20 U.S.C. § 904: Leave

Summary

Teachers who are not substitutes earn paid leave at the rate of one day for each calendar month (or part of a month) in a school year. If the school year is longer than eight months and a teacher works the whole year, the teacher gets ten days of leave; a teacher in a supervisory job gets at least ten and up to thirteen days. Saturdays, Sundays, regular holidays, and other approved nonwork days do not count as leave days. The leave can be used for maternity, the teacher’s own illness, illness, contagious disease, or death in the immediate family, or for personal emergencies. If a teacher gives proper advance notice, up to three days of leave each school year may be used for any purpose. People who are found to hold a teaching job or who move into a teaching job without a break keep their prior annual and sick leave balances. Sick leave is treated as the leave described above; annual leave is handled under Defense Department rules. If someone has more sick leave than the allowed maximum, the extra stays on their record, but using more than the year’s accrual will reduce the next year’s maximum until the excess is gone. When a teacher leaves, regular annual leave is paid out under 5 U.S.C. 5551, but the leave earned under the rule above is not paid out. If a teacher moves to a different leave system, their leave is moved on an adjusted basis under Office of Personnel Management rules. The Director of Dependents’ Education must set up a voluntary leave transfer program and may set up a leave bank. Only the small amount of leave that may be used for any purpose (the up-to-three-day leave) can be transferred under those programs.

Title 20, §904

Education, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Entitlement; amount

Subject to the regulations prescribed and issued by the Secretary of Defense under section 902 of this title, each teacher (other than an individual employed as a substitute teacher) shall be entitled to cumulative leave, with pay, which shall accrue at the rate of one day for each calendar month, or part thereof, of a school year, except that if the school year includes more than eight months, any such teacher who shall have served for the entire school year shall be entitled to ten (or, if such teacher is employed in a supervisory position or higher, not less than ten and not more than thirteen) days of cumulative leave with pay.

(b)Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, and nonwork days

Saturdays, Sundays, regularly scheduled holidays, and other administratively authorized nonwork days shall not be considered to be days of leave for the purposes of subsection (a) of this section.

(c)Purposes for taking leave

Subject to the regulations prescribed and issued by the Secretary of Defense, leave earned by any teacher under subsection (a) of this section may be used by such teacher—

(1)for maternity purposes,

(2)in the event of the illness of such teacher,

(3)in the event of illness, contagious disease, or death in the immediate family of such teacher, and

(4)in the event of any personal emergency.

If appropriate advance notice is given of the intended absence of a teacher, not to exceed three days of such leave may be granted for any purpose in each school year to such teacher.

(d)Credit for persons holding teaching positions and for employees transferred, promoted or reappointed

Any individual—

(1)who is holding a position which is determined to be a teaching position, or

(2)who is an employee of the Federal Government or the municipal government of the District of Columbia who is transferred, promoted, or reappointed, without break in service, from a position under a different leave system to a teaching position,

shall be credited, for the purposes of the leave system provided by this section, with the annual and sick leave to his credit immediately prior to the effective date of such determination, transfer, promotion, or reappointment. Sick leave so credited shall be included in the leave provided for in subsection (a) of this section. Annual leave so credited shall not be included in the leave provided for in such subsection but shall be used under regulations which shall be prescribed by the Secretary of Defense.

(e)Excess of maximum amount of accumulated leave; reduction

In any case in which the amount of sick leave, which is to the credit of any individual under a different leave system immediately prior to the date on which he becomes subject as a teacher to the leave system provided by this section and which is included in the leave provided for in subsection (a) of this section, is in excess of the maximum amount of accumulated leave allowable under subparagraph (2) of such subsection, such excess shall remain to the credit of such teacher until used, but the use during any leave year of an amount in excess of the aggregate amount which shall have accrued during such year shall reduce automatically the maximum allowable amount of accumulated leave at the beginning of the next leave year until such amount no longer exceeds the maximum amount allowable under subparagraph (2) of subsection (a) of this section.

(f)Liquidation of unused leave upon separation

Any annual leave remaining, upon his separation from the service, to the credit of an individual within the purview of this section shall be liquidated in accordance with section 5551 of title 5, except that leave earned or included under subsection (a) of this section shall not be liquidated.

(g)Transfer of leave credit for teachers transferred, promoted or reappointed to positions under different leave system

In the case of any teacher who is transferred, promoted, or reappointed, without break in service, to a position under a different leave system, the annual leave, and any other leave earned or credited under this section, which is to his credit immediately prior to such transfer, promotion, or reappointment, shall be transferred to his credit in the employing agency on an adjusted basis in accordance with regulations which shall be prescribed by the Director of the Office of Personnel Management.

(h)Voluntary leave transfer and bank programs

The Director of Dependents’ Education, in consultation with the Director of the Office of Personnel Management—

(1)shall establish for teachers a voluntary leave transfer program similar to the one under subchapter III of chapter 63 of title 5; and

(2)may establish for teachers a voluntary leave bank program similar to the one under subchapter IV of chapter 63 of title 5.

Only leave described in the last sentence of subsection (c) of this section (relating to leave that may be used by a teacher for any purpose) may be transferred under any program established under this subsection.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification In subsec. (f), “section 5551 of title 5” substituted for “the Act of December 21, 1944 (5 U.S.C. 61b and the following)” on authority of Pub. L. 89–554, § 7(b), Sept. 6, 1966, 80 Stat. 631, the first section of which enacted Title 5, Government Organization and Employees. Section was formerly classified to section 2354 of Title 5 prior to the general revision and enactment of Title 5 by Pub. L. 89–554, § 1, Sept. 6, 1966, 80 Stat. 378.

Amendments

1994—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 103–425, § 1(1), inserted “(or, if such teacher is employed in a supervisory position or higher, not less than ten and not more than thirteen)” after “ten”. Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 103–425, § 1(2), substituted “Secretary of Defense” for “Secretary of the military department concerned” in concluding provisions. Subsec. (h). Pub. L. 103–425, § 1(3), added subsec. (h). 1984—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 98–369 struck out provisions which had directed that not more than seventy-five days of leave could be accumulated to the credit of a teacher at any one time under this subsection.

Executive Documents

Transfer of Functions

“Director of the Office of Personnel Management” substituted for “United States Civil Service Commission” in subsec. (g), pursuant to Reorg. Plan No. 2 of 1978, § 102, 43 F.R. 36037, 92 Stat. 3783, set out under section 1101 of Title 5, Government Organization and Employees, which transferred functions vested by statute in Civil Service Commission to Director of Office of Personnel Management (except as otherwise specified), effective Jan. 1, 1979, as provided by section 1–102 of Ex. Ord. No. 12107, Dec. 28, 1978, 44 F.R. 1055, set out under section 1101 of Title 5.

§904 Leave