8

Recommendations and Conclusions

Improving support for family caregivers in academic science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) is vital for improving equity, strengthening innovation and creativity in science, preventing workforce shortages and critical skill gaps, and creating a more flexible and inclusive environment for all scientists. These goals require action at multiple levels and from various groups: colleges and universities, federal agencies and other funders, and federal and state governments. In this chapter, the committee outlines its recommendations for each.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

Colleges and universities that aspire to support caregivers among their workforce and student body have many opportunities to enact, revise, publicize, improve implementation of, and extend policies and programs. Without these intentional actions, universities risk turnover, failure to recruit, and failure to retain top talent among those with caregiving responsibilities. We present recommendations in categories that represent distinct stages of action, from legal compliance to best practices, and finally, to innovative actions. We encourage colleges and universities to review their current practices, identify opportunities for implementation and growth, and publicly commit to improvement.

The overarching goal of these recommendations is to help universities create an environment that allows for continued and sustainable

productivity in a way that is more inclusive of family caregivers. Such an environment shows a continued commitment to the long-term health and well-being of the academic STEMM workforce and challenges ideals of overwork as well as barriers to needed leave and flexibility. This overarching goal is reflected throughout these recommendations, which provide individual, concrete steps that can be taken and together can serve to shift broader cultural norms in more inclusive ways.

Legal Compliance

First, and most importantly, colleges and universities need to adopt effective measures to ensure that they protect caregivers’ rights under current federal, state, and local laws. Under existing laws, students, staff, and faculty are typically entitled to leave, accommodations and work alterations, nursing/pumping facilities and accommodations, and nondiscrimination. However, the legal framework is fragmented and complicated, which contributes to a lack of awareness and compliance, as detailed in Chapter 6.

RECOMMENDATION 1: To ensure accountability and compliance, college and university leadership need to appoint a senior leader, ombuds, or team who is responsible for protecting, publicizing, and monitoring compliance with the legal mandates under Title IX, Title VII, the Family Medical and Leave Act (FMLA), the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, and any state- and local-level policies that protect caregiving faculty, postdocs and other trainees, students, and staff by adopting the following practices:

1. Ensure that requests for leave and accommodation and complaints of discrimination are handled by a specially trained, institution-wide administrator or administrators working together, and not assigned to departmental personnel.
2. Provide leave for birthing parents to allow time for the birthing parent’s physical recovery, inclusive of students and postdocs and other trainees. In some circumstances (described in Chapter 6), paid leave is required.
3. Provide school or work accommodations for students, postdocs and other trainees, faculty, and staff who have needs related to pregnancy, childbirth, adoption, fostering, older adult care, or care related to a family member’s physical or mental health.

4. Provide time and readily accessible space for pumping for breastfeeding/lactating individuals and ensuring that time for pumping is provided without penalty for students, postdocs and other trainees, faculty, and staff.
5. Train Title IX officers, faculty, and department chairs so that they fully understand and support the legal rights of caregivers.
6. Train faculty and administrators that it is illegal to make anyone “pay back” a leave and illegal to require anyone who is on paid or unpaid leave to work.
7. Outline a clear process to file complaints that applies to individuals who believe their rights have been violated and ensure that complaints are resolved in a timely manner.

Best Practices

As outlined in Chapters 4 and 6, current policies supporting caregivers encompass leave, accommodations and adjustments, and direct care support. Colleges and universities need to adopt best practices in each area to ensure that family caregivers can fully participate in their scientific roles. To be most effective, caregiving leave policies need to extend well beyond what is required by FMLA and provide paid leave to all employees and ensure that students are not penalized for taking leave. Accommodations and adjustments should be institutionalized as a strategy to improve the support and flexibility needed by students and employees. Finally, direct care support should be centralized to make it easier to access and understand the available resources.

In the absence of these best practices, legal compliance can be implemented in a way that inequalities remain or are even exacerbated rather than mitigated. For example, as discussed in Chapter 4, universal and opt-out caregiving policies more effectively increase representation especially of women of color, while opt-in policies that are not universal may meet legal requirements but do not promote equity in the same way. These best practices are important not only to ensure effective support for family caregivers but also to bolster the positive effect of legal compliance. The committee also recommends continued data collection and analysis to ensure policy efficacy and address any unintended consequences.

RECOMMENDATION 2: Caregiving Leave. Colleges and universities should comply with FMLA’s requirement for 12 weeks of unpaid leave

per year and provide paid family and medical leave to faculty, staff, postdocs and other trainees, and graduate students receiving pay, even if this leave is not mandated by state or federal law. Additionally, colleges and universities should provide leave for caregiving students, which allows them to maintain their student status so that they can continue to receive any aid or health insurance to which they are entitled. In developing their leave policies, colleges and universities need to consider the following:

1. To build on the best practice of 12 weeks of paid leave for faculty for childbearing and child bonding, colleges and universities should consider similar provisions for other members of the academic scientific workforce, including staff, postdocs and other trainees, and graduate students receiving pay.¹
2. Develop creative funding solutions to extend the definition of caregiving leave to encompass all contexts of caregiving (care for adult children, older adults, extended family and kin, etc.).
3. Provide guidance to students taking academic leave on whether taking leave will require their training period to be extended.

