Boston City Councillor Charles C. Yancey, on February 6, 2008, reintroduced an Ordinance [Docket 0212] that would extend current Parental School Leave benefits to include paid-time for parents employed by the City of Boston.

The Ordinance is intended to enhance the rights of parents employed by the City of Boston and who are entitled to the employment benefits provided by the City of Boston.

"This is just a very modest attempt to tell our employees that we really care about them and that Boston is a family-friendly city," Councillor Yancey said, noting that the original Parental School Leave legislation, which allows unpaid leave, doesn’t go far enough to promote parental involvement. His original Parental School Leave law, which was successfully introduced in 1994 to encourage parental participation in Boston's schools, allows biological and/or adopted parents, or legal guardians of children attending the Boston public school system, to take off up to 21 hours per year from their jobs to visit their children's schools.

Councillor Yancey, who described the positive impact that parental visits had on his own public school education, said amending the law to include pay will further increase the level of parental participation in Boston's schools and it will contribute to lowering the drop-out rate. The amended version of the Parental School Leave law, which was referred to the committee on Government Operations, will allow city employees to be paid for up to three days for visiting their children's schools. "It will allow parents, who are currently unable to afford time off from their jobs, to visit their children's schools without facing lost wages or benefits," he said.

The City of Boston currently provides paid leave for parents to register their children for school. But Councillor Yancey noted that his legislation provides parents with additional opportunities to visit schools, such as during performances, open houses, or special appointments.

In addition, Councillor Yancey's legislation protects employees from being threatened or suspended by their bosses. If employers penalize workers for taking off time to visit schools of their children, they can be subjected to civil penalties fives times the amount of an employee's lost wages and work benefits.

The Ordinance states that the City of Boston shall not discharge nor in any way discriminate against a Parent of a Pupil in kindergarten or grades one (1) to twelve (12), inclusive, for taking off up to twenty-one (21) hours pursuant to these sections in each school calendar year for school visits regarding the Pupil, if the Parent, prior to taking time off pursuant to these sections, gives clear and reasonable notice to the Parent’s appropriate supervisor of the Parent’s planned absence. A Parent that is an employee of the City of Boston shall not be required to use existing vacation time, personal leave time, or compensatory time for purposes of this planned absence but shall be paid the parent's normal rate of pay from the City of Boston for each qualified hour of absence. The Parent, if requested by the Parent's appropriate supervisor within the City of Boston, shall provide documentation from the Pupil's school as proof that the Parent visited the Pupil's school on a specific date and at a particular time.

A parent, who is discharged, demoted, threatened, suspended, or in any other manner discriminated against in terms and conditions of employment by the City of Boston because the parent has taken qualified time off pursuant to these sections shall be immediately entitled to reinstatement and reimbursement of lost wages and work benefits resulting from such discharge, demotion, threat, suspension, or other related discrimination.

Councillor Yancey called parental-teacher partnerships a necessary component of successful education. "This legislation is crucial in that it provides opportunity for greater parental involvement in children's education," he said. He added that the Ordinance may not only improve the academic success of Boston children, but it also may be an incentive for people to send their children to Boston Public Schools and to become City of Boston employees.