Teachers and SNAs: maternity, parental and sick leave, contracts and pay

Teachers and special needs assistants are employed by the board of management of their school (or by an Education and Training Board), but paid by the Department of Education, and the terms of that employment are set almost entirely by Department circulars. Those circulars sit on top of the employment Acts and, on maternity leave, sick leave and a contract of indefinite duration, give more than the statutory floor. This guide explains where each rule comes from, what it adds to the law, and where to find the current circular. It does not reproduce pay scales, because they change with each agreement and the circular is the only reliable source.

Maternity leave: full pay for 26 weeks

The Maternity Protection Act 1994 gives every employee 26 weeks' maternity leave and 16 further unpaid weeks, with Maternity Benefit of €299 a week in 2026 from the Department of Social Protection where your PRSI record qualifies. The Department of Education's maternity leave scheme for teachers, and the parallel scheme for SNAs, adds full salary for the 26 weeks. You claim Maternity Benefit and it is set against your salary, so you are paid your normal pay through the period rather than the benefit alone.

The rules that come from the Act still apply:

• Leave can start no earlier than 16 weeks and no later than 2 weeks before the end of the week in which the baby is due.
• You give the school at least four weeks' written notice with a medical certificate confirming the expected week of birth.
• You give at least four weeks' notice of taking the additional 16 unpaid weeks, and of your return date.
• Dismissal for pregnancy or for taking maternity leave needs no minimum service for an unfair dismissal claim.

The circular adds the school-year rules: how leave that spans the summer is treated, the treatment of leave that starts during a school closure, and the arrangements for a substitute. Teachers who are in a fixed-term post are covered for the duration of that post; the circular explains what happens if the post ends during the leave. SNAs' maternity leave is set out in the Department's SNA leave circular on the same basis. The leave planner gives you the dates and the notices you owe.

Paternity leave (two weeks within 26 of the birth, Paternity Benefit €299) and parent's leave (nine weeks for each parent in the child's first two years, Parent's Benefit €299) are available to teachers and SNAs on the statutory basis; the Department's circulars set whether salary is paid in addition to the benefit for each, so check the current circular rather than assuming either way. Adoptive leave follows the maternity pattern.

Parental leave in the school year

Parental leave is the statutory 26 weeks per child, unpaid, before the child's twelfth birthday (sixteenth where the child has a disability), with six weeks' written notice. The Department's circular adapts it to the school calendar: it can be taken in a continuous block, in blocks tied to a school term, or as a reduced working week, and the circular specifies the minimum blocks. The board of management can postpone leave once, for up to six months, where granting it on the date requested would substantially disrupt the school, and must give reasons in writing. Parental leave is reckonable for service and increments, and PRSI credits are preserved. The Work Life Balance Act 2023's five days' unpaid medical care leave and five days' paid domestic violence leave apply to teachers and SNAs too.

Sick leave: the public service scheme

Teachers and SNAs are on the public service sick leave scheme through the Department's circulars (separate circulars for teachers and for SNAs, updated when the scheme changes). The limits are the same as across the public service: up to 92 days (about 3 months) on full pay, then up to 91 days (about 3 months) on half pay, in a rolling four-year period, with a cap of 183 paid days. The critical illness protocol doubles those limits for a qualifying illness certified by the occupational health service, and temporary rehabilitation remuneration may follow where there is a reasonable prospect of return. A small number of self-certified days is allowed in a rolling two-year period; the circular sets the number and the rules on certificates.

Two points matter in the school context. Sick leave during school closures still counts against the limits where you are certified unfit, so the circular deals with how absences spanning the summer are counted. Pregnancy-related illness is treated separately from ordinary sick leave. The scheme is more favourable than the Sick Leave Act 2022's 5 days at 70% capped at €110, so the statutory scheme does not apply in addition. Illness Benefit (€254 a week in 2026, three waiting days) must be claimed where your PRSI class qualifies you and is recovered against salary. The civil and public service page explains the same scheme in more detail, and the sick pay calculator shows the statutory floor.

