Next week, millions of children around the country will return to school, which serves as a good time to remind employers that they may have to provide short-term unpaid job-protected leave to their employees seeking to participate in their children’s school-related activities. 

Currently, at least twelve states (California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas and Vermont) along with the District of Columbia provide this type of leave in some form. 

Additionally, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Utah have laws that encourage, but do not require, employers to provide school-related leave, and more than a dozen other states, like New York, have introduced school-related leave bills in their legislatures. 

These laws vary in shape and size.  They cover different types of employers and employees, provide different amounts of leave to employees, and differ over when an employee may take that leave and what types of school-related activities are leave-eligible.  Several examples highlight these differences

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http://www.employmentmattersblog.com/2011/09/employers-may-need-to-provide-employees-with-leave-for-involvement-with-school-related-activities/

By Michael Arnold

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