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Committee delays educators’ workers’ compensation bill after technical amendments and continued questions
Summary
Senate Bill 1 (Mary Ann Leonard Educators on the Job Injury Act) drew extensive discussion and technical amendments clarifying names, deadlines and agency responsibilities; the committee carried the bill over to a later meeting for additional review rather than voting it out.
Senate Bill 1, titled in amendment as the Mary Ann Leonard Educators on the Job Injury Act, drew lengthy discussion in the committee about statutory language, implementation mechanics and coverage for all education employees. The committee adopted technical amendments but ultimately agreed to carry the bill over for further review.
Senator Gavan presented the bill as a measure to extend workers’ compensation coverage to education employees, noting prior testimony and technical corrections in the proposed amendment — for example correcting a misspelled witness name and replacing references to the Department of Labor with the Department of Workforce. The amendment also lengthened a required notification window from 30 days to 90 days and added a provision that “an employer shall complete and submit an injury report upon timely notice of an injury in accordance with this chapter,” a change requested by the Department of Finance.
Committee members praised the policy goal but raised several concerns to be resolved before final action: how adjudication and appeals would operate, whether the proposed system should be separate from the state employees’ workers’ compensation system, how to ensure neutral adjudicators and availability of doctors experienced in occupational medicine, and the fiscal implications of covering all education employees (including administrators, coaches, custodians and other school staff). Representative Faulkner and others requested more time to vet appeal procedures and health‑care network implications.
Multiple members urged swift action to provide workers’ compensation to educators; others asked for more time to refine the mechanism. Chairman Garrett said the committee would carry the bill over to the next meeting so members could resolve outstanding questions and recommended the bill be first on the return agenda.
Because the committee did not report the bill, no formal committee passage or floor referral was recorded.
