School districts now face a conundrum, with COVID-19 cases surging and staff shortages persisting: How generous should they be with offering paid time off for people who have to be out because of COVID-19?
In 2020, the federal government required employers, including school districts, to provide COVID-specific paid leave. Until September 2021, the federal government offered some fiscal support to employers that opted to extend that additional leave.
Both of those policies have since expired, and only a handful of states have .
Some districts aren鈥檛 giving employees extra time off beyond their previously allotted sick time, even as the worst public health crisis in a century shows no immediate end in sight.
Administrators in those districts cite concerns about worsening the existing crisis of staff absences and temporary school closures by giving people opportunities to take time off even when they don鈥檛 absolutely need to.
Other districts, though, have put together COVID-specific paid leave policies for their employees, either in accordance with a state mandate or of their own volition.
鈥淥n some level I think we鈥檙e having a conversation about trust,鈥� said Gregg Palmer, superintendent of the Brewer district in Maine. His district is allowing people at home because of COVID-19 to use days from the district鈥檚 sick leave bank rather than draining their own accrued time off. 鈥淒o families trust that we鈥檙e keeping kids safe at school? Do staff trust that we鈥檙e looking out for their best interests? If we trust each other I think our chances of getting through this go up.鈥�
Here are a few of the guiding questions districts are using to shape paid leave policies.
How many paid days off should employees get?
Among districts offering COVID-specific leave, policies offer anywhere from 5 days to 10, 15, and even 20 days off on top of their allotted sick leave.
Some district leaders are reluctant to offer so many extra days off that a surge of absenteeism among employees causes further staff shortage woes.
鈥淭he more COVID leave you offer, the more likely it is people will use that leave, which then increases your substitute costs,鈥� said John Mulford, deputy superintendent of operations for the Springfield district in Missouri, which offers employees five days of COVID-19 leave on top of their regular 8 to 12 sick days per year.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 more time that students don鈥檛 have the primary teacher with them. It ultimately hurts the learning.鈥�
Others have decided that offering more time off will prevent people from coming back to work prematurely, further spreading the virus, and will give people adequate time to recover from an illness themselves or take care of someone else who鈥檚 sick or stuck at home.
The Meridian district in Illinois added 20 days of COVID-specific leave for employees to use when they鈥檙e sick or out on quarantine.
鈥淲e looked at some of our worst-case scenarios from the previous year and tried to find a number that would cover the majority of people detrimentally impacted,鈥� said PJ Caposey, the district鈥檚 superintendent.
Should unvaccinated employees be eligible?
Many districts are offering paid leave to all employees regardless of vaccination status. But some have decided that it鈥檚 worth rewarding employees who have taken an important step toward protecting their colleagues by getting vaccinated.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e doing everything you鈥檝e been asked to do, you鈥檝e gotten vaccinated, you鈥檙e coming to work, you get COVID for no other reason than you鈥檙e working in a pandemic, and you have to go home, I don鈥檛 think we should charge you a sick day,鈥� said Ken Wallace, superintendent of the Maine Township district in Illinois. 鈥淚 feel differently in the same conditions if you鈥檝e chosen not to take the vaccine and you catch COVID-19. The data is right there in terms of the effectiveness of the vaccine.鈥�
The downside of this approach is that it may require more paperwork and logistics to verify that people were vaccinated before approving the use of COVID-19 leave days. Districts will also eventually need to consider whether to require COVID-19 booster shots as a condition for paid leave eligibility.
Should classified and part-time employees be eligible?
Teachers aren鈥檛 the only school workers who need time off to deal with COVID-19. Many part-time and classified school employees鈥攍ike bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria attendants, and instructional assistants鈥攁lready get less paid leave offered to them than their full-time, tenured colleagues. Paid leave policies that exclude those workers risk exacerbating the sense that those crucial jobs are marginal, even as shortages for those positions are particularly acute.
In the Johnson City district in Tennessee, for instance, certified staff members can take days off from a sick leave bank, while classified staff members can only donate unused sick days to each other, according to a district spokesperson.
Should workers get COVID-19 leave for days they already took off?
Some districts, like the , are just now creating policies for COVID-19 leave employees can use for this school year. But many school workers have already taken time off this school year because of COVID-19.
Districts have to decide whether those employees who used their own sick leave or should get some of it back. The Fox C-6 district in Missouri, for instance, that applies retroactively to Nov. 18, when the district stopped requiring masks in school buildings. The Ouachita Parish district in Louisiana in mid-September that applied retroactively to Aug. 1, before the school year started.
Should people who are impacted by but aren鈥檛 sick with COVID-19 be eligible for COVID leave?
There are plenty of scenarios where a person is affected by COVID-19 and unable to come to work despite not feeling sick themselves. They might be taking care of a sick child or other family member. They might be unable to afford or secure day care for a child who鈥檚 not sick but is required to stay home and quarantine after an exposure. They might have been exposed themselves and never end up testing positive, but still need to remain in quarantine.
All of these scenarios exist because of the unusual circumstances the pandemic has created. But districts don鈥檛 all agree on whether they should be covered in COVID-specific leave policies.
Some districts are taking a more expansive view of COVID-19 days off than others. The Springfield district, for instance, allows employees to use COVID-specific leave when they鈥檙e taking care of a sick or quarantining child鈥攂ut only if that child is in 8th grade or younger. 鈥淭ypically a high school student doesn鈥檛 need a parent to stay home with them,鈥� Mulford said.
The Fox C-6 district is among many that require employees to show a positive COVID-19 test in order to qualify for the extra days off.
Where did the employee鈥檚 exposure take place?
Some districts, like the Meridian district in Illinois, are offering COVID-19 leave to employees only when they can prove they were exposed or sickened with COVID-19 as a result of working in the school building.
鈥淚f we can create a nexus to school, we count it as such,鈥� Caposey, the Meridian superintendent, wrote in an email. 鈥淪o, if Mr. Smith has three positive kids in his class and then tests positive, we count it. If Ms. Johnson is a direct contact of Timmy and has to quarantine, we count it. If we have no nexus at school, we do not count it.鈥�
Making those determinations can be labor-intensive and 鈥渟tressful,鈥� said Jessica Duren, human resources director at the Portsmouth district in Virginia. Her team has been going back and forth on numerous occasions with district employees who claim they鈥檙e eligible for COVID leave because they were exposed at the school building.
In some cases, employees are choosing to quarantine out of an abundance of caution that鈥檚 not backed up by local and federal public health guidance, Duren said.
In others, though, employees are complying with the policy even if it appears they aren鈥檛. One person applied for COVID leave for taking care of their sick child. Duren鈥檚 team denied the request at first, failing to make the connection to an at-school COVID-19 case. But it turned out the employee was a bus driver, and her child had been exposed on her mother鈥檚 bus.
Parsing all these nuances 鈥渋s a lot of extra work,鈥� Duren said.
How much is all of this going to cost us?
There鈥檚 no straightforward answer. Some district leaders reason that they would have to pay for substitutes for employees who have to be out regardless of whether the district is giving them extra leave or not. Others counter that employees will likely take more days off if they鈥檙e given more opportunities to do so, necessitating higher substitute costs.
Some districts are using federal COVID-19 relief funds and their own contingency accounts to pay for substitute teachers. But those federal funds are finite, and many districts are juggling dozens of priorities for them. Cash-strapped districts may struggle more than well-off districts to weigh the cost of providing COVID-19 leave against the cost of withholding it.
