By Michael Kaelber, Esq., Coordinator of Continuing Legal Education and Research, Foundation for Educational Administration
On January 17, 2026, Governor Phil Murphy signed P.L. 2025, c. 279. The new law, which goes into effect on July 17, 2026, makes major revisions to New Jersey’s Family Leave Act that will result in far more employees being eligible for family leave while also shortening the time period before eligibility. The new law also impacts rights available under New Jersey’s Temporary Disabilities Benefits Law, and the rights of employees to “stack” certain forms of leave, while leaving the use of other forms of leave to be determined through collective bargaining. As we discuss in this article, the law creates a complex web of new and expanded legal rights, and readers are urged to review the law in concert with their board attorney and other key players, to understand the full impact in your school district.
New Jersey’s Family Leave Act (NJFLA)
Employee Definition – c.279 amends New Jersey’s Family Leave Act, N.J.S.A. 34:11B-1 et. seq. to make more employees eligible for family leave. It amends the definition of “employee” to reduce the necessary time of employment with an employer from at least 12 months down to three months and the number of base hours of employment in the immediately preceding 12-month period from 1000 hours down to 250 hours. For school districts that means that many mid-year and late-year hires will become eligible for family leave as well as a greater number of part-time employees. While beneficial to the employee, there are staffing implications for school districts, which must fill the positions that are vacant during the family leave period. The increased number of employees eligible for family leave carries with it a price tag for school districts. The exact cost is uncertain at this time and will vary depending on the school district and its hiring and substitute practices.
Employer Definition – c.279 amends New Jersey’s Family Leave Act, N.J.S.A. 34:11B-1 et. seq. to make more employers, including certain New Jersey school districts, subject to the requirement of providing eligible employees with NJFLA family leave benefits by law. Prior to the enactment of c. 279, an employer would have NJFLA responsibility if it engaged the services of 30 or more employees for each working day during each of 20 or more calendar workweeks in the then current or immediately preceding calendar year. C. 279 reduced the number of employees necessary to trigger NJFLA responsibility from 30 to 15. Reducing the number of employees from 30 to 15 will impact a number of New Jersey’s smaller school districts, and there are many, which were exempt from statutory NJFLA responsibility, as they employed less than 30 employees. Many of these employers may have negotiated, through a collective bargaining agreement, or established by policy, employee leave provisions that may have been similar to the NJFLA but will now become subject to the provisions of the act. These school districts will need to consult with their human resources department and board attorney, review their current practices and see what they need to do to come into compliance with the NJFLA. Just like the change in definition of eligible employees, those school district employers, which now become responsible for NJFLA leave provisions which they never had before, will likely experience increased personnel costs in providing the NJFLA employee leave benefits, which will likely be more generous than what the school district was providing previously. The exact cost is uncertain at this time and will vary depending on the school district and its current employee leave practices.
New Jersey’s Temporary Disabilities Benefits Law
C. 279 amends New Jersey’s Temporary Disabilities Law, N.J.S.A. 43:21-25 et. seq. and the Family Temporary Disability Benefits Law, N.J.S.A. 43:21-39.1 et. seq. to provide that any covered individual who took any temporary disability benefits or family temporary disability leave benefits, shall, upon the expiration of the leave, be entitled to be restored by the employer to the position held by the employee when the leave commenced or to an equivalent position of like seniority, status, employment benefits, pay, and other terms and conditions of employment.
Nothing in either New Jersey’s Temporary Disabilities Law or the Family Disabilities Benefits Law shall be construed as increasing, reducing or otherwise modifying any entitlement provided to a worker by the provisions of the Family Leave Act to be restored to employment by the employer after a period of family temporary disability leave. The employee shall retain all rights under any applicable layoff and recall system, including a system under a collective bargaining agreement, as if the employee had not taken the leave.
In addition to remedies available under either the New Jersey Temporary Disabilities Law, the Family Disabilities Benefits Law or New Jersey’s Family Leave Act for a violation of an employee’s rights, an employee or former employee may choose, as an alternative, to institute a civil action in the Superior Court for relief in which all remedies available in common law tort actions shall be available to a prevailing plaintiff.
The court may also order any or all of the following relief:
(1) an assessment of a civil fine of not less than $1,000 and not more than $2,000 for the first violation and not more than $5,000 for each subsequent violation;
(2) an injunction to restrain the continued violation;
(3) reinstatement of the employee to the same position or to a position equivalent to that which the employee held prior to unlawful discharge or retaliatory action, or other failure to reinstate the employee;
(4) reinstatement of full fringe benefits and seniority rights;
(5) compensation for any lost wages, benefits and other remuneration; and
(6) payment of reasonable costs and attorney’s fees
Stacking of Employee Earned Sick Leave, Temporary Disability Leave and Family Temporary Disability Leave Time
An employee who is eligible for both earned sick leave, N.J.S.A. 34:11D-1 et. seq., and either temporary disability benefit leave benefits or family temporary disability leave benefits shall have the option of using either the earned sick leave or whichever is applicable of temporary disability benefits or family temporary disability leave benefits, and may select the order in which the different kinds of leave are taken, but shall not receive more than one kind of paid leave simultaneously during any period of time.
This is a statutory requirement that applies only to the relationships among earned sick leave, temporary disability leave and family temporary disability leave and makes those leave sequences non-negotiable; the statutory enactment preempts negotiations on the issue.
The stacking of other employee leave time such as statutory sick leave N.J.S.A. 18A:30-1, the Federal Family Leave Act, the New Jersey Family Leave Act and any contractually negotiated leave has been deemed by case law to be a subject that is mandatorily negotiable. Neither employer nor employee may unilaterally impose a particular sequence or order. See IMO Cedar Grove Twp. BOE and Cedar Grove Twp. Ed. Assn. PERC No. 2025-15 10/24/2024, Ocean Cty Vo Tech BOE v. Ocean Cty Vo Tech Ed. Assn. PERC No. 2022-32, 2/24/2022. C. 279 does not change these holdings, particularly in these leave areas.
How all of these leaves interact with each other, particularly in light of the c.279 amendments is a complex analysis which should involve the human resources department, school administrators including the school business administrator and the board attorney. Every school district will be a little bit different based on current employee leave practices, making consultation a priority.
A Cautionary Note
C. 279’s amendments to the New Jersey Family Leave Act, the New Jersey Temporary Disability Law and the New Jersey Family Temporary Leave Law create several new entitlements for employees and additional responsibilities for employer school districts. How these new entitlements and responsibilities interact with other laws such as Federal Family Leave and statutory sick leave and collective bargaining agreement provisions is a complex web full of intricacies and potential pitfalls. School administrators, including school business administrators, and board of education members should consult with their board attorney as to how these amendments affect their school district. Better to be safe on the proactive side than to be the next case presented in this area.