Special Policy Update

• Healthy Families and Workplaces Act Updates (Paid Sick Leave)
• Note on Prop 118, Paid Medical and Family Leave
• CASB Policy Publications Update

To access the sample policies distributed with this Special Policy Update, click here.

Healthy Families and Workplaces Act Updates (Paid Sick Leave)

SB20-205, passed during the last legislative session, created the Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (“Act”), which requires employers to provide paid sick leave to employees under various circumstances. 

Beginning January 1, 2021, employers must provide paid sick leave, accrued at one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to a maximum of 48 hours (6 days), for the reasons specified in the law (i.e., care for the employee’s health, the employee’s family member, to handle victim-related matters, etc.). Employers must also reinstate any unused paid sick leave to an employee who separates from employment and is rehired by the same employer within 6 months, subject to certain conditions; there is also a corresponding requirement for employers to retain records documenting, by employee, the hours worked, paid sick leave accrued, and paid sick leave used.

Employers that provide comparable paid leave to their employees and allow employees to use that leave as permitted under the Act are not required to provide additional paid sick leave to their employees. Further, employees covered by a bargaining agreement would not be entitled to paid sick leave if the collective bargaining agreement expressly waives the requirements of the Act and provides an equivalent benefit to covered employees. Accordingly, CASB has updated the following, impacted staff leave policies: (Please note: boards should consult with their legal counsel with specific questions, particularly if there are applicable collective bargaining agreements in place.)

Note on Proposition 118, Paid Medical and Family Leave

This past election, Colorado voters approved a new paid medical and family leave law, Proposition 118, also known as FAMLI (Family and Medical Leave Insurance). This law creates a state-run paid family and medical leave (PFML) insurance program that allows employees to take up to 12 weeks of leave and keep their job. An eligible employee may take leave for the following reasons:

• to care for their own serious health condition;
• to care for a new child during their first year after the birth, adoption, or placement through foster care of that child;
• to care for a family member with a serious health condition;
• when a family member is on active duty military service or being called to active duty military service; and
• when the individual or the individual’s family member is a victim of domestic violence, stalking, or sexual assault. 

Both employers and employees will pay into a new Family and Medical Leave Insurance Fund; the state will then use money in the fund to pay wage benefits to employees during their leave, similar to unemployment insurance. 

Local governments or employers that already offer approved paid leave benefits are not required to participate in the program and pay premiums; accordingly, school districts may choose not to participate. However, if a district does choose not to participate, that district’s employees may still choose to opt in and pay only the employee portion of the premium.

Participating employers and employees will start paying into the program on January 1, 2023 and employees may begin taking paid FAMLI leave starting January 1, 2024.

Credit: 2020 State Ballot Information Booklet (“Blue Book”), Colorado Legislative Council

Rulemaking and regulations on implementing FAMLI is expected to start in January 2022, and specific requirements could change between now and when the law goes into effect in 2023. For example, certain provisions of FAMLI may overlap or replace some of those in the Healthy Families and Workplace Act, which goes into effect on January 1, 2021. How FAMLI and the Healthy Families and Workplace Act will interact with each other is not clear; CASB will monitor future developments and keep members informed as we learn more.

CASB Publications Update

You may have noticed that we’ve been publishing a lot of policy updates this year. True, many of our sample policies have been updated in response to the pandemic—as well as usual updates to reflect new laws—but moving forward, we plan to review all of our policies and publish updates on a regular, quarterly basis.

As you know, policymaking is an ongoing process, and we hope that our regular updates will better help and support you in your own efforts. Even if we don’t make changes to some policies (hey, that happens sometimes!), we’ll still mark them as “Reviewed” and will provide the review date so that you can be confident that our policies are up to date.

We also plan to change up our policy publications format in the coming year to make the information easier to read and faster to navigate. If you have any suggestions on how we can improve the delivery of our policy updates, please send your feedback to policy@casb.org.