SB2615

“Telework” means regularly doing some or all institutional business away from the regular or assigned temporary workplace during established work hours. The rule applies to the public institutions and agencies listed in Education Code section 61.003, including public universities, junior colleges, technical institutes and medical/dental units—not private colleges simply because they teach students. It overrides the general workplace-authorization provision for this purpose. Final law; Institution definition; Previous general workplace rule.

An institution may allow temporary or permanent telework for an employee with a temporary illness, or with a medical condition or disability requiring a reasonable telework accommodation under state or federal law. A nonteaching employee can qualify if all five job/performance conditions are met: ability to work with minimal supervision, deep knowledge of duties, good time management, a record of thorough and efficient work, and a job not requiring day-to-day campus presence or in-person interaction with students, administrators or colleagues. These exceptions do not give every employee an automatic right to choose remote work. Final law, subsection (c)(1)–(3).

Other permitted categories are a teaching employee who is not a statutory “faculty member”; a teaching employee currently assigned to teach only a course or program approved for remote instruction through institutional academic/faculty procedures and designated distance education or dual credit; faculty on temporary off-campus research assignments; and faculty providing telehealth as part of assigned clinical, research or teaching duties. The incorporated faculty definition covers certain full-time professional staff as well as teachers, and excludes classified-personnel positions, so job titles alone do not settle eligibility. Dual-credit teaching at a school-district or charter-school campus, or by telework when required for the course or program, is expressly preserved. Final law, subsections (c)(4)–(7) and (d); Faculty definition.

During a catastrophe, an employee is exempt if the institution’s chief administrator or designee determines that the event directly interferes with in-person work and poses possible physical danger or prevents or may prevent assigned work at the institution. Examples include severe weather, power or technical failures, cyberattacks, epidemics and violence. Afterward, institutions must make all reasonable efforts to return telework to the statute’s permitted circumstances. Final law, subsections (e)–(f).

The Senate substitute clarified “day-to-day” presence and “in-person” interaction. The House substitute added the telework/faculty definitions and teaching, research, telehealth and dual-credit exceptions. The adopted Tepper amendment replaced a proposed Coordinating Board rulemaking clause with the catastrophe exemption and return-to-compliance provision. The adopted VanDeaver amendment added dual-credit telework when required. Both House amendments survived Senate concurrence; the earlier, narrower proposals are not the final law. Introduced; Senate substitute; House substitute; Tepper amendment; VanDeaver amendment; Adoption record; All versions; Final law.

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

Institutions must check telework arrangements against the statutory categories, which can reduce flexibility for employees outside them while protecting the listed activities and emergencies. The act does not promise improved instruction, lower costs or approval of any individual accommodation; this briefing does not verify a campus’s implementation or decide a particular employee’s eligibility. Final law.

The latest fiscal note expects no significant state fiscal effect, absorbable implementation costs and no local-government fiscal impact. Earlier introduced/Senate notes flagged possible costs involving remote faculty in online degrees; later House-stage notes no longer included that warning after the teaching exceptions expanded. Those estimates do not establish that employees or campuses face no practical costs. Latest note; Introduced note; Senate note; House substitute note; House-passed note.