Leaves and Absences

The Family Medical Leave Act (known as FMLA) is a federal law passed in 1993 which provides limited protection for employees that need time off work for medical leave for themselves or a family member. It allows employees to take up to 12 weeks of time off work without risk of separation in a 12-month period.  FMLA leave is unpaid.

FMLA leave shall run concurrently with applicable paid leave and compensatory time, as applicable.

Who is eligible for FMLA?

- Employees with 12 months of service, And

- Employees who have worked 1,250 hours in the preceding 12-month period, And

- Employees who work for an employer with 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius.

Eligle reason:

- The birth of a child or placement of a child for adoption or foster care;

- To bond with a child (leave must be taken within one year of the child's birth or placement)

- To care for the employee's spouse, child or parent, who has a qualifying serious health condition; or

- For the employee's own qualifying serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the employee's job.

- For qualifying exigencies related to the foreign deployment of a military member who is the employee's spouse, child or parent.

More information can be found in the Employee's Handbook.

For questions or to request FMLA, please contact Benefits & Leaves at 512-533-6021 or via email at delamelenap@ltisdschools.org

Temporary Disability Leave (TDL), Any full-time employee whose position requires Educator Certification by the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) or by the District, is eligible for temporary disability leave. The purpose of temporary disability leave is to provide job protection for full-time educators who cannot work for an extended period of time because of a mental or physical disability of a temporary nature. The maximum length of temporary disability leave shall be 180 calendar days. Leave must be taken as a continuous block of time. It may not be taken intermittently or on a reduced schedule. TDL is unpaid leave.

TDL leave shall run concurrently with applicable paid leave and compensatory time, as applicable.

Request Form

An employee seeking to use available state personal or local leave for an extenuating circumstance must submit the Extenuating Circumstances Leave Request form to his/her supervisor at least five (5) working days in advance of the anticipated leave. If approved by the supervisor, the supervisor then must submit the written request to the Business Services office for final approval. An employee shall not be absent from work without written approval of the extenuating circumstance leave. Failing to comply could result in disciplinary consequences up to and including termination under the applicable law and policy. 

Extenuating circumstance leave shall not exceed 5 consecutive work days per absence, even if combined with other leave types.

Form

An employee absent from duty because of a job-related illness or injury may be eligible for workers' compensation weekly income benefits if the absence exceeds 7 calendar days.

An employee receiving workers’ compensation wage benefits for a job-related illness or injury may choose to use accumulated sick leave or any other paid leave benefits. An employee choosing to use paid leave will not receive workers’ compensation weekly income benefits until all paid leave is exhausted or to the extent that paid leave does not equal the pre-illness or injury wage. If the use of paid leave is not elected, then the employee will only receive workers’ compensation wage benefits for any absence resulting from a work-related illness or injury, which may not equal his or her pre-illness or injury wage.

Employees on workers’ compensation leave will also be placed on FML (if eligible), with those leave dates running concurrently. 

Any work related illness or injury must be reported to the immediate supervisor.

The District provides paid leave to employees who are summoned to jury duty including service on a grand jury. The District will not discharge, threaten to discharge, intimidate, or coerce any regular employee because of juror or grand juror service or for the employee’s attendance or scheduled attendance in connection with the service in any court in the United States.  Employees who report to the court for jury duty may keep any compensation the court provides. An employee should report a summons for jury duty to his or her supervisor as soon as it is received. When the employee is released by the court and returns to work, he or she must provide the supervisor with a copy of the Attendance Verification Notice used by the court. This notice will be attached to the employee's absence report, time sheet or time card, whichever is appropriate. 

The District will reasonably accommodate an employee’s request for absence for a religious holiday or observance. Accommodations such as changes to work schedules or approving a day of absence will be made unless they pose an undue hardship to the District. The employee may use any accumulated personal leave for this purpose. Employees who have exhausted applicable paid leave may be granted an unpaid day of absence.

The purpose of the catastrophic sick leave bank is to provide additional sick leave days for members of the bank who have exhausted all accumulated paid state and local leave benefits due to a catastrophic injury or illness of the employee.  The catastrophic sick leave bank is a benefit to assist employees in dealing with prolonged, severe, or life-threatening conditions that would otherwise result in a loss of income or loss of job.

The catastrophic sick leave bank is a collective deposit of state personal and local leave days received from enrolling employees and subsequent contributions from members. 

All days deposited in the bank become the property of the catastrophic sick leave bank and are no longer available for use by the individual employee as accrued leave.   All unused days remaining in the catastrophic sick leave bank at the end of a school year will be carried over into the next school year. 

More information can be found on the Employee Handbook > Staff intranet.