Board of Directors Board President Lois Thompson Partner Proskauer Rose LLP Board Treasurer Chris Hollinger Partner O’Melveny & Myers LLP Board Secretary Cathy Kim Director, Corporate Development Arzon Solar, Inc. Members Tony Blain Principal Blain & Associates Samantha Caldwell Vice President, Assistant General Counsel and Assistant Secretary Health Net Inc. Christa M. Demeke Counsel Roll Law Group P.C. Mira El Sonbaty Senior Counsel, Privacy Fox Group Legal Theane Evangelis Partner Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP Victor George Principal Law Offices of Victor George Rasha Gerges Shields Partner Jones Day Esra Hudson Partner Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP Shawn Khorrami Principal Khorrami Boucher LLP Bethany Kristovich Partner Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP Anna Menedjian Litigation Consultant Sizemore Law Firm Edie Mermelstein, Esq. Law Offices of F. Edie Mermelstein Pamela Palmer Partner Pepper Hamilton LLP Laura Petroff Partner Winston & Strawn LLP Interim Executive Director April 15, 2015 Senator Tony Mendoza Chair, Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee State Capitol, Room 2040 Sacramento, CA 95814 RE: SB 579 (Jackson) – Support Dear Senator Mendoza: On behalf of the California Women’s Law Center (CWLC), I am writing in support of SB 579 (Jackson), the Family Engagement Act, which expands upon existing law to give working parents more flexibility in using time off to care for their children and select their children’s educational settings. CWLC is the first law center in California solely dedicated to addressing the comprehensive and unique legal needs of women and girls. Since its founding in 1989, CWLC has worked to eliminate barriers that keep women and girls in poverty and advance the potential of women and girls through transformative litigation, policy advocacy and education. California law accommodates certain challenges faced by working parents, including providing parents with 40 hours of unpaid leave to participate in activities at their child’s day care facility and allowing parents to use their paid sick days to care for an ill child. But there remains gaps in job-protected leave for working parents needing to attend to the well-being of their child. CWLC supports SB 579 because it broadens current protections to allow parents to take job-protected time off to care for a child during a school emergency and select and enroll their children in child care, which will positively impact employees across California. This important measure strengthens families and the state’s workforce by allowing working mothers and fathers to fulfill their parental obligations without fear of losing their job, while also boosting employee morale and job retention rates. For these reasons, CWLC urges your affirmative vote on SB 579. Sincerely, Betsy Butler Betsy Butler Interim Executive Director 360 North Sepulveda Boulevard, Suite 2070 | El Segundo, CA 90245 Phone: 323-951-1041 | Fax: 323-951-9870 Email: [email protected] | Web: cwlc.org