Leaves of Absence (LOA)

FCPS provides two types of leaves of absence (LOA) to help employees meet their personal and professional needs: designated and non-designated.

• A Designated LOA is provided for specific purposes, and documentation supporting the LOA is required. An employee may request a designated leave of absence for any of the following reasons: child care, illness, hardship, military active duty, and student teaching, internships, or professional certifications for employees who are obtaining their initial teacher licensures, licenses in a critical field, or professional certifications for non-teaching employees.
• A Non-designated LOA is available to employees for any reason, including but not limited to the following: study, employee organization business, political activity, overseas spousal diplomatic assignments, professional enhancement, etc.

Eligibility

• Designated LOA: An employee need not have worked for FCPS for a specified time period prior to requesting this type of leave
• Non-designated LOA: An employee is eligible to request this type of leave after five continuous years of working for FCPS. Multiple non-designated leaves of absence may be taken during a career with FCPS. Eligibility for each successive leave of absence requires five years of active service from the date of returning to active employment from any prior designated or non-designated leave.

Calculation of Leave Year

For school-based educational employees, teachers, instructional assistants, and other less-than-12-month employees, a leave of absence is generally granted for a school year or for the remainder of a school year. A request for an LOA for the next school year must be submitted by March 1.

For any other employee, the duration of the leave of absence may be less than a year, and the LOA request must be submitted at least 30 days in advance, if possible.

Additional documentation may be required to support your request for an LOA. Please discuss your unique situation with the Disability and Leaves team to ensure your LOA paperwork is complete.

Note: Your completed LOA paperwork must be sent to the FCPS Disability and Leave team for review. Your program manager/principal needs to sign your LOA form as an acknowledgment of your leave request. The Disability and Leaves team will review and approve/deny your leave request. After the leave decision is made, the Disability and Leaves team will send a notification to both you and your program manager/principal. Completion of the LOA paperwork does not imply or promise the employee’s eligibility for an LOA. 

Questions

If you have questions, please contact the Disability and Leaves team in the Office of Benefit Services via FCPS StaffConnect (Choose “Leaves and disability benefits question” from the dropdown list) or by calling 571-423-3200, option 2.

For More Information

Review the Benefits While on Leave of Absence (LOA) packet on the Benefits Publications & Resources webpage.

Refer to Regulation 4822.