An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 8 – Leaves And Absences

C. C ONCURRENT U SE O F L EAVE A school may require an employee to use up to five days of earned but unused sick leave, vacation, or paid time off for bone marrow donation and up to two weeks of earned but unused sick leave, vacation, or paid time off for organ donation. 1350 Bone marrow and organ donation leave shall not be taken concurrently with any FMLA or CFRA leave. 1351 V ACATION L EAVE Vacation is leave provided to employees that may be used for any purpose (though an employee may need approval before taking the leave). It is a type of deferred compensation and therefore any accrued but unused vacation must be paid out upon separation. 1352 Vacation plans that establish probation periods during which no vacation pay is vested are permitted. If the school has not promised vacation pay during a probation period, no pro rata portion is due the employee whether he or she passes probation. 1353 Vacation pay may not be forfeited for failure to take the vacation under a so-called “use it or lose it” policy. 1354 However, employees may accrue a maximum amount of vacation days and then stop accruing days. 1355 Vacation policies that provide all vacation must be taken in the year it is earned (or in a very limited period following the accrual period) are generally not enforceable. Sabbatical leaves may differ from vacation, as will be explained in the next section. LCW Practice Advisor Many schools offer “personal leave” as separate from vacation and sick leave, and most commonly for faculty that do not receive vacation. Schools must be Section 8

aware that personal leave must be treated like vacation in that it is not permissible for schools to provide personal leave on “a use it or lose it” basis. However, like vacation, personal leave may be subject to an accrual cap. 1356

Section 9 S ABBATICAL L EAVE Although there is no legal requirement to do so, schools may provide high level managers and professionals sabbatical leaves. The purpose of providing employees with a sabbatical is to allow for study or travel which will benefit the school. The terms of a sabbatical leave should be set out in a written policy.

An Administrator’s Guide to California Private School Law ©2019 Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 309