Joint Association Statement
Expressing Concerns Regarding A‐5060/S‐3440: Expands scope of school district
employee sick leave.

On behalf of the organizations listed above (NJSBA, NJASA, NJPSA, GSCS and NJASBO), we believe issues related to employee benefits, including paid time off, are and should remain subject to collective bargaining and not dictated by statute. The traditional collective bargaining process allows for the interests of all interested parties – boards of education, administrators, staff, students, parents, and taxpayers – to be taken into consideration. Furthermore, we believe this legislation will increase costs due to the likely increased utilization of substitute teachers, which will also be disruptive to the educational continuity of our students.

However, despite our opposition to A‐5060/S‐440, we offer the following suggestions that could mitigate its
financial, operational, and educational impact. These suggestions represent the collective viewpoints of the NJ
School Boards Association, NJ Association of School Administrators, Garden State Coalition of Schools, NJ
Association of School Business Officials, and NJ Principals and Supervisors Association.

1. Allow for Negotiation Over the Use of “18A” Sick Leave. Under current law (18A:30‐2), school
employees may only use their statutory sick leave days when they are personally ill. Proponents of the
legislation have argued that they should be entitled to use such days for other reasons, such as family
illness. Family illness days are already negotiated in many school districts’ collective bargaining
agreements. We believe that any expansion of the use of these sick days should be left to the
traditional “give and take” at the negotiating table. Codifying these permissible uses into law will take
an important negotiating item off the table. We suggest that, to balance the interests of labor and
management, the bill list the allowable permissible uses of “18A” sick days that may be mutually
agreed upon by employers and employees through the collective bargaining process, which would help
strike an appropriate balance between the priorities of all interested parties.
2. Avoid Redundancies Between Existing Contracts and A‐5060/S‐3440. It is important to emphasize
that many school districts already have collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) containing provisions
allowing employees to take paid time off for the myriad permissible uses listed in A‐5060/S‐3440, such
as for a family illness, personal reasons, or to make court appearances. These provisions have been
negotiated in good faith and in recognition of the fact that the use of “18A” (i.e., statutory) sick days is
limited to reasons of personal illness. Therefore, we suggest that any provisions in existing CBAs or
individual employment contracts that provide paid time off for the reasons delineated in A‐5060/S‐
3440 be deemed null and void once the law goes into effect. This will also eliminate any confusion as
to whether an employee will be using their “18A” sick leave, or any leave provided through a CBA.
3. Delay Effective Date. Should this legislation be signed into law, we believe that administrators would
benefit from a longer implementation runway to minimize disruption. Furthermore, boards of
education and their union representatives would have the ability to factor any change in the law into
their next round of collective negotiations. We suggest that the bill be amended such that it becomes
effective for each school district upon the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement covering
the greatest number of employees (and upon the approval of any individual employment contract
entered into after the effective date), but no earlier than the start of the 2024‐2025 school year.
4. Eliminate Limitations on Requesting Documentation. Under existing law (18A:30‐4), boards of
education have the authority request a physician certificate whenever an employee takes sick leave.
They are not required to do so, and many CBAs include negotiated provisions dictating the
circumstances under which an employer may request documentation. With the expansion of the
permissible use of sick leave under this bill, we believe it is even more important that supervisors have
the ability to ensure that employees are indeed taking paid leave for a valid purpose and prevent the
potential for abuse. Section 2e of the bill provides that employers may only request documentation
after an employee takes 3 or more consecutive days off. This would negate existing contractual
provisions, some of which actually include longer timeframes before boards may request
documentation. We believe that the status quo should remain in place and that boards of education
maintain the ability to request documentation as they are under current law and existing contracts.
This subsection should be repealed. In the alternative, it should include additional language such as
“…and may require such reasonable documentation for less than three consecutive days if the
collective bargaining agreement provides as such”. Notice provisions are also included in CBAs, and
we believe that those should remain intact as well.
5. Eliminate Bereavement as Permissible Use. This legislation appears to be modeled on of New Jersey’s
statewide Earned Sick Leave Law, which was enacted in 2018, as the permissible uses of sick leave
under A‐5060/S‐3440 essentially mirror the 2018 law. However, this legislation goes beyond the scope
of the 2018 law by allowing employees to use their 18 sick days due to “the death of a family member
for up to seven days”. If the intent is to mirror the 2018 law, then this provision should be eliminated
entirely. This expansion also raises state mandate/state pay concerns. In addition, many CBAs already
include provisions concerning bereavement leave, which would remain in place.
6. Limit Leave for School‐Related Conferences. To preserve educational continuity, we feel school
employees should only be able to attend their child’s school‐related conferences if “required” by
teacher/school administrators, rather than at their “request” as well. See paragraph (6) of 18A:30‐1.a.
Thank you for your attention to these concerns and suggestions. We urge the sponsors and Legislature to
consider the unintended consequences of this legislation, not only on boards of education, but on students,
parents, and taxpayers as well.

Timothy Purnell, Ed.D.
Executive Director/CEO
New Jersey School Boards Association
Richard G. Bozza, Ed. D.
Executive Director
New Jersey Association of School Administrators
Elisabeth Ginsburg, Executive Director
Garden State Coalition of Schools Susan Young, Executive Director
New Jersey Association of School Business Officials
Karen A. Bingert, Executive Director
New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association