leave for staff and an adoption assistance program that benefits both staff and faculty, benefits that place the university among the best in Texas and national higher education institutions.

“Baylor values its faculty and staff as essential to the fulfillment of its mission, and these important additions to staff and faculty benefits reflect our ongoing commitment to families and the cultivation of a caring community that extends beyond our campus,” then Interim President David E. Garland said.

The expansive new policies became effective in April. The parental leave policy provides up to four weeks of paid leave for full-time staff—both women and men—who become parents through birth or adoption.

The policy, which is available to staff immediately upon employment, gives parents time and flexibility to bond with their new child/children and foster the work-life balance that is vital to families’ capacity to flourish.

The adoption assistance program will reimburse full-time Baylor faculty and staff up to $6,000 of qualifying adoption-related expenses per adoption, up to two children per year.

Baylor joins SMU as the only other Texas university that provides both staff and faculty with paid parental leave. Other national universities with paid parental leave include the University of Notre Dame, Northwestern University, Brown University, Duke University, Wake Forest University, Vanderbilt University and Georgetown University.

With the adoption assistance program, Baylor is the only university in Texas and one of the few nationally that provides this benefit. The new policy places Baylor among top adoption-friendly universities in the country, including Stanford University ($10,000), New York University ($6,000), Emory University ($5,000), The Ohio State University ($5,000), Notre Dame ($3,000) and Vanderbilt ($3,000).