RATIONALE/OBJECTIVE:

To be developed

RULE:

I. LEAVE

An eligible employee of the Cobb County Board of Education is entitled to a combined total of 12 workweeks of unpaid leave during a 12 month period for the following:

1. the birth and first-year care of a child,

2. the adoption or foster care placement of a child,

3. the serious health condition of an employee's spouse, parent, or child, and

4. the employee's own serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the functions of his or her job.

The 12 month period in which the 12 workweeks of leave entitlement occurs is a "rolling" 12 month period measured backward from the date an employee uses any leave granted by this policy.

II. DEFINITIONS

Child: A biological, adopted, or foster child, a stepchild, a legal ward, or a child of a person standing in loco parentis, who is (1) under 18 years of age; or (2) 18 years of age or older and incapable of self-care because of a mental or physical disability.

Eligible Employee: An employee who has been employed by the Cobb County Board of Education for at least 12 months.

Employment Benefits: All benefits provided or made available to employees by the Cobb County Board of Education, including group life insurance, health insurance, disability insurance, sick leave, personal leave, and pensions.

Health Care Provider: A doctor of medicine or osteopathy, podiatrist, dentist, clinical psychologist, optometrist, chiropractor, nurse practitioner, nurse midwives, and clinical social workers who are authorized to practice in the State and who are performing within the scope of their practice as defined under State law or who practice in a country other than the United States, are authorized to practice in accordance with the laws of that country, and who are performing within the scope of his or her practice as defined under that country's law. Health care provider also includes Christian Science practitioners listed with the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, Massachusetts and any health care provider from whom the Cobb County School District or the Cobb County School District's group health plan's benefits manager will accept certification of the existence of a serious health condition to substantiate a claim for benefits.

Instructional Employees: Employees whose principal function is to teach and instruct students in a class, a small group, or an individual setting.

Intermittent Leave: Leave taken in separate blocks of time due to a single illness or injury, rather than for one continuous period of time, and may include leave periods from an hour or more to several weeks.

Parent: The biological parent of an employee or an individual who stood in loco parentis to an employee when the employee was a child.

Reduced Leave Schedule: A leave schedule that reduces the usual number of hours per workweek, or hours per workday, of an employee.

Serious Health Condition: An illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that involves:

(1) any period of incapacity or treatment in connection with or consequence to inpatient care in a hospital, hospice, or residential medical care facility; or

(2) continuing treatment by a health care provider.

Spouse: A husband or wife, as defined or recognized under Georgia law for purposes of marriage.

III. BENEFITS

A. Employment benefits accrued by the employee before leave is taken will not be altered by the employee's absence under this policy.

B. The employee is entitled to continuation of group health benefits during the leave period. The Board of Education will continue to provide the employee's health coverage just as if the employee was at work. Any premium normally paid by the employee will continue to be required.

C. Upon return, the employee is entitled to restoration to the same position or to an equivalent position with equivalent employment benefits, pay, and other terms and conditions of employment.

D. If an employee fails to return to work after the leave period has expired, the Board of Education may recover the health benefits premium expenditures extended to the employee during the unpaid leave period, except if the reason is the continuation, recurrence, or onset of a serious health condition of the employee or the employee's spouse, parent or child, or other circumstances beyond the employee's control.

E. An employee will not accrue any seniority or employment benefits during any unpaid period of leave.
 
IV. EXISTING LEAVE POLICIES
 
An eligible employee may elect to substitute any of his or her accrued paid short term and vacation leave in accordance with the requirements of and as provided by existing Cobb County Board of Education policies and regulations for all or any part of the 12 workweeks of unpaid leave provided by this policy.

V. INTERMITTENT OR REDUCED LEAVE

A. Leave taken for the serious illness of an eligible employee's spouse, child, or parent or for the employee's own illness may be taken intermittently or on a reduced leave schedule when medically necessary.

