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ESP, Paraprofessional, and Education Support Staff Family Leave Act
To establish eligibility requirements for covered educational employees under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill modifies the Family and Medical Leave Act to expand eligibility for paraprofessionals and education support staff to access family and medical leave. Instead of the standard hours requirement, educational employees are eligible if they worked at least 60 percent of the expected monthly hours for their job description during the previous school year. Schools must maintain records of the expected hours for each employee position, and the Secretary of Labor shall provide methods for calculating leave for these employees.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Sen. Duckworth, Tammy [D-IL] (D-IL)
9 cosponsors
- Sen. Blumenthal, Richard [D-CT] (D-CT)
- Sen. Booker, Cory A. [D-NJ] (D-NJ)
- Sen. Coons, Christopher A. [D-DE] (D-DE)
- Sen. Durbin, Richard J. [D-IL] (D-IL)
- Sen. Gillibrand, Kirsten E. [D-NY] (D-NY)
- Sen. Kim, Andy [D-NJ] (D-NJ)
- Sen. Klobuchar, Amy [D-MN] (D-MN)
- Sen. Luján, Ben Ray [D-NM] (D-NM)
- Sen. Markey, Edward J. [D-MA] (D-MA)
Actions (2)
- Sep 9, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. · senate
- Sep 9, 2025 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
September 9, 2025
Ms. Duckworth (for herself, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Markey, Mr. Coons, Mrs. Gillibrand, and Ms. Klobuchar) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To establish eligibility requirements for covered educational employees under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “ESP, Paraprofessional, and Education Support Staff Family Leave Act”.
SEC. 2. ELIGIBILITY FOR EDUCATION SUPPORT PROFESSIONALS AND SCHOOL SUPPORT STAFF.
Section 101(2) of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (29 U.S.C. 2611(2)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
“(F) Paraprofessionals and education support staff.—
“(i) Determination.—For purposes of determining whether a covered educational employee meets the hours of service requirement specified in subparagraph (A)(ii), the covered educational employee will be considered to meet the requirement if the employee has worked a number of hours equal to not less than 60 percent of the applicable total monthly hours expected for the employee’s job description and duties, as assigned for the previous school year.
“(ii) File.—Each employer of a covered educational employee shall maintain on file with the Secretary (in accordance with such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe) information specifying the total monthly hours expected for the employee’s job description and duties for each school year.
“(iii) Definitions.—In this subparagraph:
“(I) Covered educational employee.—The term ‘covered educational employee’ means a ‘paraprofessional’ or an ‘education support staff member’ employed by an educational agency or institution.
“(II) Paraprofessional.—The term ‘paraprofessional’ has the meaning given the term in section 8101(37) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801(37)).
“(III) Education support staff.— The term ‘education support staff member’ (also known as a ‘classified school employee’, ‘education support professional’, or ‘ESP’) means an employee of an educational agency or institution who provides clerical and administrative services, transportation services, food and nutrition services, custodial and maintenance services, health and student services, technical services, or services related to skilled trades.
“(IV) Educational agency or institution.—The term ‘educational agency or institution’ has the meaning given the term in section 444(a)(3) of the General Education Provisions Act (20 U.S.C. 1232g(a)(3)).”.
SEC. 3. ENTITLEMENT TO LEAVE.
Section 102(a) of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (29 U.S.C. 2612(a)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
“(6) Calculation of leave for covered educational employees.—The Secretary shall provide methods for calculating the leave described in paragraph (1) with respect to covered educational employees, in accordance with section 108, as applicable.”. <all>
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