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Yes and No. Every public school (including charter school)
teacher gets what are called 5 "state leave" days per academic
year. There are transferable from district to district and you may
"save" them (accrue) from year to year.

In addition, a district may grant or include what is called
"supplemental leave" this may have a number of different
categories based on district. The two most common categories
are "local leave" which is like state leave but stays only within
your district and may or may not accrue from year to year. The
second most common type of leave is called 'Emergency Leave"
this is what you would refer to as sick leave. Typically a district
requires a medical providers excusal from work to use
emergency leave.

The issue with leave is that districts have A LOT of flexibility in
who they can restrict your use of leave. The only legal
regulation is that they can not "arbitrarily" prohibit you from
taking state leave. Arbitrary is the key, because if the district
has a policy that states "leave can not be used during an
assessment period or the day before an assessment period
without medical excuse" that is perfectly fine. They can also
prohibit leave the day before or after a district holiday. As long
as the district has a set policy and it applies uniformly to
everyone, than it is not arbitrary.

Supplemental leave is a free for all, districts arent required to
offer it in any form, and the only legal requirement is that they
must abide and follow any policy that they have established in
regard to supplemental leave.
A district that does provide supplemental leave can dictate the
order in which you take leave. They may require you to use
State days first and then local leave and then emergency leave.
Or they may require the opposite. Districts may also regulate in
what portions of a day you take leave. They may require you to
take leave in whole day blocks or half day increments or some
portion thereof.
State leave provides for "full pay" you get your daily rate of pay
when you take state leave. Supplemental leave differs,
depending on policy. You may get local leave at full pay, full
pay, minus the cost of the substitute or something else.
Emergency pay might be full pay, half pay or less, or it might be
nothing.

Some districts while they wont roll over your supplemental leave
may give you a bonus for some part of your local leave. They
may give you $250/each for your first two days of local leave
you dont use. So if they require you use local leave first if you
have no absences at the end of the year you bank 5 days of
state leave and get a $500 bonus for the first two days of local
leave. If you miss one day you bank 5 days of state leave and
get a $250 bonus for that one day of leave.

Lastly, some districts are using leave as a token economy,
allowing a teacher to avoid a disciplinary procedure such as a
reprimand, etc by "taking leave" to correct a deficiency by
requesting "in district training" which they may conveniently do
after school hours. Its really basically forced leave. These
districts dont pay anything for some category of leave they have
created, and require you to take this type of leave basically
giving you a day or half a day without pay.

On 1/09/15, BA.ED2015 wrote:
> Do Texas teachers get vacation days? I realize I will have
> winter and spring break off but what about random days
> throughout the year? Will I be able to schedule doctor
> appointments during the semester or does that all have to
> wait until summer?

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