Minnesota’s Paid Leave Program Is Coming: What School Districts Need to Prepare for Now

Minnesota’s Paid Leave program launches on January 1, 2026, and its operational impact on public school districts will be significant.

Paid Leave is a state-run family and medical leave program, funded through joint contributions from employees and employers. It provides partial wage replacement during qualifying life events, including the birth or bonding with a child, caring for a sick family member, or managing a serious personal health condition.

Minnesota is not alone—12 other states already operate similar programs. But the structure of public school staffing makes districts uniquely vulnerable to disruption if preparation doesn’t begin early.

Understanding the Operational Risk for School Districts

While Paid Leave is designed to support workers and families, it introduces real challenges for districts that rely on people being physically present to serve students.

1. Rising Financial Costs

Paid Leave will likely increase both the number and duration of employee absences. Some positions may be temporarily absorbed or combined, but many roles—teachers, paraprofessionals, bus drivers, food service workers—require a human being on site.

As a result:

• Substitute teacher demand will increase

• Paraprofessional and support staff substitute costs will rise

• Budget pressure will grow, even with wage reimbursement

2. Student Impact and Continuity

Extended absences create disruptions for students. When staff are out for long periods:

• Instructional continuity suffers

• Relationships are interrupted

• Behavioral and academic consistency becomes harder to maintain

Districts will need to balance employee support with their responsibility to provide stable learning environments.

3. Increased Administrative Burden

Human Resources teams in school districts are already stretched thin. Paid Leave adds complexity that many district systems are not designed to handle.

Most HRIS platforms used by districts cannot elegantly manage:

• State leave eligibility rules

• Wage reimbursement tracking

• Coordination between district payroll and state systems

Without better tools, much of this work will be managed through spreadsheets, manual processes, and good intentions—a risky combination at scale.

How Districts Can Mitigate These Risks

The good news: districts still have time to prepare. But mitigation requires intentional planning now.

1. Strengthen Substitute Pools Early

Licensed substitute supply is likely to remain flat, while demand will increase.

Districts should:

• Run a SWOT analysis on current substitute strategies

• Identify bottlenecks in recruiting, onboarding, and retention

• Invest in making substitute roles more attractive and reliable

Strong substitute systems will be one of the most critical success factors under Paid Leave.

2. Invest in Structured Onboarding and Training

When substitutes and temporary staff are used more frequently, onboarding quality becomes non-negotiable.

Districts should ensure training is:

• Repeatable

• Consistent

• Easy to deploy quickly

• 
  

Well-designed onboarding reduces ramp-up time, improves instructional continuity, and lessens the impact of long-term absences.

3. Open Systems to Enable Innovation

Most software used by school districts—and by the State of Minnesota—is built as a closed system. That limits innovation at exactly the moment it’s needed most.

Districts and the state should:

• Develop API endpoints

• Allow secure data sharing between systems

• Enable third-party tools to automate leave tracking and reporting

A Useful Analogy

In 2007, Apple opened the iPhone to third-party developers. That decision allowed thousands of innovators to build tools that dramatically improved the product.

If Apple could do that in 2007, we should be able to do this in 2025.

Opening APIs would allow organizations to:

• Automate Paid Leave tracking

• Sync district HR data with the state leave portal

• Reduce manual work and administrative errors

Moving Forward

Paid Leave is coming, whether districts are ready or not. Those that start planning now will be far better positioned to manage cost, protect students, and reduce operational strain.

We’re beginning to help districts think through these mitigation strategies, and we welcome conversations with leaders who are feeling uncertain or overwhelmed by what’s ahead.

If Paid Leave is on your radar, now is the time to act.