An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 8 – Leaves And Absences

In an effort to become a more family friendly area, the City and County of San Francisco passed the “family friendly workplace ordinance,” which went into effect on January 1, 2014. This ordinance allows employees to request a flexible or predictable working arrangement to assist the employee in carrying out caregiving responsibilities pertaining to a person in a “family relationship” with the employee. A “family relationship” is defined as someone who is a spouse, domestic partner, child, parent, sibling, grandchild or grandparent. Employees may request modified work schedules, part-time employment, job sharing arrangements, telecommuting, or a reduction or change in work duties. In order to qualify, the employee needs to have been employed by the School for at least 6 months and the School must have 20 or more employees. Schools may only deny an employee’s request if it has a bona fide business reason. The “family friendly workplace” ordinance requires Schools to post a notice at the workplace informing employees of their rights under the ordinance. In addition, Schools must create and maintain certain records required by the ordinance to document requests. 1391

LCW Practice Advisor

B. C HILD S USPENSION Schools must also provide an employee who is the permanent guardian of a child in kindergarten through twelfth grade leave to attend a school meeting after the employee’s child has been suspended. 1392 C. N OTICE The employee must give reasonable notice to the school prior to participating in the school activity. If both parents are employed by the same school, the parent who provided notice first is entitled to the time requested. The employee may be required to use accumulated leave time such as vacation or personal leave. 1393 The employee may also use unpaid leave. The employee should provide advance notice to the school. While there are no set guidelines under the law, the school’s rules governing planned absences should be referred to in conjunction with this leave. An employee using leave under the Act may also be required to provide documentation of the activity. 1394

An Administrator’s Guide to California Private School Law ©2019 Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 315