Fixed-term contracts, the Ward report and a CID

Many teachers start on fixed-term contracts: maternity cover, a one-year post, a post that depends on enrolment. The Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003 applies: equal treatment with comparable permanent teachers, written objective grounds for each renewal, and a contract of indefinite duration (CID) once successive fixed-term contracts pass four years' continuous service unless there are objective grounds for a further fixed term.

The Department has reduced that period for teachers. Following the Ward report (2016), a teacher employed in a recognised school on successive fixed-term contracts becomes entitled to a CID after two years of continuous service, subject to the conditions in the Department's CID circular: the post must be a Department-paid post, the hours of the CID are the hours worked in the qualifying contract, and certain covers are excluded. The circular also provides for a CID holder whose hours later fall. SNAs have their own circular on fixed-term contracts and the CID. The current circulars are on the Department's site and are the text an adjudicator would read.

Non-renewal of a fixed-term contract is a dismissal unless the contract excluded the Unfair Dismissals Acts in writing for that expiry, which Department-paid contracts normally do. If the exclusion is missing, or if the real reason for non-renewal is pregnancy, union activity or a protected disclosure, a WRC complaint may be open within six months. The fixed-term guide covers the general law.

Panel rights and redeployment

A permanent primary teacher whose post is suppressed because enrolment falls is placed on the Department's redeployment panel and offered a post in another school in the area, rather than made redundant; the panel circular sets the order and the obligations on schools to fill vacancies from the panel. Post-primary redeployment works through the relevant scheme for the school's sector. A redundancy outside the panel system would carry the statutory lump sum after 104 weeks: two weeks' pay per year plus one, capped at €600 a week, tax-free.

SNAs whose post ends because the school's allocation falls are placed on the supplementary assignment panel for the following school year and must be considered for SNA vacancies in other schools, under an annual circular. An SNA with at least one year's service who loses their post and is not re-employed through the panel may be entitled to the statutory redundancy payment, which the Department funds; the circular sets the procedure. The redundancy calculator works out the sum.

Pay scales

Teachers' and SNAs' pay is on national incremental scales moved by the public service pay agreements and published by the Department after each increase. The Public Service Agreement 2024 to 2026 set increases through 2026, and any successor is tracked on /changes. Allowances (qualification, posts of responsibility, Gaeltacht and others) are in the circulars. This site does not reproduce the scales. An unpaid increment or allowance is a payroll query first, then the grievance procedure, then a Payment of Wages Act complaint to the WRC within six months of the pay date.

Substitute teachers and part-time SNAs are paid pro rata under the Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act 2001, with annual leave and public holidays in proportion to hours. The annual leave calculator gives the statutory figure.

Procedures, discipline and the Teaching Council

Grievance and disciplinary procedures for teachers and SNAs are agreed between the Department, the management bodies and the unions and issued as circulars. They apply the WRC Code of Practice (S.I. No. 146/2000): the allegation and evidence in writing, a hearing, representation by a union official or colleague, a proportionate sanction and an appeal, with a Disciplinary Appeals Panel for the most serious sanctions. A teacher also faces the Teaching Council's fitness to teach process for professional conduct, which is separate from the employment procedure and has its own rules. Keep every letter and date; the letter builder drafts a formal grievance if one is needed.

Unions

The INTO represents primary teachers; the ASTI and TUI represent post-primary teachers; Fórsa represents SNAs. Union representation is part of the agreed procedures, and the unions represent members at the WRC at no charge. See which union covers you and the ICTU directory.

Where this leaves you

Your maternity, sick leave and CID rights as a teacher or SNA sit above the statutory floor, and the figure that matters in each case is the one in the current Department circular. For leave planning, the law sets the windows and the notices: 26 weeks' maternity leave starting between 16 and 2 weeks before the due date on four weeks' notice, two weeks' paternity leave within 26, nine weeks' parent's leave within two years, 26 weeks' parental leave before 12. The leave planner lays those dates out from a due date and lists the notice dates you owe the school, so you can match them to the circular and the school calendar. For the wider public service version of the sick leave scheme, see the civil and public service page.