New law expands access to family leave
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[August 11, 2021]
By PETER HANCOCK
Capitol News Illinois
phancock@capitolnewsillinois.com
SPRINGFIELD – A new law in Illinois will
make it easier for part-time school and college employees to receive
paid family and medical leave.
Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill Tuesday lowering the threshold for those
workers so that most will be eligible for the benefit after one year of
employment.
“For too long, we have asked our school staff to provide exceptional
care supporting kids in school without giving them the grace and
flexibility to care for themselves and their families,” Pritzker said
during a bill signing ceremony in Chicago. “It's an omission that
undermines the value of their work and the reality of their lives away
from school grounds.”
Under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, workers are entitled to
as many as 12 weeks of unpaid leave in a 12-month period to care for a
newborn child, to care for a close relative who has a serious health
condition, or to deal with their own serious illness. That expands to 26
weeks to care for a child, spouse or parent who is a service member with
a serious illness or injury.
To be eligible, though, the employee must have been employed for at
least 12 months and worked at least 1,250 hours during the previous
12-month period. That’s a threshold that often can’t be met by many
part-time school employees known as education support professionals, or
ESPs. Those include paraprofessionals, secretaries, librarians,
custodians, cafeteria workers, bus drivers and others, many of whom work
only limited hours during the day, and often only when school is in
session.
For those workers, House Bill 12 lowers that threshold to 1,000 hours of
work during the previous 12 months. It applies to all employees of
school districts, community colleges and public universities in
Illinois. It takes effect Jan. 1.
“Unfortunately, some of our ESPs, many who are
10-month employees, were a bit short of the number of hours federally
required to qualify for FMLA benefits,” said Kathi Griffin, president of
the Illinois Education Association. “In many school districts across the
state, this meant that when these amazing education employees had to
care for themselves or a family member's health, they had a very
difficult decision to make.
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Gov. JB Pritzker signs a bill expanding access to
family and medical leave benefits to part-time education workers in
Illinois during a news conference Tuesday in Chicago. (Credit:
Blueroomstream.com)
“They would be forced to deny care of a loved one, or resign from
their job. Or if it was the employee who was sick, they may not be
guaranteed their position once they got better, and lose their
health insurance, all while the only reason they needed to take a
leave was due to a health condition.”
Griffin said there are more than 25,000 ESPs within the Illinois
Education Association. That does not include those who belong to the
International Federation of Teachers, the other major education
union in the state, or those who are not union members.
The bill passed both chambers of the General Assembly with strong
bipartisan majorities – 95-14 in the House; 47-3 in the Senate.
“Gov. Pritzker is making sure that the people who keep our schools
running smoothly have fair access to FMLA when they face illness and
other life changing events within their families,” said Rep. Terra
Costa Howard, D-Glen Ellyn, the bill’s chief sponsor in the House.
“So I'm very proud that both sides of the aisle in the General
Assembly stood up for Illinois’ dedicated school and college workers
in our state.”
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan
news service covering state government and distributed to more than
400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois
Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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