RECOMMENDATION 3: Accommodations and adjustments. Colleges and universities should institutionalize opportunities for individually customized work and educational flexibility across a variety of needs, including location, time, workload, and intensity. In doing so, colleges and universities need to adopt the following practices:

1. Ensure equitable access to accommodations and alternative work and educational arrangements across all groups of employees and trainees, including postdocs, who are vulnerable to falling through administrative cracks at some academic institutions where they are categorized as neither employees nor students.
2. Consider reduced load or part-time appointments (pre- and post-tenure) for faculty who have caregiving responsibilities that allow for transitions back to full-time work and facilitate increasing or decreasing professional effort over the course of a career.

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¹ The committee acknowledges that some institutions may face strong financial constraints that make this fiscally infeasible. Colleges and universities operating under such constraints should aim to provide the greatest support possible and seek out alternative funding methods to increase support in the future.

3. Implement flexible education policies for students, such as priority registration and part-time enrollment options for students who have caregiving needs, as well as options for excused absences or remote attendance due to caregiving responsibilities.
4. Ensure that engaging in flexibility through adapting location, time, or intensity in work or education to address caregiving demands is not used in evaluations of faculty, staff, postdocs and other trainees, or students to deny promotions, educational advancement, or access to resources.
5. Require that policies which provide adjustments for caregiving needs, such as stop-the-clock policies, are only used for caregiving and not as a form of sabbatical.
6. Make caregiver-friendly policies opt out, not opt in, so they are automatic and apply to all contexts of caregiving, which has been shown to produce greater benefits particularly for women of color compared with opt-in policies.

RECOMMENDATION 4: Direct care support. Centralized resources to support basic caregiving needs for staff, faculty, postdocs and other trainees, and students need to be easily available and searchable. The following considerations should guide the creation and dissemination of these resources:

1. Ensure resources are written down, well publicized, and readily accessible both online and in a central human resources (HR) office where caregivers can ask questions, in confidence if requested, about their specific needs and situations.
2. Identify resources that are already offered across departments as well as programs that are relevant to family caregivers and ensure there are adequate referral processes and networks to connect caregiving students, postdocs and other trainees, faculty, and staff to these resources.
3. Provide training and easily accessible materials through centralized HR offices for department chairs and faculty advisors who may need to share information about policies to caregivers they manage/advise to ensure the information shared is accurate and accessible by all.
4. Engage department chairs and supervisors to disseminate information on available policies to support caregivers and initiate an

4. annual conversation with each relevant employee to consider their needs for flexibility and discuss how their needs could be met, rather than placing the onus on employees.
5. Consider multiple forms of direct care support, including on-site care as well as care subsidies or reimbursements, to support those who may prefer to provide care themselves or seek trusted others rather than accessing on-site care due to cultural preferences or past experiences of discrimination.
6. Consider all caregiving contexts when developing direct care support, with particular attention to those that are often overlooked, including older adult care, care for extended family, and care for neurodivergent or disabled children.

RECOMMENDATION 5: Data Collection and Analysis. To ensure that colleges and universities understand the needs of the caregiving populations within their ranks, understand the impact of their policies, existing and new, and address potential unintended consequences, colleges and universities should collect and analyze data on family caregivers. This should be accomplished through the following actions:

1. Require relevant offices (e.g., offices of institutional research, human resources, offices of diversity equity and inclusion, provosts’ offices, offices of student success, offices of financial aid) to expand existing climate surveys to include a standardized instrument on caregiving to collect data on the number of faculty, students, postdocs and other trainees, and staff with caregiving responsibilities, attitudes toward caregivers and caregiving, and impacts of current caregiving policies on those with and without caregiving responsibilities.
2. Require that relevant offices at colleges and universities ensure rigorous data collection and assessment of potential positive and negative effects of caregiving policies and accommodations. These offices should prioritize multiple methods of data collection, including qualitative interviews to understand the benefits and consequences of current policies.
3. Examine hiring and promotion specifically to ensure accountability and transparency in these processes that are central to ensuring the fair treatment and advancement of caregiver employees.

Innovative Practices

While best practices can be effectively implemented to support caregivers, there is a persistent need for innovation, particularly to address the pressing need for cultural change to better support effective policies as well as to develop new and cutting-edge practices.

