Catastrophic Leave Bank Explainer

10/31/2023

In year’s past, SDEA union members had the foresight to win the right to a Catastrophic Leave Bank (CLB) in our contract. The purpose of the CLB is to create a bank of donated sick and vacation leave days which may be used by unit members suffering from a catastrophic illness or injury. Catastrophic illness or injury is defined to mean a severe, incapacitating illness or injury which is expected to continue for an extended period of time which prevents the unit member from performing their duties. SDEA members donate one sick day or vacation day (ECE employees get vacation days since they are year-round employees) in order to become members of the bank, and are eligible to use up to 40 sick leave days to extend their paid sick leave period. Once a member of the CLB, the district then deducts one sick day automatically from each participating  CLB’s members’ bank of accrued sick leave once every three years. You can donate days and become members of the CLB at any time, but in order to stop deductions, you must notify HR during the district’s health benefits open enrollment period, which happens in late fall of each school year. 

To donate sick leave or vacation leave, the unit member must have a sick leave accrual equal to at least the minimum number of hours they wish to donate to the CLB. The union member acknowledges that the donation is irrevocable. The union member acknowledges that a donation to the CLB will be a general donation and may not be designated for the use of any specific participant.

In order to be able to withdraw from the CLB, the union member must have exhausted all fully paid leave (full pay sick leave or vacation leave), have donated one day during the last donation period, and have been a member of the bank for at least 90 calendar days prior to the request for leave. The withdrawal process requires the employee to submit a form (found here on the SDUSD HR web page) to HR along with a doctor’s note from a physician licensed to practice in CA, and the request must be approved by HR. Applications are processed on a first come, first served basis, and approval is given in up to 20 work day chunks. Once 20 days are over, the member can request an additional 20 days, for a total of 40 days per illness or injury within a school year. Anyone who has gotten catastrophic leave in any year will not be approved for additional catastrophic leave in a subsequent school year until all pending applications have been processed for that school year. Days granted, but not used, are returned to the bank. Anyone getting Workers’ Compensation will not be given catastrophic leave until Workers’ Compensation leave benefits are first exhausted. 

A union member whose application for paid catastrophic sick leave is denied, may request that the decision be reviewed by the Contract Administration Committee (CAC), which is a joint SDEA and SDUSD committee, established by the contract to review certain contract language and procedures. It meets on a monthly basis. The CAC shall ensure that all information contained in the review remains confidential and that the provisions of the contract were appropriately applied in evaluating the unit member’s application. The CAC’s decision shall be final and binding. Denials of CLB requests by HR or CAC are not subject to the grievance procedure. More information can be found in Section 10.22 of the union contract.