Employee Time-Off for Public Schools: Stories of Five Corporate Trailblazers and Two Chambers of Commerce

This monograph looks at five cases in which corporations have developed programs that permit their employees to take time off for their children's schooling. Three major corporations, one mid-sized business, and a small business are included. All of the case studies involve North Carolina-based institutions in two geographic locations, one urban and one rural. The urban location is Charlotte, and that city's participating businesses are First Union National Bank, Duke Power Company, NationsBank, and Palmer & Cay/Carswell, Inc. The rural location is Catawba County, and organizations described include the Newton-Conover Schools' Project PIECES. Programs of the two communities' Chambers of Commerce are described as well. North Carolina addressed education reform in the early 1980s and has, more recently, dealt with employee time-off for schools policy at the state level. In each case, giving parents time-off to go to their children's school is one part of a corporate program to help public schools. Extensive appendixes contain agreements, press releases, mission statements, newspaper articles, policy statements, memos, North Carolina state legislation regarding employee time off, and parental agreements. Contains 18 endnotes. (JB)