BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                            Senator Kevin de León, Chair


          AB 2295 (Ridley-Thomas) - Community College Faculty: Sick Leave
          
          Amended: July 2, 2014           Policy Vote: Education 6-0
          Urgency: No                     Mandate: No
          Hearing Date: August 4, 2014                                 
          Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez                       
          
          This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File. 
          
          Bill Summary: AB 2295 extends the length of time, from one year  
          to three years, for which a community college faculty member is  
          entitled to transfer a leave of absence for illness or injury  
          upon his or her acceptance of election of employment to another   
          school district or community college district (CCD).

          Fiscal Impact: 
              Administration: This bill is unlikely to result in any  
              significant administrative costs for CCDs or the California  
              State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS)
              CalSTRS retirement benefits: This bill will likely result  
              in an increase in total creditable compensation for some  
              faculty, upon retirement. The increase to CalSTRS liability  
              is unknown, but could be significant. See staff comments.   

          Background:  Existing law allows every academic employee  
          employed five days a week by a CCD to be entitled to 10 days  
          leave of absence for illness or injury and any additional days  
          that the governing board may allow for illness or injury,  
          exclusive of all days he or she is not required to render  
          service to the CCD, with full pay for a college year of service.  
           (Education Code § 87781) 

          Existing law authorizes the governing board of a CCD to adopt  
          rules permitting academic employees of the district to use  
          illness leave earned in cases of compelling personal importance,  
          but provides that the additional sick leave time, together with  
          any other leave for personal necessity, as specified, shall not  
          exceed six days in any single school year. (EC § 87781.5)

          Existing law also provides that any academic employee of a CCD  
          who has been an employee of that CCD for a period of one school  
          year or more and who accepts an academic position in a school  








          AB 2295 (Ridley-Thomas)
          Page 1


          district or CCD at any time during the second or any succeeding  
          school year of his or her employment with the first district, or  
          who within the school year succeeding the school year in which  
          the employment is terminated, signifies acceptance of his or her  
          election or employment in an academic position in another  
          district, shall have transferred with him or her to the second  
          district the total amount of leave of absence for illness or  
          injury to which he or she is entitled under Education Code §  
          87781.  (EC § 87782)

          Proposed Law: This bill extends the length of time, from one  
          year to three years, for which any academic employee of a CCD is  
          entitled to transfer a leave of absence for illness or injury to  
          another district upon his or her acceptance of employment.  
           Staff Comments: This bill extends the amount of time that  
          faculty have to transfer their sick leave between CCDs. The  
          degree to which this bill will result in future CalSTRS  
          retirement benefit costs depends on the degree to which the  
          current requirements for sick leave transfer are actually a  
          problem. If faculty, particularly part-time faculty who may be  
          employed by more than one CCD at a time and do not necessarily  
          terminate employment in a CCD through a standard process (i.e.  
          they may just not teach classes in a particular year, rather  
          than formally leave employment), are currently losing their sick  
          leave because of the one-year limitation on transferring it,  
          this bill would increase their likelihood of transferring all of  
          their sick leave to their new CCD. Any sick leave that is not  
          used by a faculty member during his or her career, can count  
          toward increasing total creditable compensation in CalSTRS upon  
          retirement. This would increase the CalSTRS liability by an  
          unknown amount, because it would partially depend on the degree  
          to which this bill facilitates the transfer of more sick leave,  
          and partially depend on whether individuals use their sick leave  
          or apply it toward retirement credit.