FAMILY MEDICAL HARDSHIP LEAVE. The purpose of Family Medical Hardship Leave is to help alleviate the financial distress a teacher may face when confronted with the necessity of caring for a catastrophically ill family member. The leave must be used only for an event involving a member of a teacher's immediate family, household, or someone for whom a teacher has guardianship. The leave may not be utilized for a teacher's personal illness. The transfer of sick days from teacher to teacher is prohibited unless approved by the Family Medical Hardship Leave Committee (hereafter called the FMHLC). The purpose of the FMHLC is to review on a case-by-case basis the need to transfer sick days from one GKB teacher to another. A teacher requiring additional paid days to care for a critically ill family member may submit his or her request to the FMHLC, following the procedure below. A teacher must exhaust all of his or her available sick and personal days, as well as miss ten (10) unpaid school days, before potentially qualifying for Family Medical Hardship Leave. Because the availability of leave days is based upon the willingness of other teachers to donate their sick leave, no guarantee can be made about the number of days that may be granted. Days donated to help a teacher will lose all identity. Any unused donated days will be recorded and used to help a future applicant. Leave granted may be used in half- or full-day increments. The Family Medical Hardship Leave Committee will be comprised of three (3) teachers to be appointed by the Executive Committee of the Xxxxxxx-Xxxxxx-Xxxxxx Education Association. The term of the members of will be two (2) years. The members may succeed themselves. To apply for Family Medical Hardship Leave, a teacher will fill out a Request for Transfer of Sick Days form and submit to the Committee Chair in a timely fashion. A teacher may make a request for days from the Bank before all of his/her accumulated sick leave days are exhausted. Within three (3) days after receiving the form, the Committee will meet to review the request. The Committee will inform the teacher of its decision, in writing, the next school day. Upon granting a request, the Committee Chair will make a corporation-wide request for teachers to voluntarily transfer a specified number of sick leave days to another teacher. The teacher(s) agreeing to donate must notify the Committee Chair in writing of their decision to donate days within three (3) school days of the request. The Committee Chair wil...
