An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 8 – Leaves And Absences

 The diagnosis care, or treatment of an existing health condition of, or preventive care for, an employee’s family member; and  An employee who is a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. 1071

“Family member” is defined as child (regardless of age or dependency status), parent, spouse, registered domestic partner, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, and parent of the employee’s spouse or registered domestic partner. 1072 For purposes of this leave, “parent” and “child” include biological, foster, adopted, step or legal guardian relationships. 1073 A “child” also includes a child of a registered domestic partner. Employers may not have an absence control policy that would result in discipline for an employee who takes this protected leave. 1074 Because SB 579 expanded Labor Code section 233’s protected sick leave use to more than family members or “kin,” it is probably more appropriate to refer to this leave protection as the “Protected Sick Leave Law.” Example #1: School provides 12 sick days per year, accrued at the rate of one per month. Employee has accrued six days of sick leave. He may use up to 6 days of sick leave (half of actually accrued leave) to care for a family member or for any of the reasons set forth in the Paid Sick Leave law. LCW Practice Advisor Labor Code section 233 must be read carefully. The section provides that an employee shall be permitted to use in any calendar year the employee’s accrued and available sick leave entitlement “in an amount not less than the sick leave that would be accrued during

six months at the employee’s then current rate of entitlement.” In this example, since the employee “would have” accrued six days of leave in six months, the employee could take six days of leave to care for a family member.

Example #2: School provides 12 sick days per year, accrued at the rate of one per month. Employee has accrued 20 days of sick leave. She may use 6 days of leave (half of accrued leave, capped at half of annual allotment) to care for a family member or any of the other reasons set forth in the Paid Sick Leave law. Employers may not threaten to discipline, or in any way discriminate against employees who use or who attempt to validly use Protected Sick Leave. 1075 Moreover, employers are expressly prohibited from counting Protected Sick Leave toward absence control policies that may lead to or result in discipline, discharge, demotion or suspension. 1076

An Administrator’s Guide to California Private School Law ©2019 Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 260