This bill amends the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to create a tailored eligibility framework for paraprofessionals and education support staff (ESPs). It instructs employers to treat a covered educational employee as meeting FMLA’s hours‑of‑service threshold if the employee has worked at least 60 percent of the “applicable total monthly hours expected” under their assigned job description and duties for the previous school year, and it requires employers to keep those expected‑hours records on file with the Secretary of Labor under regulations the Secretary prescribes.
The measure also defines the covered workforce by cross‑reference to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and lists typical ESP job categories (clerical, transportation, food services, custodial/maintenance, health and student services, technical, and skilled trades).
The bill matters because it changes the eligibility anchor for many part‑time and school‑year employees from a strict hours‑worked test to one tied to scheduled/expected hours, potentially qualifying a sizable group of K–12 workers for FMLA protections. That shift reduces a common barrier to leave for variable‑hour school employees but also creates new documentation, payroll, and regulatory work for school employers and shifts rule‑making and calculation responsibility to the Department of Labor.
At a Glance
What It Does
Adds a new FMLA subsection for paraprofessionals and education support staff that treats employees as eligible if they worked at least 60% of their applicable monthly expected hours from the previous school year, requires employers to maintain records of those expected hours with the Secretary of Labor, and directs the Secretary to issue methods for calculating leave for these employees.
Who It Affects
Directly affects paraprofessionals and ESPs employed by K‑12 educational agencies and institutions, local school districts’ HR and payroll departments, and the Department of Labor (which must publish calculation methods and regulate the required recordkeeping).
Why It Matters
It removes a numerical barrier that has excluded many part‑time and school‑year employees from FMLA, expanding leave access across common K‑12 job categories while imposing federal recordkeeping and compliance obligations that will affect district budgets and administrative processes.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The bill inserts a targeted eligibility scheme into the FMLA to reach workers who perform essential but often part‑time or seasonal roles in schools. Rather than relying solely on an employee’s accumulated hours worked, the bill instructs employers to assess eligibility using the employee’s assigned or expected monthly hours from the previous school year.
If the employee worked a number of hours equal to at least 60 percent of that applicable total monthly expectation, the employee counts as meeting FMLA’s hours‑of‑service requirement.
To support that eligibility test, the bill requires each employer of a covered educational employee to keep a record — “on file with the Secretary” — that specifies the total monthly hours expected for the employee’s job description and duties for each school year. The Secretary of Labor is authorized to prescribe regulations governing the form, content, and process for that recordkeeping.
By anchoring eligibility to assigned expectations rather than solely to hours actually clocked, the bill treats scheduled, predictable work patterns as the baseline for FMLA coverage.The bill also supplies statutory definitions so there is clarity about who is covered. It borrows the federal definition of “paraprofessional” from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and defines “education support staff” by enumerating common categories of K–12 support roles.
Finally, the bill asks the Secretary to publish methods for calculating the leave description in FMLA section 102(a)(1) as applied to covered educational employees, which signals forthcoming DOL guidance or rules to translate the eligibility test into usable leave accounting for school‑year and part‑time employment arrangements.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill creates a quantitative eligibility test: a covered educational employee qualifies if they worked at least 60% of the applicable total monthly hours expected for their assigned job and duties in the previous school year.
Employers must maintain, under Secretary of Labor regulations, a file specifying each covered employee’s total monthly hours expected for their job description and duties for every school year.
The bill defines “paraprofessional” by reference to ESEA section 8101(37) and defines “education support staff” by listing job categories including clerical, transportation, food and nutrition, custodial/maintenance, health/student services, technical services, and skilled trades.
The Secretary of Labor must publish methods for calculating FMLA leave for these covered educational employees, linking statutory eligibility to practical leave accounting (referred to in the bill as calculations consistent with section 108 and section 102).
The coverage applies only to employees of an “educational agency or institution” as defined in General Education Provisions Act section 444(a)(3), anchoring the change to federally defined school entities.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Short title
Provides the bill’s name: the 'ESP, Paraprofessional, and Education Support Staff Family Leave Act.' This is the formal label; it signals the bill’s targeted focus on non‑instructional school staff rather than a general FMLA rewrite.
