A new state law allows Louisiana public school teachers up to 30 days of paid leave for the adoption process. Baton Rouge Representative Rick Edmonds sponsored a package of bills promoting adoption after seeing families tackle the hurdles of the process during his campaign.

“I actually met a family during my campaign in 2015 that had a pretty significant abuse as it related to financial loss.”

Edmonds says that families that have a new baby via natural delivery have maternity leave, but it’s important that adopting families have a similar opportunity to bond with a child.

“If you are thinking about adopting a child or you are very serious about it and you had no way to spend time bonding with the child I think it has been prohibited by those families.”

The Baton Rouge Republican says he wanted to see the burden put on families eased by the new legislation.

“One of the things we are attempting to do is to protect every family that is attempting to adopt so that no one takes advantage of them and they feel like the pressure has been removed.”

The change also applies to school social workers and school psychologists.

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