Prior to the July 4th holiday, the National School Boards Association (NSBA) expressed its approval of the Obama Administration’s decision last month to extend the implementation date of the Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act until 2015. This extension would give employers more time to determine how exactly they will respond to new mandates.
The Obama Adminstration said the extension to Jan. 1, 2015, is necessary based upon the “complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively.” The IRS was scheduled to implement its rules for the healthcare mandate at the beginning of next year, and school districts would have been on the hook at that time for new healthcare costs for hundreds of thousands of school bus drivers nationwide formerly classified as part time.
As a result, student transporters worried they would be forced to driver hours to get them under the mandate’s threshold of a 30-hour workweek to avoid these additional costs. Ramifications of doing so are namely that experienced, safe and professional drivers would leave the district, and the districts would incur additional costs to hire, certify and train novice drivers. With the delay, school districts have more time to figure out their next courses of action.
“We are pleased that the IRS has heard our concerns about the need for clarification on the Affordable Care Act before the rules become final to minimize any adverse impact on the nation’s schools and students’ educational outcomes.” said NSBA Executive Director Thomas J. Gentzel.
In March, the NSBA sent a letter to the IRS recommending a delay in the rule because of “the unanticipated impact certain provisions of the proposed rule may have as public school districts across the country wrestle with questions” ranging from calculation of service hours to the so-called “large employer” determinations. NSBA added that it was concerned about the challenges the proposed rules would raise on school employment arrangements for independent contractors as well as long- versus short-term teaching substitutes with consecutive assignment, additional extra-curricular duty providers, re-hired retired employees and even pay for school board members.
“We believe the IRS has made a prudent choice with regard to implementation of the Affordable Care Act,”said NSBA General Counsel, Francisco M. Negrón, Jr. “School districts are in particularly challenging situation as employers, because of the unique part-time and full-time employment configurations they utilize. We look forward to further clarification from the IRS that will help school districts effectively navigate this new legal framework.”
