This bill authorizes the governing board or body of a school district, county office of education, or charter school to establish a catastrophic leave program that lets employees donate accrued vacation and sick leave to a colleague when that colleague or the colleague’s family member suffers a catastrophic illness or injury. The donor transfers are voluntary and the receiving employee must have exhausted all accrued paid leave and provide verification of the catastrophic condition under rules the local employer adopts.
The statute matters because it creates a formal, local-pathway for paid time support driven by peer donations rather than central state benefits. It gives districts and charter schools flexibility to design program specifics while preserving the ability for collective bargaining to set alternate terms, which makes the statute a framework law that jurisdictions will operationalize differently and that HR and labor teams need to account for in leave policies and bargaining negotiations.
At a Glance
What It Does
Permits local school employers to establish programs allowing employees to donate accrued vacation and sick leave to colleagues who face a catastrophic illness or injury and who have exhausted their own paid leave. The program requires verification of the catastrophic condition and leaves administration to the local governing body’s rules.
Who It Affects
All classified and certificated employees employed by a school district, county office of education, or charter school where the employer implements the program — plus HR teams administering donations and verification. Exclusive bargaining representatives may negotiate program terms into collective bargaining agreements instead of following locally adopted rules.
Why It Matters
Creates a peer-funded safety valve for prolonged medical or caregiving absences that could otherwise force employees to separate from employment or go unpaid. It also shifts administrative and policy decisions to local boards and unions, so implementation will vary across districts and charters.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The bill authorizes, but does not require, a school district, county office of education, or charter school governing body to set up a catastrophic leave program. Under such a program, employees may voluntarily donate their accrued vacation or sick leave to a colleague who is unable to work because of a catastrophic illness or injury, or who must care for an incapacitated family member.
The recipient must request donated leave, show verification of the catastrophic condition according to local rules, and must have exhausted all their own paid leave before receiving donated time.
Local governing bodies must adopt rules to run the program. Those rules will cover verification standards, how transfers are made, and limits on how long donated leave can be used.
The statute lets boards set a maximum usage period up to 12 consecutive months and requires that transfers be made irrevocable. The law also sets a minimum donation increment (at least eight hours) and requires donors to give written notice to the employer.The bill preserves the role of collective bargaining: a governing body and an exclusive bargaining representative can agree to include different or supplemental catastrophic leave provisions in their contract.
Recipients of donated leave must continue to use any leave they accrue each month before drawing on donated credits. Operational details — how verification interacts with medical confidentiality, payroll processing, and disability benefits — are left to local policy and bargaining, so districts, charter HR offices, and unions will need to resolve those issues when implementing a program.
The Five Things You Need to Know
Donations must be made in a minimum increment of eight hours and in hour increments thereafter; donors give written notice to the employer.
The receiving employee must have exhausted all accrued paid leave and must provide verification of the catastrophic illness or injury per local rules before donations are accepted.
Governing bodies may set a maximum period for use of donated leave, but the statute caps that at no more than 12 consecutive months.
All transfers of eligible leave credits must be made irrevocable under the local rules the governing body adopts.
A recipient must use any leave they accrue on a monthly basis before using donated leave, and employers may instead negotiate alternative program requirements through collective bargaining.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
Every bill we cover gets an analysis of its key sections.
Local authorization to create catastrophic leave programs
This subsection gives governing boards and bodies the explicit authority to establish a catastrophic leave program. It is permissive language — districts, county offices, and charter schools may create a program but are not required to do so. Practically, that means implementation will be uneven: some districts will adopt programs quickly, others may decline because of administrative burden or labor-contract constraints.
Definitions: catastrophic illness/injury and eligible leave credits
The bill defines 'catastrophic illness or injury' as a condition expected to incapacitate the employee or a family member and that creates financial hardship because the employee exhausted paid leave. 'Eligible leave credits' are limited to vacation and sick leave accrued by the donating employee. These definitions narrow the program to prolonged, serious conditions and exclude other paid time types (e.g., comp time, unpaid leaves), which affects who qualifies and what balances are transferrable.
