BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 1180
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 3, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
SB 1180
(Jackson) - As Amended April 26, 2016
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|Policy |Education |Vote:|7 - 0 |
|Committee: | | | |
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| |Veterans Affairs | |7 - 0 |
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill provides school employees, hired on or after January
1, 2017, and who are military veterans with service-connected
disabilities, additional paid leave for the purpose of
undergoing medical treatment for those disabilities during their
first year of employment. Specifically, this bill:
1)Provides certificated employees 10 additional days of paid
SB 1180
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leave during their first year of employment to receive medical
treatment for military service-related disabilities if their
disability is rated 30% or more by the United States
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). This is in addition to
the 10 days of paid leave authorized under existing law.
2)Provides classified employees 12 additional days of paid leave
during their first year of employment to receive medical
treatment for military service-related disabilities if their
disability is rated 30% or more by the VA. This is in addition
to the 12 days of paid leave authorized under existing law.
3)Specifies that credit for the paid leave must be provided on
the first day of employment and remain available for use for
12 months of employment. If the leave is not used during the
12-month period, it cannot be carried over.
4)Authorizes governing boards to require submission of
satisfactory proof that a leave of absence for illness or
injury is used for treatment of a military service-connected
disability
5)Provides for a reduction of the leave of absence for part-time
employees in proportion to the amount of time actually
employed during the week and year.
6)Specifies that these provisions may not be construed to
diminish the obligation of a public school employer to comply
with any collective bargaining agreement entered into by a
public school employer and an exclusive bargaining
representative that provides greater leave of absence rights
to employees than the rights established under this bill.
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FISCAL EFFECT:
Unknown one-time Proposition 98/GF cost pressure, likely in the
low hundreds of thousands of dollars, to support local education
agency (LEA) costs to provide extended leave benefits to
classified and certificated employees who are veterans with a
military service-connected disability rated at 30% or more by
the VA.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author, sick leave is immediately
granted to school employees once they begin a job, but many
school employees face limitations on the numbers of sick days
they can use. The author states this leave may not be
sufficient to attend to the needs of veterans with significant
service-related disabilities. For instance, classified
employees can only use up to 6 days of sick leave in their
first six months on the job.
This bill provides disabled veterans with a military
service-connected disability rated at 30% or more by the VA,
twice the amount of paid time off authorized under existing
law during their first year of employment. This additional
benefit will allow these veterans more time to attend medical
and VA appointments to treat their service-related
disabilities.
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2)Non-fiscal bill. This bill is keyed non-fiscal. This
committee, however, requested to hear this measure to
determine any potential costs or savings associated with
extending paid leave benefits to school employees.
3)Comments. The absence of data makes it difficult to determine
the fiscal impact this bill will have on LEAs. According to
2014-15 data, there were 231,887 classified employees and
295,800 certificated employees in California. There is no data
on the number of school employees who are veterans. It is
also difficult to predict how many veterans would be hired by
an LEA on or after January 1, 2017, and be eligible for
additional paid leave due to a military service-connected
disability rated at 30% or more.
According to CalHR, there were 147 disabled veterans hired by
the state in 2014. For illustration, assuming a daily
substitute rate of $120 or $15 an hour rate for classified
employees, costs per employee could range from $1,200 to
$1,400. If 150 school employees qualified for additional paid
leave, costs would range from $180,000 to $210,000.
4)Prior related legislation. SB 221 (Jackson), Chapter 794,
Statues of 2015, provided new state employees who are disabled
veterans additional sick leave during their first year in the
state workforce to seek treatment for their service-related
disabilities.
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Analysis Prepared by:Misty Feusahrens / APPR. / (916)
319-2081