§1206.2. Employees; extended sick leave
A.
(1)(a) Every city, parish, and other local public school board shall permit each
employee, as defined in R.S. 17:1205, to take up to ninety days of extended sick leave in
each six-year period of employment, which may be used for a medical necessity in the
manner provided in this Section at any time that the employee has no remaining regular sick
leave balance.
(b)If an employee exhausts the sick leave available pursuant to the provisions of
Subparagraph (a) of this Paragraph, such employee may be granted, if school board policy
provides for such leave, up to thirty additional days of extended sick leave in each six-year
period of employment for personal illness related to pregnancy, illness of an infant, or
required medical visits certified by a p
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§1206.2. Employees; extended sick leave
A.(1)(a) Every city, parish, and other local public school board shall permit each
employee, as defined in R.S. 17:1205, to take up to ninety days of extended sick leave in
each six-year period of employment, which may be used for a medical necessity in the
manner provided in this Section at any time that the employee has no remaining regular sick
leave balance.
(b) If an employee exhausts the sick leave available pursuant to the provisions of
Subparagraph (a) of this Paragraph, such employee may be granted, if school board policy
provides for such leave, up to thirty additional days of extended sick leave in each six-year
period of employment for personal illness related to pregnancy, illness of an infant, or
required medical visits certified by a physician as relating to infant or maternal health.
(2) As used in this Section the following terms shall have the following meanings:
(a) "Child" means a biological son or daughter, an adopted son or daughter, a foster
son or daughter, a stepson or stepdaughter, or a legal ward of an employee standing in loco
parentis to that ward who is either under the age of eighteen, or who is eighteen years of age
but under twenty-four years of age and is a full-time student, or who is nineteen years of age
or older and incapable of self-care because of a mental or physical disability.
(b) "Immediate family member" means a spouse, parent, or child of an employee.
(c) "Infant" means a child under one year of age.
(d) "Medical necessity" means the result of catastrophic illness or injury, a life
threatening condition, a chronic condition, or an incapacitating condition, as certified by a
physician, of an employee or an immediate family member.
(e) "Parent" means the biological parent of an employee or an individual who stood
in loco parentis to the employee.
B.(1) Unused days during any six-year period of employment shall not cumulate or
carry forward into the next six-year period of employment.
(2) The balance of days of extended leave available to an employee shall transfer
with such employee from one public school employer to another without loss of days and
without restoration of days.
(3) Interruptions of service between periods of employment with a public school
employer shall not be included in any calculation of a six-year period, such that any
employment with any public school employer, regardless of when it occurs, shall be included
in any determination of the balance of days of extended sick leave available to an employee.
C.(1) All time while on extended sick leave is regular service time for all purposes
for which service time is calculated or used.
(2) Any employee on extended sick leave shall be paid sixty-five percent of the
salary paid to him at the time the extended sick leave begins.
D.(1) No employee may undertake additional gainful employment while on extended
sick leave, unless all of the following conditions are met:
(a) The employee can demonstrate that he will be working not more than twenty
hours a week in a part-time job that he has been working for not less than one hundred
twenty days prior to the beginning of any period of extended sick leave.
(b) The clinician who certifies the medical necessity of the leave indicates that such
part-time work does not impair the purpose for which the extended leave is required.
(2) Any violation of this prohibition may require the employee to return to the
employer all compensation paid during any week of extended leave in which the employee
worked more than twenty hours and to reimburse the employer all related employment costs
attributable to such period as calculated by the employer, without any restoration of such
days.
E.(1)(a) On every occasion when an employee uses extended sick leave, a statement
from a clinician certifying that it is for personal illness relating to pregnancy, illness of an
infant, or required medical visits related to infant or maternal health or that it is a medical
necessity shall be presented prior to the extension of such leave.
(b) The clinician statement required by this Paragraph may be presented and the
extended sick leave may be requested subsequent to the employee's return to service. In such
a case, the extended leave shall be granted for all days for which such leave is requested and
the required documentation is presented, provided the leave is requested and the required
documentation is presented within three days after the employee returns to service.
(2)(a) If the board or superintendent, upon review of the application, questions the
validity or accuracy of the certification, the board or superintendent, as the case may be,
referred to in this Paragraph as the "challenging party", may require the employee or the
immediate family member, as a condition for continued extended leave, to be examined by
a licensed clinician selected by the challenging party. In such a case, the employer shall pay
all costs of the examination and any tests determined to be necessary. If the clinician
selected by the challenging party finds medical necessity, the leave shall be granted.
(b) If the clinician selected by the challenging party disagrees with the certification
of the clinician selected by the employee or the immediate family member, then the
challenging party may require the employee or the immediate family member, as a condition
for continued extension of sick leave, to be examined by a third appropriate clinician whose
name appears next in the rotation of clinicians on a list established by the local medical
society for such purpose and maintained by the challenging party. All costs of an
examination and any required tests by a third clinician shall be paid by the employer. The
opinion of the third clinician shall be determinative of the issue.
(c) The opinion of all clinicians consulted as provided in this Paragraph shall be
submitted to the challenging party in the form of a sworn statement which shall be subject
to the provisions of R.S. 14:125.
(d)(i) In addition to the authority provided in R.S. 17:1206(A)(1), the board shall
adopt a policy regarding providing for employees suffering from catastrophic and long-term
illness.
(ii) The board may, as part of a collective bargaining agreement, or by its own policy
provide additional compensation or extended leave days in excess of what is required in this
Section.
(3) All information contained in any statement from a clinician shall be confidential
and shall not be subject to the public records law.
F.(1) Each city, parish, and other local public school board shall develop and
implement a sick leave bank policy to allow for the donation of sick leave among employees.
(2) An employee may donate sick leave directly to another employee in an amount
not to exceed one-half of the donating employee's accumulated leave as calculated at the
beginning of the school year.
(3) At least ninety percent of the leave balance in the bank shall be retained in the
bank from one school year to the next.
G. Each city, parish, and other local public school board annually shall submit a
report to the state Department of Education on the number of leave requests granted each
year pursuant to this Section, the number of leave requests denied, and the reason or reasons
for such denials.
H. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, all decisions relative
to the granting of leave pursuant to this Section shall be made by the superintendent of the
local public school system.