CHICAGO (AP) - The Illinois Supreme Court, in an decision handed down Thursday, ruled a teacher in Wood Dale School District 7 was not entitled to all her paid sick leave because she gave birth just before summer break.
The court said the time of birth gave elementary school teacher Margaret Dynak ample time to recover before she returned to work.
Dynak gave birth to her second child in June 2016. She informed the Wood Dale school district she was to have a C-section a day before school was to be dismissed for the summer. In her lawsuit against the district, Dynak contended she was permitted to use only 1 ½ days to cover the time she was excused for the procedure. She was told she could not take the remaining paid time off when school resumed in the fall, according to her lawsuit. As a result, she instead took 12 weeks of unpaid leave at the start of the 2016-17 school year, under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act.
The ruling, which establishes precedent for most Illinois school districts, held the Wood Dale school district doesn’t have to let teachers carry over benefits to the new school year for births that occurred during or right before summer break. But teachers can take unpaid time off through the Family and Medical Leave Act.
When Illinois Education Association lawyers argued the case before the justices in January, they contended the Illinois School Code did not explicitly prohibit a teacher from taking sick leave connected to childbirth, even if the period was interrupted by a school break. The union also contended the law addressed more than solely the medical need to recover from childbirth since it mentions adoption and seems to consider time that a parent needs to bond with a child. The court rejected that argument.
In the majority opinion, Chief Justice Anne Burke wrote a measure in the school code granting 30 days of paid sick leave to male and female teachers for “birth, adoption, or placement for adoption” must be used immediately.
In a statement, Illinois Education Association President Kathi Griffin said she and her organization are disappointed in the court’s decision.
“That said, this isn’t the last stop for our members and their families,” she said. “IEA will advocate for language that confirms what we believe was always in the school code: an affirmative right to take paid leave for the birth of a child regardless of when the child is born.”
Wood Dale Superintendent John Corbett did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. In January, Corbett said the legislature can change the law and the union is free to bargain for such a benefit.
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