Employees who have worked for the State of Idaho for 12 months and have worked at least 1,250 hours at Idaho State University in the last 12 months are eligible for unpaid job-protected leave covered by the provisions of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), as noted in the Family and Medical Leave Policy; ISUPP 3010. The FMLA allows up to 12 weeks of unpaid job-protected leave, (or 480 hours for full-time employees, 1.0 FTE) for the following reasons:
- Birth of a child
- Adoption of a child or placement of a child in foster care
- Employee's own serious health condition
- To care for a qualifying family member with a serious health condition
- Qualifying exigency leave arising out of the active duty or call to active duty status in the National Guard or Reserves in the support of a contingency operation of a spouse, son, daughter or parent of an eligible employee;
- Eligible employees are entitled to take up to twenty-six (26) weeks of job protected leave in a twelve (12) month period to care for a covered service member with a serious illness or injury incurred in the line of duty
FMLA approved leave can either be continuous, intermittent, and/or reduced hours based on medical need. Though FMLA leave is unpaid, employees may use their personal leave accruals such as sick, vacation, or compensatory time to receive pay during the approved absence. For more information, please reach out to HR (fmla@isu.edu or 208-282-3058).
Your first steps: Within 30 days before your leave is to begin or as soon as practical, please fill out the linked FMLA Request Form which will be sent to your supervisor and then to HR for review. HR will then provide you with a Notice of Eligibility (or Ineligibility) and further instructions.
Benefit-eligible employees who have worked for the State of Idaho for 12 months in the last 7 years and have worked at least 1,250 hours at Idaho State University in the last 12 months are eligible for 8 weeks (320 hours for full-time employee, 1.0 FTE) of paid parental leave if one of the following criteria are met:
- Be a new parent by childbirth; OR,
- Be the new adoptive parent of a child under the age of 18, OR
- Be a parent of a child born by a surrogate mother; OR
- Be an individual seeking to adopt a child after the birth of that child, but the adoption has not yet been finalized; OR
- Be an individual actively approved to provide foster care or kinship placement and have an active and ongoing role in parenting the child in their care.*
The 8 weeks of paid parental leave must be taken within the first 12 weeks of the birth, adoption, or placement of a child.
Please note: One may qualify for paid parental leave even if they don't qualify for FMLA, but if they do qualify for FMLA, then paid parental leave must run concurrently with FMLA.
For more information, please reference the Leave of Absence for Faculty and Staff Policy: ISUPP 3070, reach out to HR (fmla@isu.edu / 208-282-3058), or review the Idaho Division of Human Resources FAQ page.
Your first steps: Within 30 days before your leave is to begin or as soon as practical, please fill out the linked FMLA/PPL Request Form which will be sent to your supervisor and then to HR for review. HR will then provide you with a Notice of Eligibility (or Ineligibility) and further instructions.
*PPL use for foster care or kinship placement is effective October 1, 2024.
Holiday leave is paid to benefit-eligible employees as a day of exemption from work for which they are compensated as if they had actually worked.
Time entry resources for holiday leave:
- Classified Holiday Time Entry Guide (Hourly Non-Classified Staff use this guide as well)
- Irregular Shift - Classified Employee Holiday Time Entry Guide
- Swing Shift - Classified Employee Holiday Time Entry Guide
- Faculty, non-Classified staff, and other staff on deferred pay schedules: No time entry is needed on these days.
Employees are required to obtain approval from their supervisor prior to the use of annual leave. Supervisors should approve, modify, or deny annual leave requests with reasonable consideration for the employee’s needs and preferences, while balancing the business needs and efficient operations of the unit.
- Non-classified staff and 12 month faculty earn annual leave at the rate of 7.4 hours each biweekly pay period (1.0 FTE), or 0.0925 per hour, up to a maximum of 240 hours.
- 9, 10, 11 month faculty do not earn annual leave, as they are expected to take leave during breaks in the academic cycle.
- Classified staff earn annual leave as follows:
Hours of Credited State Service Accrual Rate per Hour Accrual Rate per Pay Period for Full-Time Classified Staff Accrual Limit 0-10,400 (0-5 years full-time)
0.04615 3.7 Hours 192 Hours 10,401-20,800 (5-10 years full-time) 0.05769 4.6 Hours 240 Hours 20,801-31,200 (10-15 years full-time) 0.06923 5.5 Hours 288 Hours 31,210+ (15+ years) 0.08077 6.5 Hours 336 Hours
If needed, please contact HR (hr@isu.edu or 208-282-2517) to confirm credited state service hours.
All benefit-eligible employees accrue 3.7 hours of sick leave per pay period (1.0 FTE) or 0.04625 hours of sick leave per hour worked.
- Use of sick leave must be reported on the timesheet for faculty, classified staff and non-classified staff
- Use of sick leave is restricted to cases of the employee’s actual illness or disability or other health reasons necessitating the employee’s absence from work or Employee Assistance Program (EAP) appointments
- An employee may also use sick leave when needed to attend a family member’s medical appointments, serious illness, disability, or death and funeral in the family
- Eligibility to use sick leave includes illness, disability, or other health reasons involving self, spouse, child, foster child, parent, brother, sister, grandparent, grandchild, or the same relation by marriage or legal guardian
- Sick leave cannot be used in lieu of vacation leave
This program allows benefit-eligible employees to transfer accrued leave (sick or vacation) to any benefit-eligible State employee for their use as paid sick leave when the employee has exhausted all of their leave balances and has a need for additional leave hours, in accordance with the State of Idaho’s Donated Leave Policy.
To donate, please fill out the following form: Shared Leave Donation Form
Additionally, there are a few things we want you to be aware of:
- The donating employee must have at least 80 hours of vacation and sick balances AFTER the donation occurs, and can only transfer a total of 80 hours per fiscal year.
- Because the State of Idaho Donated Leave policy prohibits agencies from managing a “bank” of donated hours, your donated hours will remain in your accrued leave balance until an eligible recipient is identified and the hours can be transferred directly to that individual. Therefore, you may still see your hours reflected in your leave balances after your donation is submitted.
- Donations will be used by employees in need based on the order in which they were received.
If you have any questions or know of employees in need of shared leave hours, please contact the HR Associate for Leave Options at (208) 282-3058 for assistance.
Except for the week of the winter holiday closure, leave without pay is not approved unless formally requested, approved by appropriate leadership, and documented with HR. At the discretion of the management chain, and due to exceptional circumstances, an employee may be granted personal leave without pay when leadership determines that such leave will not have an adverse effect upon the business needs of the unit.
If the leave exceeds 1 week in length, department leadership through the respective Vice President must approve the leave.
If the leave exceeds 4 weeks in length, department leadership through the respective Vice President and the University President must approve the leave.
To request leave without pay, please read the Leave of Absence for Faculty and Staff Policy, ISUPP 3070, have an exploratory conversation with your supervisor, and complete the Employee Leave Without Pay Request Form. If you have any questions about the form, please reach out to Crystal Clezie (gribdani@isu.edu or (208) 282-3058).
Employees seeking leave without pay due to the employee’s own personal health circumstances or disability covered under federal and state law must engage with ISU Disability Services Office (disabilityservices@isu.edu) prior to completing and submitting their request for leave.