BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, 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)
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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.