"I work for a school district."

The 60 days

Education Code § 44984 covers certificated employees — teachers, counselors, librarians, administrators. Education Code § 45192 covers classified employees — instructional aides, custodians, bus drivers, food service, groundskeepers, office staff, campus supervisors.

Both provide for industrial accident and illness leave in one fiscal year for the same injury, at full salary, for days you would otherwise have been working. Read the allowance carefully: the statutes say the leave "shall be for not less than 60 days" — 60 is a floor, not a ceiling. A district may provide more by policy or by collective bargaining agreement, and being told "you get up to 60" is a misreading of the statute worth correcting in writing.

Compare that to ordinary temporary disability, which is two-thirds of your average weekly earnings and capped — for a 2026 injury — at $1,764.11 a week. For most school employees, 60 days at full pay is meaningfully more money, and it does not consume the sick leave you spent years accruing.

Districts do not always volunteer this. Ask for it by statute and by name.

How the sequence works

Industrial accident leave comes first. Then, if you are still off, accumulated sick leave. Then the extended leave provisions.

Any temporary disability the carrier pays during the industrial accident leave period is generally used to offset the district's obligation, so you are not paid twice — but you receive the full-salary amount rather than the two-thirds amount.

And the 60 days do not have to be consecutive. They are per fiscal year, for the same injury.

What else is different about school employment

CalSTRS and CalPERS disability. If you cannot return, there may be a disability retirement route that runs alongside the workers' compensation case. These interact, and decisions in one affect the other — Government Code §§ 21150 and 21153 govern the CalPERS side. Do not resolve one without understanding the other.

Your district may be self-insured or in a JPA. Most California school districts participate in a joint powers authority rather than a commercial carrier. It does not change your rights; it changes who you are dealing with and sometimes how fast they move. Self-insured employers.

Assault while performing duties has its own provisions in the Education Code for certain employees, and under Labor Code § 6401.9 every California employer — schools included — must maintain a Violent Incident Log since July 1, 2024. Ask for it. It is a record made contemporaneously, by them, and it is frequently the best evidence in an assault claim.