DENVER (March 2, 2015) – Today the Colorado House Education Committee is considering House Bill 15-1221, requiring employers offer additional leave to parents in order to attend their children’s academic activities. While testifying against the bill, Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry’s Loren Furman testified: “There is no data showing employees are being denied leave to attend their children’s academic activities right now.” Furman offered data showing that over 90% of employers offer some kind of flex leave.

“Everyone wants to encourage parent participation in their children’s academic lives,” said Kelly Maher, executive director of Compass Colorado. “We need to ask ourselves if we really need to legislate every aspect of the employer/employee relationship. Does more regulation imposed on businesses get the desired outcome, or will it just create more red tape and make the employer/employee relationship more adversarial?”