Eligibility criteria and verification
This subsection requires a recipient to request donations, provide verification per the local governing body's rules, be determined by that body to be unable to work due to the catastrophic condition, and to have exhausted all accrued paid leave. The combination of employer determination and verification language gives local employers discretion to set evidence standards and to deny transfers if the criteria are not met — creating a gatekeeping role for HR or the governing board.
How donations are made: increments and notice
If a transfer is approved, any employee may donate eligible leave upon written notice, with a statutory minimum of eight hours and then in hour increments. This provision standardizes the donation unit and requires written donor consent, which provides an audit trail for payroll and recordkeeping but could inhibit smaller donations where employees prefer fractional-day gifts.
Required administrative rules and limits
Boards that implement a program must adopt administrative rules addressing the maximum duration of donated leave (subject to the 12-month ceiling), verification procedures, and making transfers irrevocable. By requiring irrevocability, the bill prevents donors or employers from rescinding transfers, which simplifies accounting but reduces donors’ ability to reclaim time if circumstances change.
Order of use: accruing leave first
A recipient of donated leave must first use any leave credits they continue to accrue monthly before accessing donated leave. That sequencing preserves accrual use and reduces drawdown on donated pools, but it also creates the need to track concurrent accruals and donated balances precisely in payroll systems.
Collective bargaining override or alternative
The statute explicitly allows a governing body and an exclusive bargaining representative to include catastrophic leave program requirements in a collective bargaining agreement. That gives unions leverage to negotiate different donation rules, verification standards, or employer contributions and means actual program design may be governed by labor contracts rather than the locally adopted rules.
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Explore Education in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Employees facing prolonged illness or caring for an incapacitated family member — they gain access to paid time through peer donations when they exhausted their own leave balances.
- Co-workers who want to support colleagues — donors have a statutory, administratively-supported channel to contribute leave rather than informal arrangements.
- Unions and bargaining units — they can negotiate program terms into contracts to secure consistent protections and potentially expand eligibility or benefits beyond local rules.
- School employers concerned with retention — offering a donation program can reduce separations and recruitment costs tied to unpaid medical absences.
Who Bears the Cost
- Donor employees — giving up accrued sick or vacation time reduces their available paid leave for their own future needs and is irrevocable once transferred.
- Local HR and payroll departments — they must verify eligibility, track donated versus accrued balances, update payroll systems, and enforce the irrevocability and sequencing rules.
- Small charter schools or understaffed districts — using donated leave to cover absent staff may not provide sufficient coverage and administrative costs may be proportionally higher.
- Governing boards — they carry policy and potential legal exposure risk for verification decisions and must allocate time to draft and oversee program rules unless bargaining settles those terms.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central tension is between compassionate, locally administered relief funded by coworkers and the need for consistent, administrable rules that protect donors, prevent abuse, and integrate with existing leave and payroll systems; the bill solves for flexibility and local control at the expense of uniformity, clarity, and potentially higher administrative cost.
The bill provides a basic statutory framework but leaves key operational questions to local rules or collective bargaining. That design minimizes one-size-fits-all mandates but transfers uncertainty and administrative burden to districts and charters: employers decide acceptable verification standards, define program duration (within the 12-month ceiling), and choose how to reconcile donated leave with other state and federal leave protections and disability benefits.
Payroll and HR systems will need modifications to handle irrevocable transfers, month-by-month accrual sequencing, and donor notices, and those costs are not addressed in the statute.
The statute is terse about interaction with existing leave laws (for example, California’s CFRA, FMLA, state disability insurance, or workers’ compensation wage replacement). It does not specify whether donated hours affect eligibility for other benefits or how donated leave is treated for purposes of service accrual, overtime calculations, or employer-paid benefits.
Those gaps will either be resolved in local rules or become bargaining topics — but until then, employers face ambiguity that could produce inconsistent treatment across jurisdictions and potential disputes with employees or unions.
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