Does SC teachers, state employees paid leave cover stillbirths? AG weighs in

South Carolina state and school district employees that experience a stillbirth should still be eligible for paid family leave, according to a nonbinding opinion from state Attorney General Alan Wilson.

Wilson argued that legislation giving paid family leave to public employees who experience a birth should be interpreted to include stillbirths.

“Parents in this circumstance deserve the time, support, and benefits guaranteed under law to recover from their tragic loss,” read the opinion released Wednesday morning.

An attorney general’s opinion is not binding, meaning school districts don’t have to follow Wilson’s guidance when dispensing benefits, but such an opinion is often seen as a guide on how a law should be interpreted. State lawmakers were advised by Wilson to clarify that stillbirths were included in paid family leave in the legislation, so that the benefits are mandatory.

“Such clarification would be especially desirable, in our view, so that parents of a stillborn child are mandated to receive Paid Parental Leave,” the opinion states.

State Rep. Neal Collins, R-Pickens, asked Wilson to provide an interpretation of the law in early August. Collins said in a social media post that at least two school districts in the state had denied paid family leave to employees that experienced a stillbirth.

Paid family leave for state employees who give birth, or the co-parent of someone who gives birth, became law in 2022. The benefits also extend to employees that foster or adopt a child. An employee who gives birth receives six weeks of paid leave, while other employees receive two weeks.

Wilson wrote that South Carolina courts’ interpretation that unborn fetuses are people and the state lawmakers’ six-week abortion restriction means stillbirths count as a birth in the existing legislation.