School Employees

Teachers, aides and paraeducators, custodians, food service workers, bus drivers, campus supervisors, groundskeepers, maintenance staff, and office personnel.

The benefit nobody tells you about.

Education Code § 44984 (certificated) and § 45192 (classified) each provide not less than 60 days of industrial accident and illness leave for the same injury — and the payment is coordinated with workers' compensation so that the combined amount equals your full salary.

Not two-thirds. Full salary.

It is a statutory minimum, not a district courtesy, and your bargaining agreement may provide more.

How the 60 days actually work

For certificated employees (§ 44984): the leave is "not less than 60 days during which the schools of the school district are required to be in session" for the same accident or illness. The district pays salary that, added to your temporary disability indemnity, equals not more than your full salary — with "full salary" computed using the § 4453 average weekly earnings rules, but without the statutory maximum and minimum limits that cap ordinary temporary disability.

For classified employees (§ 45192): "not less than 60 working days in any one fiscal year for the same accident." Payment for wages lost, added to the workers' compensation award, shall not exceed the normal wage for the day.

Four rules that catch people:

The leave does not accumulate year to year. Unused days do not carry forward.

It commences on the first day of absence, and — for classified employees — is reduced by one day for each day of authorized absence regardless of the compensation award. In other words, the clock runs whether or not comp is paying.

When it is exhausted, you may use accumulated sick leave — but only enough that, added to the workers' compensation payment, provides a full day's wage. You are not permitted to double up.

And for classified employees, a paid leave period is not a break in service, and an employee whose leave is exhausted may be placed on a reemployment list for up to 39 months.

If you are a California school employee off work with an industrial injury and you are receiving only two-thirds of your wage, ask your district about industrial accident leave under § 44984 or § 45192 by name.

Note that § 4850 — the full year of full salary for public safety — does not apply to school employees, with the narrow exception of Los Angeles Unified School District police officers, who are named in the statute. How § 4850 works.

What the work does

Lifting and student handling. Special education aides, paraeducators, and health technicians lift, transfer, and physically manage students — often without equipment, often alone, and often without training. Backs and shoulders. Low back injuries. · Shoulder injuries.

Assault and student violence. This is a work injury. And where the injury results from being the victim of a violent act, § 4660.1(c)(2)(A) permits the psychiatric impairment to be rated — which most injured workers cannot access.

And since July 1, 2024, this is no longer a health care–only rule.

Labor Code § 6401.9 (SB 553) requires nearly every California employer to maintain a written Workplace Violence Prevention Plan and a Violent Incident Log — recording the date, time, location, type of violence, and consequences of each incident — and to make those records available to employees and their representatives.

Ask for the log by name. A documented history of incidents with nothing done about it is the core of a § 4553 serious and willful misconduct petition — one-half more, paid by the employer personally under Insurance Code § 11661, with a twelve-month deadline. How.

How that works.

Custodial and maintenance work. Chemical exposure from cleaning products — a common and almost never claimed source of occupational asthma — plus lifting, ladders, and repetitive strain. Chemical exposure. · Janitorial workers.

Bus drivers. Whole-body vibration, prolonged sitting, entering and exiting the vehicle, securing wheelchairs, and crashes. Truck and delivery driver claims cover the same mechanisms.

Food service. Burns, cuts, slips, and lifting. Restaurant and food service.

Grounds and maintenance. Heat, noise, equipment, and — in older campuses — asbestos and lead during renovation. Heat illness. · Asbestos.

Voice injury. Chronic vocal strain, nodules, and polyps are recognized occupational conditions in teachers and are essentially never filed.

And psychiatric injury. A purely psychiatric claim carries a higher standard — actual employment events must be predominant as to all causes combined under § 3208.3(b) — and a good faith personnel action defense under § 3208.3(h). But where the injury follows a violent act, the standard drops to "a substantial cause — at least 35 to 40 percent." Psychiatric injury claims.

Retirement runs alongside

CalSTRS and CalPERS disability provisions are separate proceedings from your workers' compensation claim, decided on a different standard, and the reports written for one get read by the other.

Decisions in one constrain the other, and they are usually made by different people who are not talking to each other. More on coordinating them.

Frequently asked questions