BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 5606

By: Wilson

Public Education

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The bill author has informed the committee that experienced teachers who want to retire have no way to give their sick day leave to eligible teachers in their district, leaving possibly hundreds of unused sick leave days that other teachers are unable to use. C.S.H.B. 5606 seeks to address this issue by providing for a program under which the accrued sick leave days of an employee of a public school district or open-enrollment charter school, upon retirement, are transferred into a sick leave pool, which may be used by any district or charter school employee who has exhausted their granted sick leave days, subject to any existing policies implemented by the district or charter school.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 5606 amends the Education Code to require a public school district's board of trustees or an open-enrollment charter school's governing body to establish a program under which a retiring employee's accrued sick leave is contributed to a sick leave pool on the retirement of the retiring employee and sick leave contributed to the pool may be used by a district or charter school employee who has exhausted the employee's sick leave, subject to any district or school policy regarding the use of sick leave. The bill establishes that a district's board of trustees or a charter school's governing body that adopted a policy related to a retiring employee's accrued sick leave before September 1, 2025, is not required to establish a sick leave pool program if establishing the program would conflict with that policy.

C.S.H.B. 5606 requires any informational handbook a district provides to employees to include information on the sick leave pool created under the bill's provisions.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2025.

COMPARISON OF INTRODUCED AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 5606 may differ from the introduced in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

While both versions of the bill provide for accrued sick leave days of a retiring employee to be used by an employee who has exhausted their sick leave, subject to an applicable district or school policy, the substitute includes provisions not present in the introduced requiring a district's board or charter school's governing body to establish a program for the contribution of such sick leave and providing that a district's board or charter school's governing body that adopted a policy related to a retiring employee's accrued sick leave before September 1, 2025, is not required to establish a program under the bill.

The substitute includes a requirement absent from the introduced for any informational handbook a district provides to employees to include information on the sick leave pool created under the bill's provisions.

The substitute changes the bill's effective date to remove the possibility for its immediate effect, contingent on receiving the requisite vote, which was present in the introduced.