BENTONVILLE, Ark. — A new law in Arkansas that went into effect on Aug. 5 requires all school districts to offer paid maternity leave. One Northwest Arkansas school teacher said this would have made all the difference for her during her last pregnancy.

Rebecca Reynolds is going into her fifth year as a first-grade teacher at Apple Glen Elementary in Bentonville. She says she did her best to time out her pregnancy with her firstborn.

“I tried to time it where I'm having babies in the spring or early summer, so that I'm only taking off about a month or so, and then the normal school year ends so I'm not docked as many days,” she said.

But things didn’t go as planned the second time around.

“With my daughter, I just had her on April 1st. I did not have a full paycheck from about the middl

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