60% eligibility rule tied to prior school year assignments
Adds a rule that treats a covered educational employee as meeting FMLA’s hours requirement when the employee worked a number of hours equal to at least 60% of the applicable total monthly hours expected for their job description and duties as assigned in the previous school year. Practically, this shifts the baseline from hours actually recorded to scheduled or expected monthly hours, which will matter for employees with variable schedules, reduced hours, or school‑year appointments.
Employer must document expected monthly hours with the Secretary
Requires employers to maintain information on file with the Secretary of Labor that specifies the total monthly hours expected for each covered employee’s job description and duties for every school year, pursuant to Secretary regulations. That creates a federal recordkeeping requirement—potentially a submission or retained record structure depending on forthcoming DOL rules—and makes expected hours an auditable element of eligibility determinations.
Who counts as a covered educational employee
Defines 'covered educational employee' to mean paraprofessionals and education support staff; imports the ESEA definition of 'paraprofessional' and enumerates the ESP categories. It also references the General Education Provisions Act definition of 'educational agency or institution,' thereby limiting the rule to employees of federally recognized school entities and setting the scope for which positions and employers must comply.
Secretary of Labor must issue calculation methods
Adds an instruction to section 102(a) requiring the Secretary to provide methods for calculating the leave entitlement for covered educational employees, in accordance with section 108 as applicable. This places on the DOL both the job of converting the new eligibility metric into operational leave accounting (for example, prorating leave across school‑year schedules) and the authority to set implementing rules and forms.
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Explore Employment 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
- Paraprofessionals with seasonal or part‑time schedules: Anchoring eligibility to assigned monthly expectations lets many paraprofessionals qualify for FMLA who previously fell short of strict hours‑worked thresholds.
- Education support staff (ESP) in clerical, transportation, food services, custodial, health/student services, technical, and skilled‑trade roles: Those workers gain a clearer pathway to FMLA when their jobs are scheduled but not full‑time year‑round.
- Employees in districts with variable hours: Workers whose hours fluctuate by term or assignment benefit because the test uses the previous school year’s assigned expectations rather than isolated low‑work months.
Who Bears the Cost
- Local school districts and charter schools: District HR and payroll systems must track and retain expected monthly hours by job and employee, adjust eligibility workflows, and likely face higher substitute and overtime costs when covered employees take leave.
- Department of Labor: The Secretary must promulgate regulations, produce calculation methodologies, handle compliance oversight, and potentially process or store employer records—tasks that require staff time and rule‑making resources.
- Finance offices and taxpayers: Expanded eligibility may increase paid/unpaid leave utilization and substitute‑teacher or contract staffing costs, putting pressure on local education budgets and, depending on local funding, on taxpayers or reallocated district funds.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central tension is between expanding FMLA access for a largely part‑time, low‑paid school workforce by recognizing scheduled/expected hours, and imposing new federal documentation and calculation burdens on school employers and the Department of Labor—burdens that increase costs, invite administrative complexity, and create opportunities for inconsistent implementation or employer manipulation of assigned hours.
The bill solves a clear access problem—how to treat school workers with scheduled but non‑full‑time jobs—but it leaves important operational questions unanswered. The phrase 'maintain on file with the Secretary' can be read broadly: will employers submit electronic records to the Department of Labor, or will they simply retain documents for federal inspection?
The choice matters for privacy, IT capacity, and administrative cost. Similarly, 'applicable total monthly hours expected' requires detailed DOL guidance to prevent inconsistent employer practices and to define how expected hours are set, revised, or disputed.
The bill also hands significant discretion to the Secretary to develop calculation methods. Those methods will determine whether leave is prorated, how intermittent leave counts, and how to convert school‑year schedules into the annualized leave buckets in existing FMLA structure.
Until the Department issues detailed rules, schools will face uncertainty about compliance, and employees will lack clarity about their actual entitlements. The statute is silent on enforcement mechanics and penalties for failing to keep or produce the required files, so practical compliance incentives will depend heavily on what the Secretary establishes by regulation.
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