Public Act 103-0395
Effective January 1, 2024, Public Act 103-0395 modified Section 24-2 of the School Code and added educational support personnel employees to the long-existing law that previously applied only to teachers for the purposes of legal or special holidays. Section 24-2 now relevantly states, “No deduction shall be made from the time or compensation of a school employee, including an educational support personnel employee, on account of any legal or special holiday in which that employee would have otherwise been scheduled to work but for the legal or special holiday.” The change in law is far from a technicality for many districts, where holidays may not have been paid historically for non-salaried staff who are not working the days.
The Act identifies legal school holidays as “January 1, New Year’s Day; the third Monday in January, the Birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; February 12, the Birthday of President Abraham Lincoln; the first Monday in March (to be known as Casmir Pulaski’s birthday); Good Friday; the day designated as Memorial Day by federal law; June 19, Juneteenth National Freedom Day; July 4, Independence Day; the first Monday in September, Labor Day; the second Monday in October, Columbus Day; November 11, Veterans’ Day; the Thursday in November commonly called Thanksgiving Day; and December 25, Christmas Day.” In addition to these outlined holidays, Public Act 103-0467 added Section 1-24 to the Election Code, 10 ILCS 5/1-24, to deem November 5, 2024, General Election Day, a state holiday and a “legal school holiday for purposes of the School Code.” Accordingly, school districts should consider the 2024 General Election Day a legal school holiday.
For some school districts, this may have little or no impact where a collective bargaining agreement already addresses holidays. However, school districts with educational support employees who are not working pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement are left to decipher and implement the language in light of their regional realities.
For twelve-month educational support personnel employees—those individuals hired to work year-round on a set schedule (i.e., custodians, year-round administrative assistants)—the result is that this Act requires they be paid for the identified holidays for which they are not otherwise being paid, or any special holidays granted by the school board. These employees work a schedule tied to calendar weeks, so a day off on a Monday for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would be a date on which the employee would have otherwise worked and thus the employee suffers a loss as against the pay they would ordinarily receive for the week. The statute now requires that person to be paid for the day, even though unworked.
However, holiday pay where not otherwise required by a collective bargaining agreement for nine- and ten-month educational support personnel employees is not clearly required by the statute. For nine- and ten-month employees who are hired for a set number of days that correlates with the school calendar of the district, there is likely “no deduction” to the “time or compensation of a school employee” when they do not receive pay for a legal holiday where they do not work. In other words, if a holiday were added, the employee would still work the same number of days – because the extra day would be “added” as a workday elsewhere in the calendar. It is not clear on the face of the statute that additional days are required to be paid to employees who suffer no loss or deduction in pay as a function of the existence of a holiday during the year.
As always, it will be important for schools to review their collective bargaining agreements and policies to determine the application of the changes to this Act, and to carefully review practices and local realities as this and other changes are implemented.