LEAVES OF ABSENCE

During your leave, you will be required to use available days including vacation, sick, and personal leave. Once you have exhausted your days, your leave will be unpaid. For this reason you may want to consider a disability plan to protect your pay in an unforeseen medical circumstance, as well as consider enrolling in the Sick Leave bank. 

Benefits While on Leave

If you miss a check, you will be required to submit payment for any benefits normally deducted from your paycheck. You will be notified via email by the benefits office of any missed deductions. It is important to make sure your personal email is updated in THEbenefitsHUB to ensure we are able to contact you. You must submit payment within 30 days of the missed deduction or your benefits may be cancelled effective the first of the month in which full premiums were not paid. 

If you are being paid through the disability provider (Lincoln) or through Worker's Compensation and are not receiving a check through payroll, benefit premiums are NOT taken from those payments since they come from a third party. You will be required to submit benefit payments to the district in either of these cases.

As long as you are on FMLA and/or are receiving a pay check the district's contribution to medical coverage, currently $260, will apply. However, if you exhaust FMLA and are no longer receiving a paycheck, you will be responsible for payment of your full medical premium. 

For more information regarding FMLA and other available leaves, please take a look at the Leave of Absence web page here or contact Melissa Austin in Human Resources at melissa.austin@birdvilleschools.net.

For more information regarding Worker's Compensation, please take a look at the Worker's Compensation web page here or contact Candace Miller at candace.miller@birdvilleschools.net.

For more information about how your paycheck is calculated while on leave, please scroll down.

Claim Filing 

You will receive an email from the Benefits Office regarding payment of benefits and a list of benefits you are enrolled in and may need to file a claim for. Claim filing instructions and forms are listed below. 

• Disability Claims Beginning on or after 9/1/22 (Lincoln Financial) - Group ID is BIRDVILLEI. You do not need to worry about the employer portion, the District will handle that with Lincoln directly. 

Short Term Disability (STD) Claim Filling Instructions - Policy # 000010271295-00000

Long Term Disability (LTD) Claim Filling Instructions - Policy # 000010271294-00000  

Once your claim has been submitted (please wait 48 hours), register at LincolnFinancial.com:

1. Go to LincolnFinancial.com and click the Register link in the top navigation panel.

2. Select Employee Benefits, and follow the instructions. The Company Code is BIRDVILLEI.

3. Once registered, you can review coverage, claim status, and policy information, print forms and report claim information such as a child delivery or a return-to-work date. 

• Hospital Indemnity Plan (HIP - The Hartford) - Policy #681612

HIP Claim Filling Instructions

HIP Claimant's Statement

HIP Physician's Statement

• Cancer (American Public Life) - Policy #12906

Cancer Claim Form

• Sick Bank 

Sick Bank Request Form (may substitute FMLA paperwork for Physician's portion)

Sick Leave Bank

The purpose of the Sick Leave Bank is to provide additional sick leave days to members of the Bank who, in the event of their own or an immediate family member's critical or extended illness, surgery, injury, and/or other temporary disability, and is unable to perform the duties of his/her position. When it becomes apparent that a member will exhaust all accumulated state and local leave and vacation days, then and only then may a request be initiated.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

• Bank days cannot be used for maternity leave, but may be requested for complications arising from pregnancy;
• Bank days cannot be used for Worker's Compensation leave; 
• The employee must miss five (5) consecutive days; All leave days, including vacation days, must be exhausted;
• Bank days may be requested for yourself or to care for an immediate family member;
• For complete information, please review the Sick Leave Bank Guidelines.