Employee and Retiree Service Center → Employees → Life Events → New Child
New Child
New Addition to the Family? Be Prepared!
While you prepare your home for your new arrival, don’t forget to also prepare your career for the changes ahead. Planning ahead for leave, understanding when you will be paid, and learning about insurance coverage will let you focus on your new family member.
Taking Leave
Get information about how leave is computed, if and how the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) applies to your leave, and more on our Child Care Leave page.
New Child Checklist
Expecting, Adopting, and New Parents Before and After:
A Checklist of Necessary Actions
Printable version (PDF)
This checklist is meant to guide you through the process of taking child care leave for maternity, paternity, and adoption and updating your employee information after the arrival of a child. Please see the child care leave page on the Employee and Retiree Service Center website for additional important information prior to taking any action.
Before the birth/adoption
Understand the Family and Medical Leave Act to see if you qualify and how it affects your leave plans.
Calculate your planned leave dates.
Submit your leave paperwork to your principal/supervisor.
Birth parents:
Adoptive parents:
Understand how your leave plans affect your health insurance rates when you go on long-term leave (longer than 60 duty days).
Calculate the number of sick days available to you.
Remember you may use your sick leave to be paid only for the six calendar weeks immediately following a regular delivery or adoption or eight calendar weeks following a Caesarean delivery. An MCEA unit member who has earned sick leave may use up to 10 weeks for the birth or adoption of his/her child, if the 10 weeks occurs when the member would normally work and be paid.
If you are eligible for a sick bank grant from your union:
If you are not eligible for a sick bank grant from your union:
After the birth/adoption
Call your work location to inform the timekeeper of the date of your child’s birth and whether the birth was a Caesarean delivery. This ensures that you are paid correctly.
Call ERSC to report your child's birth date and the type of delivery.
SEIU members: Call your union to report your child's birth date and type of delivery if you have applied or will be applying for a sick bank grant.
MCEA members: Print and complete the forms listed on this MCEA web page and send them to MCEA to apply for a sick bank grant.
MCAAP/MCBOA members: Call your union to report your child's birth date and type of delivery if you have applied or will be applying for a sick bank grant.
Make any necessary updates to your leave dates. The early or late arrival of your child will change your expected leave dates.
IMPORTANT! Remember that FMLA protection only covers those who meet the qualification criteria and only applies to the first 60 duty days of leave. The early or late arrival of your child may extend your leave past the 60 duty days protected by FMLA. Therefore, it is crucial that you submit revised paperwork to ERSC to establish your intentions.
Additional recommended personal and financial updates
New parents may want to consider the following list of actions and updates.
Add Your New Dependent to Your Health Insurance
AND
OR
IMPORTANT! You have 60 calendar days following the birth or adoption of your child to enroll him or her in your employee benefits. If you do not complete enrollment within 60 calendar days, you must wait until a future Open Enrollment.
If there is a delay in your receipt of required documents (birth registration, birth certificate, social security number and adoption papers), please contact ERSC before the end of the 60-day period.
For additional information about enrolling dependents in your employee benefits, please refer to the Employee Benefit Summary.
Sign up for a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) for Dependent Care or Medical Expenses. You may soon have childcare expenses and out-of-pocket medical costs that are predictable. This is the ideal situation for an FSA.
Introductory Video about FSAs
Flexible Spending Account Information
A List of Eligible Medical Expenses
to sign up for a Medical or Dependent Care FSA.
IMPORTANT! You are not eligible to enroll in an FSA until you have returned to work. You have 60 calendar days following the date you return to work to enroll in an FSA via the online Benefits Enrollment System. If you do not complete enrollment within 60 calendar days, you must wait until a future open enrollment.
Adjust Your Income Tax Withholding by visiting the Employee Self-Service web page and clicking on My W-4 under the green My Pay banner. Log in using your MCPS username and password and follow the on-screen instructions.
Update your life insurance beneficiaries.
Basic Employee Term Life Insurance and Optional Employee Term Life Insurance
Update your 403(b) and/or 457(b) plan beneficiaries. Contact your vendor for additional information.
Update your Pension Plan beneficiaries.
MCPS Core and/or Supplement pension plan
State Core pension plan
Research and consider purchasing Employee and/or Dependent Life Insurance.
Read the Life Insurance section of the ERSC website for information about cost, coverage, and eligibility for:
IMPORTANT! Different types of life insurance have different enrollment timeframes. Please understand that you are only able to purchase new or additional employee life insurance during the annual Open Enrollment period each Fall.
If you are already enrolled in Basic Employee Term Life Insurance and you add your child as a dependent to your Employee Benefit Plan, you automatically receive Basic Dependent Life Insurance and you are eligible to purchase Optional Dependent Term Life Insurance.
You have 60 calendar days from the date of birth/adoption to purchase Optional Dependent Term Life Insurance. To do so, visit ESS and select Benefits enrollment/changes due to qualifying life event. Log in and follow the on-screen instructions.