Baby's First Budget Crisis: Support the Queen-Prosini Family
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I'm raising money for the Queen-Prosini family to make up for the fact that Ær just found out they will have their next paycheck reduced by thousands of dollars to pay for a mere 8 days of leave needed as a result of the baby arriving early. I am hoping if you are seeing this you will join the village by donating or at least sharing with others who may be able to help.
This is a very simple story about the reality that a lack of paid parental leave can have on a family when they should be focusing on bonding with their new baby. For whatever reason in Virginia especially, districts rarely offer anything but unpaid leave for educators who give birth or adopt.
- If the baby was born on time, Ær would have had not only the entire summer to recover from growing and having a baby... but would not have needed to take to unpaid leave.
- If the baby had been born a couple weeks later, Ær would have qualified for their new district's PAID parental leave policy which would have gives parents, including the non birthing parent, several weeks paid leave.
- Ær's situation fell into their old policy which forces teachers to miss a minimum of four weeks before getting short term disability to cover the additional time the teachers are out. This policy does not count any days of the summer.
- Add in the fact that Ær works for a district that for whatever reason decides to divide their educators' pay across 11 of 12 months of the year, this leaves their family with a 3 month gap from June to September that Ær isn't receiving a pay check.
- They are also losing more money than they would have any other month of the year because of a bizarre accounting method that changes their hourly rate based on how many days the employees are contracted to work each month. Since June is the shortest month, Ær is losing more per than they would in any other month.
If you know Ær and Nicolas, they did everything in their power to avoid what is laid out above from happening to minimize the impact of living in one of the few countries that doesn't require companies to provide paid parental leave. Ær and Nicolas dedicate their lives to not only teaching young humans the joys of self-expression through music, but they both travel across the country to educate others about how to create inclusive classrooms for LGBTQIA+ youth.
We all know, however, babies are going to baby and decide when they arrive, no matter how well their parents take precautions and plan to avoid losing an entire paycheck just for growing your family.
Funds raised from this GoFundMe will help the Queen-Prosini family pay for rent, utilities, gas, and the other necessities of life for themselves and their two children until Ær gets another paycheck.
Excess funds over the amount of what Ær's paycheck is being reduced by will go to amazing causes to support LGBTQIA+ youth/music education.
Organizer and beneficiary
Angie Trerotola
Organizer
Fairfax, VA
Ær Queen
Beneficiary