What’s a valid reason for NC teachers to take personal days? New law doesn’t explain.
North Carolina public school teachers are trying to find out how they can take personal days without having money taken from their pay to hire a substitute.
The new state budget ends the practice in which $50 was automatically deducted from a teacher’s paycheck when a sub was hired to cover their classes on a personal leave day.
But questions exist about how the new practice, which involves giving a reason for taking a personal day, will be carried out in the state’s 2,600 public schools.
Failure to give a reason — or even potentially a reason not being considered valid — could result in teachers having more than $100 taken out of their pay.
“The General Assembly is saying, ‘Oh we’re taking away the fee. All you have to do is tell us why you need to take the day off,’” said Kristin Beller, president of the Wake County chapter of the N.C. Association of Educators. “What’s problematic for teachers is it’s a personal day.
“The point of a personal day is not saying why you need it. You just take it because you need to take it.”
Charging teachers for personal days
North Carolina was one of the few states that required teachers to help pay for the cost of hiring substitutes. This resulted in some teachers using sick days, even when they weren’t ill, to avoid being charged for taking off on a school day, according to Rep. Jeffrey Elmore, a Wilkes County Republican and public school teacher.
Elmore had proposed legislation saying teachers who give a reason for a personal day shouldn’t be charged for hiring a sub. But failure to give a reason under the legislation would mean that teachers are now charged “the full cost of hiring the substitute,” doubling the $50 payroll deduction.
Elmore’s bill was included as part of the state budget.
The budget doesn’t define what reasons are valid for taking a personal day, leaving school districts and charter schools trying to figure out how to implement the change.
“The provision would allow sufficient flexibility in how they phrased ‘a reason’ so that individual LEAs may create their own policies and procedures related to how they will implement this provision,” the state Department of Public Instruction says in a memo to schools.
DPI says neither the agency nor the State Board of Education will define what’s a a valid reason.
Flexibility for taking personal days
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system has decided to use a broad approach for accepting reasons from teachers for taking personal days, according to Andy Jenks, a district spokesman.
Shortly before winter break, the Wake County school system emailed teachers that “an elaborate description is not required.” when they give reasons for taking personal leave.
“Teachers may list reasons such as sick, home with sick child(ren), travel, etc,” Wake said in the email. “No reason is needed if the personal leave is taken on a teacher workday.”
Wake recently raised the pay for substitute teachers to address shortages. The district told teachers this means that if they don’t give a reason they’ll now have $115 deducted from their pay for the personal day.
Beller of Wake NCAE praised the district for its flexibility on handing the leave requests.
“The county it seems is trying to honor that we’re professionals,” Beller said.
This story was originally published December 23, 2021 at 12:51 PM.
