CONCORD, N.H. – Perhaps teachers in New Hampshire schools experience more than the average amount of work stress.

Or maybe those cold New England winters produce a lot of illness that keeps a lot of teachers sick all the time.

Whatever the reason, five New Hampshire school districts, in cooperation with local teachers unions, offer some of the most generous sick and personal leave policies in the nation.

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One district on the low end offers 11 sick days and three personal days. Another offers 13 sick days and two personal days.

Two districts allow 15 sick days and three personal days for a work year of about 180 days.

The most eye-opening policy comes from the Concord district, which allows teachers 20 paid sick days, three personal and two emergency days. It’s a wonder the students in that district ever learn their teachers’ names.

Those policies result in a lot of teacher absenteeism, which means students lose a lot of learning time.

They also cost school districts a lot of money at a time when money is scarce.

The approximately 340 teachers in the Concord district took a combined 3,932 sick and personal days in the 2013-14 school year. That averages out to 11.5 paid days off per teacher, which is a lot, but not nearly as many as they could have taken.

The district did not provide requested information regarding the amount of salary paid to absent teachers in 2013-14 or the amount of money spent on substitutes.

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But the district did provide one clue about why some teachers don’t come close to using all of their paid days off. The district has a policy that allows reimbursement for unused sick days, meaning teachers can essentially be paid twice for quite a few days that they work.

The Concord district paid out $115,110 in compensation for unused sick days in 2013-14.

The Derry school district allows 15 sick and three personal days per year, which is a very moderate policy compared to Concord’s. Yet Derry teachers apparently take greater advantage of the days they are allowed.

The approximately 300 teachers in the district took a combined 6,253 sick and personal days in 2013-14, which averages out to 20.7 days per teacher. Not surprisingly, the district paid out a healthy $406,445 for substitute teachers that year.

Derry officials did not divulge how much they paid teachers for sick and personal days. Whatever the amount was, we’re sure it’s hard to justify, given the fact that the district is currently developing a 2015-16 budget calling for $1.3 million worth of cuts.

The Merrimack district also gives teachers a generous 15 sick days and three personal days per school year.

In 2013-14, 328 Merrimack teachers took 2,847 sick days, which averages out to 8.6 days per employee. The district also reported that 319 teachers took 718 personal days. That averages out to 2.2 per teacher.

Collectively the teachers were paid $854,163 for their sick days and $210,687 for personal days. That’s more than a million dollars spent on absent employees.

The district also spent $240,663 on substitute teachers in 2013-14.

The Hudson school district gives teachers 13 sick days and two personal days.

The district reported sick and personal day information for all eligible employees – not just teachers – but the majority of employees are teachers, so the policy regarding teachers probably still has a big impact on those statistics.

In 2013-14, approximately 420 Hudson employees took 3,388 sick and personal days (based on a presumed 7.5 hour work day). That averages out to eight days per employee.

The employees were collectively paid $819,898 for sick and personal days, and the district paid out a very significant $301,292 in substitute teacher fees.

All that money spent on a lot of nothing, during the same year the Hudson district had to eliminate $600,000 from its budget, according to media reports.

The Nashua district did not report the number of sick or personal days taken by teachers, or how much they were paid when they were absent.

The teachers union collective bargaining agreement gives teachers and other covered employees 11 sick days and three personal days.

The district spent $1.3 million on substitute teachers in 2013-14 and a whopping $829,996 in compensation for unused sick days.