RECOMMENDATION 6: Colleges and universities should pilot and evaluate innovative policies and practices intended to increase support for caregivers and influence lasting cultural change. Less research-intensive colleges and universities should partner with research-intensive institutions and participate in projects and efforts to test new policy ideas. For example, colleges and universities should consider the following:

1. Initiate easily implemented actions that normalize family caregiving, such as
   1. Fostering the creation of affinity groups and peer support groups for caregivers that could serve as a forum for making recommendations to institutional leaders.
   2. Providing opportunities for leaders, including college and university presidents, provosts, and department chairs, to normalize conversations about caregiving as a natural part of life navigated by all.
   3. Showcasing caregivers, including university leadership, engaged in various forms of caregiving in university communications and resources, with a focus on forms of caregiving that are often overlooked, such adult dependent care, older adult care, and care for extended family and loved ones.
   4. Enhancing visibility and access to information about caregiving policies and infrastructure (e.g., day care centers, lactation pods) on websites and within campus offices.
2. Engage new and creative solutions from both within and outside academia to promote a culture of greater flexibility, such as
   1. Team-based science and teaching, flexible tenure processes, time-banking programs, temporary changes in professional effort, reentry programs, and modified work schedules.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FEDERAL AND PRIVATE FUNDERS

Along with universities, federal agencies and other funders play a major role in supporting the research performed at universities across the country as well as the researchers who conduct this work. To ensure that researchers who have caregiving responsibilities can effectively use grant funding, federal and private funders should focus on three key goals: (1) allow and support flexibility, particularly in the timing of grant eligibility and grant deadlines; (2) assist in leave and reentry; and (3) fund innovative research on family caregiving and use this research to develop and disseminate caregiving policy guidance to the institutions they fund. Many of these points have also been discussed by practitioners and experts in family caregiver support (Torres et al., 2023a, 2023b).

RECOMMENDATION 7: Federal and private funders should allow and support flexibility in the timing of grant eligibility as well as grant application and delivery deadlines for those with caregiving responsibilities and provide support for coverage while a grantee is on caregiving leave.² Funders can implement this through the following actions:

1. Decrease and streamline the paperwork and approval processes for grant applications.
2. Allow no-cost grant extensions based on caregiving needs.
3. Provide flexibility in eligibility timelines when an investigator has taken a caregiving leave, such as eligibility deadlines for early-career scholars.
4. Consider caregiving leave and acute caregiving demands as valid reasons for acceptance of a late application along the same timelines as other late applications.
5. Introduce and allow grant supplements or the redistribution of funding within a grant budget to support coverage for someone to continue scholarly work while the grantee is on caregiving leave

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² When discussing coverage for grantees on caregiving leave, the committee is referring to coverage in research settings receiving outside funding from federal agencies or private funders. The committee acknowledges that staffing coverage presents a distinct and unique challenge in clinical care settings and encourages institutions to carefully assess their staffing needs and design robust systems to provide coverage readily when individuals with clinical service responsibilities require them.

1. as well as to provide support for caregiving-related expenses for conference and other research travel.

RECOMMENDATION 8: Federal and private funders should facilitate the leave and reentry processes for those who take a caregiving leave. In doing so, federal and private funders should take the following actions:

1. Provide research supplements to promote reentry following a period of caregiving leave.
2. Make supplements available to all types of caregivers, not solely parents, and cover costs associated with restarting a laboratory or research program as well as professional retraining.

RECOMMENDATION 9: Federal and private funders should fund innovative research on family caregiving in academic STEMM by providing competitive grants to institutions to support pilot projects and develop policy innovations. Funders should collaboratively develop and offer caregiver policy guidance to the institutions they fund based on the findings of this research as well as existing evidence. In doing so, funders should take the following actions:

1. Ensure the efficacy and impact of these innovative programs is scientifically evaluated.
2. Ensure these grants provide resources for universities to organize virtual and in-person conferences to share best practices in supporting STEMM caregiving jointly with career support to disseminate knowledge on best practices.
3. Create platforms to recognize universities that have implemented best practices to support STEMM caregivers through awards and invite these institutions to speak at conferences sponsored by funding agencies to highlight their excellence and provide recognition.

RECOMMENDATIONS TO CONGRESS AND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

The federal government plays a critical role in establishing the expectations for supporting family caregivers across the country and in academic STEMM. This role is crucial to advance growth and innovation in the United States and advancing workforce inclusion. The federal government

also has the opportunity to enhance the global competitiveness of the U.S. labor market supports by joining the ranks of all other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development nations by providing national, paid caregiving leave. The federal government should focus on two primary goals: (1) provide 12 weeks of paid, comprehensive caregiving leave and (2) provide incentives to support caregiving in STEMM legislation.

RECOMMENDATION 10: Congress should enact legislation to mandate a minimum of 12 weeks of paid, comprehensive caregiving leave. This leave should cover various contexts of caregiving, including childcare, older adult care, spousal care, dependent adult care, extended family care, end-of-life care, and bereavement care.

RECOMMENDATION 11: Following the model of the recent CHIPS and Science Act, which required the provision of on-site childcare for those seeking access to funds supporting semiconductor development, the agency or department tasked with implementation of future STEMM-funding legislation should include support for childcare in the application requirements.