(a) A member shall be granted credit at service retirement for each day of accumulated and unused sick leave days for which full salary is allowed to which the member was entitled on the member’s final day of employment with the employer or employers subject to coverage by the Defined Benefit Program during the last school term in which he or she earned creditable compensation pursuant to Section 22119.2 or 22119.3. The system shall accept certification from each employer with which the member has accumulated sick leave days for that period, provided this leave has not been transferred to another employer.

(b) The amount of service credit to be granted shall be determined by dividing the number of days of accumulated and unused sick leave days by the number of days of service the employer requires the member’s class of employees to perform in a school year during the member’s final year of creditable service subject to coverage by the Defined Benefit Program, which shall not be less than the minimum standard specified in Section 22138.5. The number of days shall not include school and legal holidays. In no event shall the divisor be less than 175. For members employed less than full time, the standards identified in Section 22138.5 shall be considered as the minimum full-time equivalent. For those standards identified in Section 22138.5 that are applicable to teachers or instructors and that are expressed only in terms of hours or instructional hours, the number of hours or instructional hours shall be divided by six to determine the number of days.

(c) For members who are last employed with the state in a position in which there are no contracted base service days, the amount of service credit to be granted shall be 0.004 years of service for each day of unused sick leave certified to the board by the employer. The certification shall report only those days of unused sick leave that were accrued by the member during the normal course of his or her employment subject to coverage by the Defined Benefit Program.

(d) When the member has made application for service retirement under this part, the employer shall certify to the board, within 30 days following the effective date of the member’s service retirement or the date the application for retirement is received by the system’s headquarters office, whichever is later, the number of days of accumulated and unused sick leave days that the member was entitled to on the final day of employment. The board may assess a penalty on delinquent reports.

(e) This section shall be applicable to any person who retires on or after January 1, 1999.

(Amended by Stats. 2018, Ch. 416, Sec. 11. (SB 1165) Effective January 1, 2019.)