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 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Policy |Education |Vote:|7 - 0 | |Committee: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | |Veterans Affairs | |7 - 0 | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Page 2 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. SB 1180 Page 3 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. SB 1180 Page 4 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. SB 1180 Page 5 Analysis Prepared by:Misty Feusahrens / APPR. / (916) 319-2081