You Asked for Time Off for Your Kid’s School Meeting, and Got Treated Like You Were Asking for a Favor
You asked for time off to go to your kid’s school meeting, and your manager acted like you were asking for a personal favor instead of something the law actually protects.
This shows up constantly as the school year starts back up, and California has more than one law built around exactly this kind of request.
Under Labor Code § 230.8, employers with 25 or more employees at the same location must allow up to 40 hours a year for a parent, a term that includes guardians, stepparents, foster parents, grandparents, and anyone standing in loco parentis, to enroll a child in school or childcare, participate in school or childcare activities, or address a school or childcare emergency. Planned activities generally cap at 8 hours in a calendar month, though that monthly limit does not apply to emergencies.
A related but separate law, Labor Code § 230.7, applies to employers of every size and protects an employee from discipline or discharge for taking time off to appear at a school’s request in connection with a child’s suspension or expulsion.
Separately, if your child gets sick, California’s paid sick leave law lets you use accrued time for their diagnosis, care, treatment, or preventive appointments, no separate parental-leave statute required.
Whether a specific request falls under one of these protections, or whether your employer’s reaction crossed into something the law actually prohibits, depends on the details, what you asked for, how much notice you gave, and what documentation exists.
If your employer disciplined you, docked you, or made the request harder than it needed to be, that reaction may be the actual legal issue, separate from whether the time off itself was approved. If that sounds like where things stand, a short conversation is the fastest way to know what you are actually facing.
Contact Michael Trust Law, APC for a no-charge initial consultation. The facts determine whether you have a claim, and how much of a conversation that takes.
This post shares general information based on common patterns I see in California workplaces. It is not legal advice, does not create an attorney-client relationship, and outcomes depend on specific facts, no lawyer can guarantee a result. Past results do not guarantee or predict future outcomes. AI may have been used to create this post. All content reviewed by a CA attorney before publication.