As kids head back to school and do their best to avoid detention, employers can stay out of trouble by knowing whether their state mandates “school activity” leave for employees. This year, Indiana joined the ranks of several others states which require employers to provide their employees with time off for reasons related to their children’s school activities. States that mandate school activity leave include California, District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
The laws vary by state, including the rules regarding coverage, eligibility for leave, whether the leave is paid or unpaid, the length of leave, and notification requirements. Covered reasons for leave may include one or more of the following: enrolling a child in school, addressing a school-related emergency, attending school conferences or academic meetings, attending behavioral meetings, or broadly, to attend school-related activities or school-sponsored events.
In some states, this type of leave is encompassed within earned paid leave laws. For example, in New Jersey, the state’s paid sick leave law includes school activity leave. One of the permitted reasons to use paid sick leave in New Jersey includes an employee’s need to attend school-related conferences, meetings, or events regarding the education of the employee’s child; or to attend a school-related meeting regarding the health of the employee’s child.
In other states, school activity leave laws are standalone laws, which is the case for Indiana. Indiana’s new law, effective July 1, 2025, has broad coverage (applying to employers with one or more employees in the state) but is relatively narrow in scope. It provides that employers may not take adverse employment actions against employees who are absent from work to attend “an attendance conference” or a “case conference committee meeting” with respect to the employee’s child. Key provisions of the new law include:
- An employer is not required to pay the employee for the leave.
- An employer may take an adverse employment action against an employee because of the employee’s absence from work for these reasons if:
- the employee has attended more than one conference or more than one meeting for the calendar year;
- the absence was longer than reasonably necessary to attend and travel to and from the conference or meeting; or
- the employee failed to give the employer notice of the conference or meeting at least five days in advance of the conference or meeting.
- Employees must provide documentation to show they attended a conference or meeting covered under the law.
- Employees must make a reasonable effort to schedule the conference or meeting as an electronic conference or meeting.
Currently, Indiana’s law is set to expire on July 1, 2029.
