COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - A South Carolina lawmaker is asking the state’s attorney general to weigh in after grieving families claimed their requests for paid leave from work were denied following stillbirths.

Three years ago, the governor signed a bill into law that provides up to six weeks of paid family leave to state employees who welcome a new child via birth, adoption, or fostering.

The next year, it was expanded to also cover South Carolina’s public school teachers, through a bipartisan bill filed by Rep. Neal Collins, R – Pickens.

But recently, Collins found out at least three school districts in the state, which he declined to identify, had denied paid leave requests to employees who experienced stillbirths.

“It’s just a weird interpretation of the law to me,” he said. “The qualifying event is a birth, and to say a stillbirth is not a birth under this scenario, it goes against the intent of what I was trying to do.”

One of the groups that alerted Collins was the Palmetto State Teachers Association, which said these are limited instances but nonetheless concerning.

“Completely out of line with the spirit of the law,” said Patrick Kelly, PSTA’s director of government affairs. “The law was designed to support the experience of a new parent, both physically, mentally, emotionally. Second, it’s just inhumane.”

Kelly, who also teaches high school in Richland County, said decisions like these can hurt staff morale beyond the one employee.

“I don’t want to work in a district that doesn’t value their employees enough to come alongside them in what is one of the most tragic and heartbreaking things that a new mother can experience. Just put people first,” he said.

Collins said at least two of the districts have since changed their policies to say stillbirths are covered and granted the time off they initially declined.

“But even in that scenario, the mother came back before she otherwise would have,” he added.

Collins has asked for an opinion from South Carolina’s attorney general on whether parents who experience stillbirths are eligible for paid time off under the existing law.

He also plans to file legislation that would clarify it in state code, so no other grieving parents go through this confusion.

“I’m never too optimistic of what we’re going to do in Columbia, but I’m hopeful on this one,” Collins said.

Once that bill is filed, lawmakers can take it up for consideration when they return to the State House next January to begin a new legislative session.

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