With Approval of 2026-2027 Budget, All Public Education Agencies (Including Higher Education Agencies) Now Required to Provide Fourteen Weeks of Paid Pregnancy Leave to Employees Starting January 1, 2027

07.22.2026

On July 13, 2026, Governor Newsom approved the higher education omnibus budget trailer bill for community college districts (“CCDs”), effectuating changes to the Education Code providing a new paid pregnancy leave entitlement for CCD employees. This bill follows the K-12 budget trailer bill, signed on July 9, 2026, which provides this same leave entitlement to K-12 school districts.[1]

Under the CCD trailer bill, beginning January 1, 2027, CCD employees will be entitled to up to fourteen weeks of paid leave when absent from duty because of pregnancy, miscarriage, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, or recovery from any of these conditions. Employees may use the paid leave when they are actually disabled by one or more of these conditions as determined by the employee and the employee’s medical provider. The bill expressly authorizes employees to begin taking leave before childbirth and continue the leave after childbirth, provided the employee is actually disabled by one or more of the qualifying conditions during the entire leave period. Employers must maintain group health coverage for the duration of the leave at the same level and under the same conditions as if the employee had not taken leave.

The CCD trailer bill revises Education Code sections 87766 and 88193 to require CCD employers to provide this new benefit. Previously, these code sections authorized the governing board of a CCD to provide for a paid or unpaid leave of absence to an employee absent from duty because of pregnancy, miscarriage, childbirth, or recovery therefrom. Under the new CCD trailer bill, CCD employers are required to provide paid leave and expands the scope of conditions covered by this entitlement to include termination of pregnancy and recovery therefrom.

Under the CCD trailer bill, all academic and classified employees of CCDs are eligible to receive up to fourteen weeks of paid leave under this section. There are no eligibility requirements such as minimum hours worked or length of service. Part-time employees are also entitled to paid leave under the trailer bill’s provisions, which specify the amount of compensation a part-time employee is entitled to depending on the amount regularly worked.

Significantly, the leave provided under the trailer bill does not run concurrently with any other leave provided by statute. Thus, other leaves to which an employee may be entitled, including, but not limited to, leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”), California Family Rights Act (“CFRA”), Pregnancy Disability Leave Act (“PDLA”), accrued sick leave, or extended illness leave, do not run during the employee’s paid pregnancy disability leave under the trailer bill. Applicable statutory leaves will not begin to run until after the employee is no longer “disabled” under the trailer bill as determined by the employee’s medical provider or the employee has exhausted the fourteen weeks of paid leave.

The 2026-2027 state budget provides an additional cost-of-living adjustment, referred to as a “discretionary cost-of-living adjustment,” to reimburse CCD employers for costs associated with providing paid leave under this new entitlement.

In sum, the approval of the CCD budget trailer bill significantly expands California public education employees’ rights to paid leave for pregnancy and related conditions. CCDs will be required to update their leave policies and practices to account for the new entitlement, which is in effect as of January 1, 2027. CCDs should also be prepared to bargain impacts and effects of the budget trailer bill.

AALRR is hosting a three-part webinar series designed to help CCDs understand and navigate their obligations when it comes to supporting pregnant employees. For more information, or to register for the series, please visit: https://www.aalrr.com/newsroom-events-4687 or contact Keesha Clark.

If you have questions about this new requirement, or its impact on existing leave policies, please contact the authors of this Alert or your usual AALRR counsel.

[1] Our Alert on the K-12 budget trailer bill can be found here: https://www.aalrr.com/newsroom-alerts-california-k12-paid-pregnancy-leave-2027