BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                     SB 579  


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          Date of Hearing:  August 19, 2015


                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS


                                 Jimmy Gomez, Chair


          SB 579  
          (Jackson) - As Amended July 16, 2015


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          Urgency:  No  State Mandated Local Program:  NoReimbursable:  No


          SUMMARY:


          This bill expands the reasons an employee can take job-protected  
          time off from work under the Family School Partnership Act and  
          specified "kin care" sick leave provisions of existing law.   
          Specifically, this bill:








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          1)Expands the law to allow workers to take time off to: (a)  
            find, enroll, or reenroll his or her child in a school of with  
            a licensed child care provider; and (b) to address a child  
            care provider or school emergency, as defined.


          2)Defines "child care provider or school emergency" to mean that  
            an employee's child cannot remain in school or with a child  
            care provider due to one of the following:


             a)   The school or child care provider has requested that the  
               child be picked up, or has an attendance policy, excluding  
               planned holidays, that prohibits the child from attending  
               or requires the child to be picked up from the school or  
               child care provider.


             b)   Behavioral or discipline problems.


             c)   Closure of unexpected unavailability of the school or  
               child care provider, excluding planned holidays.


             d)   A natural disaster, including, but not limited to, fire,  
               earthquake or flood.


          3)Revises provisions of the existing "kin care" law to be  
            consistent with the provisions under recent paid sick days  
            legislation to clarify that "family member" includes a parent,  
            guardian, stepparent, foster parent, or grandparent of, or a  
            person who stands in place of a parent to a child. Further  
            clarifies that the worker can take sick leave for the reasons  
            currently specified in law.









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          4)Prohibits an employer from denying sick leave or  
            discriminating against an employee for attending to an illness  
            or the preventive care of a family member.


          FISCAL EFFECT:


          The Department of Industrial Relations indicates  
          minor/absorbable costs related to implementation and enforcement  
          of this bill. 





          COMMENTS:


          1)Background. The California School Partnership Act allows  
            parents, grandparents, and guardians to take up to 40 hours  
            per year to participate in their children's school or child  
            care activities. The law is applicable to employers with 25 or  
            more employees.  Employees can use existing vacation, personal  
            leave, compensatory time off or take unpaid leave for these  
            purposes.


            Current law, also known as "Kin Care" authorizes employees to  
            use up to one-half of the sick leave that they accrue  
            annually, to take time off to care for a sick family member.  
            Employees do not receive additional sick leave under Kin Care.  
            Instead, sick leave taken under Kin Care is protected and may  
            not be "counted against" or used as a basis for disciplining  
            an employee for absenteeism, for example. 

            The Healthy Workplaces Healthy Families Act provides, as of  
            July 1, 2015, an employee who works in California for 30 or  








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            more days within a year from the commencement of employment is  
            entitled to paid sick days at the rate of not less than one  
            hour per every 30 hours worked (to be taken after the 90th day  
            of employment).  The Act allows workers to use paid sick days  
            for the diagnosis, care, or treatment of an existing health  
            condition of, or preventive care for, the employee or the  
            employee's family member (defined as a child, parent, spouse,  
            registered domestic partner, grandparent, grandchild and  
            sibling) or specified purposes, as defined, for an employee  
            who is a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or  
            stalking.

          2)Purpose.  This bill amends the California School Partnership  
            Act to allow parents to use leave to care for a child during a  
            child care or school emergency, and to take job-protected time  
            off from work to find (and enroll) child care or school for  
            their children.  


            This bill also amends the Kin Care law to more closely align  
            with the Healthy Workplaces Healthy Families Act by allowing  
            parents to use their sick days to take their family members to  
            a preventative health appointment. 


            This bill does not increase the amount of time off parents are  
            entitled to under these laws, but rather expands the permitted  
            use of those laws to cover child care emergencies and  
            enrollment.





          Analysis Prepared by:Misty Feusahrens / APPR. / (916)  
          319-2081











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