It’s Back to School Time for Students and Your Parent Employees, Too

It’s that time of year when students around the country head back to school. In addition to watching their office supplies fly out of their store rooms, employers will see an increase in employee requests for time off work to deal with a variety of their kids’ school-related activities.

In evaluating parental requests for time off, employers need to be mindful that at least ten states and the District of Columbia provide some legal protection to workers who seek leave to attend to their children’s school-related activities.

By way of example, the Illinois School Visitation Rights Act provides that employers must grant leave to employees to attend to school conferences or classroom activities if such activities cannot be scheduled during non-working hours. Employees must provide “reasonable advance notice” and employers may require verification. This presents the unique juxtaposition of having the teacher write a note to excuse the parent. The law says the child must be a biological, adopted, foster, step child or legal ward who is enrolled in a public or private primary or secondary school within the state of Illinois or in a state that borders Illinois. Eligible employees are limited to eight hours per year which probably prevents anyone from sneaking out to Indiana to catch a basketball game.

The Illinois law only applies to employers with 50 or more employees. By contrast, California’s school leave law extends its coverage to companies that employ as few as 25 employees. Most generous of all is our nation’s capital, which extends the protections of its parental leave law to every employer located within the District of Columbia. D.C. allows employees who are parents or guardians to take 24 hours of leave (paid or unpaid) during a 12 month period to attend school-related activities. Under the D.C. law, school events include but are not limited to: parent-teacher conferences, concerts, plays, rehearsals, sporting events, and other activities where the child is a participant or the subject of the event, but not a spectator to sporting events and performances. California’s law appears to be the most generous by allowing employees to take up to 40 hours of leave per year, but no more than eight hours in a single month.

The takeaway for all employers is to know the applicable law in every jurisdiction where you have employees. You must also be mindful of the limits and requirements of each law. In other words, take extra care to follow all the instructions. Finally, administer this and all other leave programs in a non-discriminatory manner. If you allow dad to go to a student athletic event, but mom is denied leave to attend the school play, you have problems.

I do not envy the headache administering leave laws will give you, but knowledge and planning will help you rest well.

This blog is made available by Foley & Lardner LLP (“Foley” or “the Firm”) for informational purposes only. It is not meant to convey the Firm’s legal position on behalf of any client, nor is it intended to convey specific legal advice. Any opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of Foley & Lardner LLP, its partners, or its clients. Accordingly, do not act upon this information without seeking counsel from a licensed attorney. This blog is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship. Communicating with Foley through this website by email, blog post, or otherwise, does not create an attorney-client relationship for any legal matter. Therefore, any communication or material you transmit to Foley through this blog, whether by email, blog post or any other manner, will not be treated as confidential or proprietary. The information on this blog is published “AS IS” and is not guaranteed to be complete, accurate, and or up-to-date. Foley makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the operation or content of the site. Foley expressly disclaims all other guarantees, warranties, conditions and representations of any kind, either express or implied, whether arising under any statute, law, commercial use or otherwise, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement. In no event shall Foley or any of its partners, officers, employees, agents or affiliates be liable, directly or indirectly, under any theory of law (contract, tort, negligence or otherwise), to you or anyone else, for any claims, losses or damages, direct, indirect special, incidental, punitive or consequential, resulting from or occasioned by the creation, use of or reliance on this site (including information and other content) or any third party websites or the information, resources or material accessed through any such websites. In some jurisdictions, the contents of this blog may be considered Attorney Advertising. If applicable, please note that prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Photographs are for dramatization purposes only and may include models. Likenesses do not necessarily imply current client, partnership or employee status.