JOB CITES: Important lessons about school visitation leave

Listen to this article

With the passing of Labor Day, the unofficial end of summer is upon us. Given the dismal state of baseball this year for the Cubs (hey, they’re rebuilding), I’m more than ready to welcome fall and, along with it, all the cool-weather activities we have developed to cope with the fact we choose to live in a state where winter seems to last eight months: cooking chili, drinking scotch and watching the Chicago Bears inevitably disappoint (the latter two items perhaps not so unrelated).

Of course, when I was younger, this time of year meant only one thing: school. When I was young, my mom worked nights, which allowed her to serve as my class’s “room mom” for various years of grade school.

At the time, I appreciated the inside information on upcoming field trips (always a museum) and the occasional access to unsold goods from a bake sale. But looking back, I now more remember my mom being involved and appreciate the sacrifices she made to do it.

Eventually, my mom changed jobs, and with both my parents working traditional hours, I began to realize (though did not fully appreciate until years later) the demands on their time between working fulltime and attending the school activities of four children. These demands on time were by no means unique to my parents or limited to the time of my youth: In 2011, 87.2 percent of families with children had at least one employed parent, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the U.S. Department of Labor.

For employers, then, each school year brings the challenge of handling employees’ need to take time off from work to attend various school-related functions and activities. And while there is no federal law that requires employers to provide time off to employees so that those employees can attend to their children’s school activities, some states do have specific laws that require employers to provide this leave. In the employment law context, this type of leave is typically called “school visitation leave.”

Although Wisconsin does not have a statute requiring school visitation leave, our neighboring states do, as do other states in which Wisconsin employers do business. The school visitation leave laws follow a general pattern, typically addressing the maximum amount of leave that can be taken during any one year, whether such leave must be taken in minimum increments, what school activities qualify for the leave, and the notice and pay requirements for the leave. Yet within those general confines, states’ school visitation leave laws can vary significantly.

In Illinois, for example, any employer that employs at least 50 individuals in Illinois must grant an employee up to eight hours of leave during any school year, with no more than four hours to be taken on any single day. The leave can be used “to attend school conferences or classroom activities related to the employee’s child if the conference or classroom activities cannot be scheduled during nonwork hours.”

However, Illinois’ statute also requires that an employee exhaust all accrued vacation leave, personal leave, compensatory leave and other leave (except sick leave and disability leave) prior to using leave under the school visitation statute. Further, employees must make a written request for the leave at least seven days in advance. Employees do not need to be compensated for school visitation leave, but employees cannot lose any benefits from exercising their right to school visitation leave.

Minnesota allows up to 16 hours of leave during any 12-month period, and employees have more expansive rights than in Illinois to use the leave for activities related to children in child care or attending pre-kindergarten or special education programs. The other requirements of the statute are less strict – only “reasonable notice” is required, and employees are not required to exhaust all other leave prior to exercising school visitation leave. Minn. Stat. § 181.9412.

Other states, such as Nevada, are different still. Nevada allows only four hours of leave per school year to be taken in increments of at least one hour. Further, although other state statutes, such as Illinois’ statute, state that parents should make efforts to schedule conferences and other activities during nonwork hours, Nevada expressly lists activities that take place during regular school hours as permissible activities for the leave. Nevada also expressly prohibits employers from taking adverse employment actions against employees because the employees utilize school visitation leave.

California, Colorado, Louisiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, and the District of Columbia also have school visitation leave laws, and employers with employees in those states should consult their local laws. Even though no state requires school visitation leave to be paid leave, employers should be mindful of federal and state wage and hour laws regarding deductions of pay from exempt employees.

Of course, there is nothing preventing employers from granting school visitation leave to their employees even if it is not required by state law. This can be done either through an express policy or even through reference to a company’s paid-time-off policy. As with other policies, enforcement and application should be consistent for all employees.

Many employers commendably encourage their employees to be active in school activities, but for those employers in states where school visitation leave is required, ignoring such employee requests can lead to some hard lessons this school year.

Matthew Feery is an attorney at Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan LLP, practicing employment law in the Milwaukee office. He can be reached by telephone at 414-277-8500 or via email at [email protected].