B. If the employee requests intermittent leave or leave on a reduced leave schedule that is foreseeable based on a planned medical treatment, the Board of Education may require the employee to transfer temporarily to an available alternative position for which the employee is qualified with equivalent pay and benefits and which better accommodates recurring periods of leave than does the employee's regular position.

C. If an eligible instructional employee requests intermittent leave or leave on a reduced leave schedule that is foreseeable based on a planned medical treatment and the employee would be on leave for more than 20 percent of the total number of working days over the period the leave would extend, the Board of Education may require the instructional employee to choose to take leave for a period or periods of a particular duration that is not greater than the duration of the planned treatment or to transfer temporarily to an alternative position as described in the preceding paragraph.

VI. NOTIFICATION OF ANTICIPATED LEAVE

A. Except where circumstances are such that reasonable advance planning is not possible, employees must provide the Human Resources Division at least a 30-day notice of the date when leave is to begin.

B. With respect to foreseeable family or employee illness, the employee shall make reasonable effort to schedule treatment, including intermittent and reduced hour leave, so as not to disrupt unduly the operations of the school district, subject to approval of the employee's or family member's health care provider.

VII. REQUIRED CERTIFICATION

A. The Board of Education requires that a request for unpaid leave for the care of a spouse, parent, or child with a serious health condition or for the employee's own serious health condition be supported by a certification issued by the health care provider of the eligible employee or of the child, spouse, or parent of the employee.

B. The certification shall include:

(a) the approximate date on which the serious health condition commenced;

(b) the probable duration of the condition;

(c) the appropriate medical facts within the knowledge of the health care provider regarding the condition;

(d) for purposes of leave for the serious illness of a spouse, parent or child, a statement that the eligible employee is needed to care for the spouse, parent, or child including what care he or she will provide, and an estimate of the amount of time that the employee is needed to care for the spouse, parent or child;

(e) for purposes of leave for the employee's own serious illness, a statement that the employee is unable to perform work of any kind, is unable to perform any one or more of the essential functions of the employee's position, or must be absent from work for treatment; and

(f) whether it will be necessary for the employee to take leave intermittently or to work on a reduced leave schedule as a result of the serious health condition, and if so, the probable duration of such schedule.

C. The Board of Education reserves the right, at its own expense, to designate a second health care provider (other than a school district employee) to provide a second opinion
concerning any information in the certification. If the second opinion differs from the opinion
in the original certification, the Board of Education may require, at its own expense, a third opinion from a health care provider approved jointly by the Board and the employee. A third opinion, should it be necessary, shall be binding.

D. Upon the employee's return to work from leave for his or her own serious health condition, the Board of Education shall require the employee to provide certification by his or her health care provider that the employee is able to resume work.
 
VIII. SPECIAL PROVISIONS
 
A. An eligible instructional employee may be required to continue his or her leave until the end of a semester when:

1. The employee begins the leave more than five weeks before the end of the semester, the leave will last at least three weeks, and the employee would return to work during the three week period before the end of the semester.

2. The employee begins the leave for a purpose other than the employee's own serious health condition during the five week period before the end of a semester, the leave will last more than two weeks, and the employee would return to work during the two week period before the end of the semester.

3. The employee begins leave for a purpose other than the employee's own serious health condition during the three week period before the end of a semester and the leave will last more than five workdays.

B. The Board of Education may deny restoration under this policy to an employee whose salary is in the highest 10% of the employees employed by the Board if such denial is necessary to prevent substantial and grievous economic injury to the school district's operations.

C. Entitlement to leave for a birth or placement of a child expires at the end of the 12 month period beginning on the date of the birth or placement.

D. In cases where both spouses are employed by the Cobb County Board of Education, the combined amount of unpaid leave for childbirth, adoption or foster placement of a child, or illness of a parent is limited to twelve (12) workweeks.

E. The Human Resources Division shall make, keep, and preserve records showing compliance with the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 and in accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and federal regulations.

Legal Reference: O.C.G.A. '' 20-2-50; 20-2-59; The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993

Reclassified an Administrative Rule: 9/1/04