Teacher challenges district policy on disability, assault leave

A teacher was assaulted by a student while working and notified her district that she would take assault leave to recover from her injuries. 

In Texas, school district employees who are physically assaulted while working are entitled to paid leave necessary to recuperate from physical injuries for up to two years beyond the date of the assault. 

In this case, the district decided that its policy required the teacher to use her temporary disability leave at the same time as her assault leave. Temporary disability leave is required for full-time teachers under Texas law and permits a teacher who is temporarily unable to perform the essential functions of their job due to a disability to take up to 180 days of unpaid leave. 

The teacher required surgery for injuries she sustained as a result of the assault and was not able to return to work after her temporary disability leave ran out (although she was able to continue on assault leave).

The teacher filed a grievance, requesting confirmation that the district couldn’t make her use temporary disability leave concurrently with the assault leave. The teacher escalated the grievance to the Texas commissioner of education, who decided that the district did not violate Texas law by requiring that temporary disability leave be used at the same time as assault leave. 

The teacher appealed the commissioner’s decision to a Texas Court of Appeals, which agreed with the commissioner’s decision. 

Texas law specifies that a district cannot make a teacher use assault leave concurrently with accrued personal leave or “all other days of leave provided…by the school district.” However, the court determined that temporary disability leave is provided through Texas law, and therefore not provided by the school district. 

The court concluded that a district may require a teacher to use temporary disability leave — or other types of leave provided through law and not “by the school district” — concurrently with assault leave.