SB 20

Abstract

The primary purpose of this Act is to remove the requirement that a public school district employee who donates leave to another employee must donate 2 days of leave for the other employee to receive 1 day of leave. Further, this Act repeals Chapter 187 of Volume 81 of the Laws of Delaware ("this law"). Adopted in 2017, this law was designed to provide full-time employees of the State, including employees of school districts, with the ability to donate leave to other employees for use in connection with the birth or adoption of a child under 6 years of age. This law has never taken effect as the law does not take effect until the Office of Management and Budget ("OMB") receives a letter from the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") stating that the tax treatment of the expansion of the donated leave program contemplated by this law will receive the same tax treatment as Delaware’s current donated leave program. OMB has not requested this letter from the IRS because, based on OMB's research, OMB does not believe this law would receive the same tax treatment by the IRS and because the General Assembly subsequently enacted Chapter 285 of Volume 81 of the Laws of Delaware, which provides 12 weeks of paid leave upon the birth or adoption of a child 6 years of age or younger for those continuously employed for at least 1 year as full-time employees of this State, including employees of school districts. Sections 1 and 2 of this Act re-enact portions of Chapter 187 of Volume 81 of the Laws of Delaware that would have also applied to the existing donated leave program for catastrophic illness. Specifically these provisions are intended to do the following: (1) Clarify how much leave employees of a public school district who do not accrue annual leave must use before being eligible for donated leave. (2) Clarify the interaction between donated leave and leave available under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual, including transferring existing definitions to a central definition section and transferring provisions that are substantive law out of defined terms. This Act is named in honor of Christopher Chujoy, a special education instructional aide in the Red Clay Consolidated School District. Mr. Chujoy was diagnosed in August 2022 with stage IV cancer. Mr. Chujoy used up all of his available sick time before his passing and his situation raised the issue that is the primary purpose of this Act.