Carroll schools restrict time for hourly employees to prevent health care penalties

Aug. 20--Hourly Carroll County Public Schools employees will be restricted to working 28 hours per week, as school officials seek to avoid penalties for not providing health care benefits under the Affordable Care Act.

Because of budget restrictions, Carroll schools cannot afford to provide benefits to hourly employees -- who have not been receiving health insurance benefits -- or pay penalties, which could cost upward of several million dollars, according to Jimmie Saylor, human resources director.

"We don't have the money to make [hourly employees] contracted and guarantee the number of hours they work, and we don't have the money to pay the penalties," Saylor said.

According to Saylor, failure to restrict the hours for hourly employees would cause the school system to incur millions of dollars in additional health care costs and force the school system to significantly reduce the budget in other areas.

Such reductions, Saylor said, would result in both reduced staff and services to students, and a continued inability to provide salary increases to employees.

Under the Affordable Care Act, employers with 50 or more workers must provide health care to at least 95 percent of employees who work an average of 30 hours per week.

Currently, school system employees who work an average of 21 hours or more per week in a full-time equivalent position are eligible for health care benefits. Hourly employees, whose hours vary based on the needs of the day or a student, do not receive benefits.

There are 3,542 full- and part-time equivalent employees in CCPS -- including teachers, administrators, maintenance workers, instructional assistants, secretaries and directors. Of those, 3,337 are eligible for benefits.

The school system also has 740 hourly workers and 670 substitute teachers, none of whom have been eligible for benefits.

The health plans' medical and prescription budget for the 2014-2015 school year is $40.7 million, a slight reduction from the previous year, Saylor said. She could not, however, readily provide data for the health insurance costs for the 2013-2014 year.

To ensure the school system complies with the Affordable Care Act, hourly employees will be capped at 28 hours a week in the upcoming school year, said Saylor.

The school system's human resources office will have to submit a monthly report to the IRS, which includes the number of employees and their hours, beginning in January, Saylor said.

Some hourly employees will be exempt from the restriction, such as long-term substitute teachers and special education employees, Saylor said. She said it is beneficial for students in the special education programs to have consistency in staffing, instead of breaking up the hours and hiring two people to perform the duties.

As long as 95 percent of the school's employees working an average of 30 or more hours per week have benefits, the school system will not have to pay penalties, she said. The system will continue to monitor benefits monthly to remain within the range.

Reach staff writer Krishana Davis at 410-857-7862 or krishana.davis@carrollcountytimes.com.

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