Bill Text: DE HB231 | 2009-2010 | 145th General Assembly | Draft

Delaware House Bill 231 (Prior Session Legislation)

Draft

Bill Title: An Act To Amend Title 19 Of The Delaware Code Relating To Employment Practices.

Sponsorship: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2009-06-16 - Re-assigned to Education Committee in House [HB231 Detail]

Download: Delaware-2009-HB231-Draft.html

SPONSOR:	Rep. Scott & Sen. Sokola
	Rep. M. Marshall, Wilson; Sen. Henry

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

145th GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HOUSE BILL NO. 231

AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 19 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES.

WHEREAS, the General Assembly recognizes that parental involvement is essential to the educational achievement of their children, as students with involved parents are more likely to: attend school regularly, earn higher grades and test scores, enroll in advanced programs, pass and be promoted, exhibit better social skills and behavior, and graduate and go on to post-secondary education or employment; and

WHEREAS, in order to assure parental involvement, many state and federal laws and regulations require parent participation in various school meetings; and

WHEREAS, many working parents experience difficulty attending school meetings with their child's educators because of their employment obligations; and

WHEREAS, the purpose of this act is to foster parental involvement by granting working parents with a small allotment of leave each year to attend school meetings essential to their child's education.

NOW, THEREFORE:

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE:

Section 1.Amend Chapter 7, Title 19 of the Delaware Code by adding a new section "�707A" thereto as follows:

"�707A.School involvement leave.

(a) Definitions.

As used in this section:

(1) "Available leave" means annual or vacation leave, personal leave, compensatory leave or other similar leave provided to an employee with pay by an employer;

(2) "Child" means an employee's biological, adopted or foster child, stepchild or legal ward that is enrolled in a primary or secondary public or private school in this State or a state which shares a common boundary with this State.The term child shall also include an employee's grandchild or niece or nephew if the employee has been awarded custody or placement of the child pursuant to an order of the Family Court;

(3) "Employee" means any person working for another for hire in this State, excluding independent contractors, domestic servants and seasonal farm help.

(4) "Employer" means any public or private employer in this State including, but not limited to, the State or any political subdivision, board, department, commission or school district thereof.

(b) (1) An employee shall be entitled to a total of sixteen (16) hours of leave each school year, no more than four (4) hours of which may be taken on any given day, to attend classroom activities, school meetings and extra-curricular school events related to the employee's child if the meetings or classroom activities cannot be scheduled during non-work hours.An employee with more than one child shall be entitled to a total of sixteen (16) hours of leave per child.

(2) An employee must provide at least forty-eight (48) hours advance notice of the leave and make a reasonable effort to schedule the leave so as not to unduly disrupt the operations of the employer.An employer may require an employee to provide written verification of the classroom activity, school conference or extra-curricular event, such as a written note signed by a school administrator, teacher or coach attending the conference or activity, which must be provided to the employer within 48 hours of the employee's taking of the leave granted by this section.

(3) An employer with ten or fewer employees working at one location may limit the number of employees who may take leave on any one day.

(c)An employer shall not be required to pay an employee for any leave taken pursuant to this section; however, an employee may substitute any accrued available leave for any part of the leave taken pursuant to this section.

(d)Whoever violates this section shall be subject to a civil penalty of not less than $1,000 nor more than $5,000 for each violation. Jurisdiction over violations of this subchapter shall be in any court of competent jurisdiction.

(e)The provisions of this section shall be liberally construed to achieve it purpose.".

SYNOPSIS

This act grants working parents with 16 hours of leave each year to attend school meetings essential to their child's education, provided the meetings cannot be scheduled during non-work hours.An employer is not required to pay for any leave granted pursuant to this subsection.