The purpose of the Foster Parent Shared Leave Pool (FPSLP) is to allow any state employee to voluntarily donate their leave to be used as shared leave for any eligible state employee who is a licensed foster parent pursuant to RCW 74.15.040 and is caring for a foster child or is preparing to care for a foster child in their home.
The Foster Parent Shared Leave Pool is administered by the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF). State employees who wish to contribute to, or request FPSLP leave, can use the processes, forms, and information described below.
Eligibility & Forms
Donate Shared Leave
An employee who is eligible to donate leave under WAC 357-31-890 may donate vacation leave, sick leave, and all or part of a personal holiday to the Foster Parent Shared Leave Pool. The requirements to donate are as follows:
- Vacation Leave: An employee’s request to donate leave may not cause their vacation leave balance to fall below 80 hours after the transfer.
- Sick Leave: An employee’s request to donate leave may not cause their sick leave balance to fall below 176 hours after the transfer.
- Personal Holiday: An employee may donate all or part of their personal holiday.
Receive Shared Leave
- An employee is eligible to receive shared leave from the Foster Parent Shared Leave Pool if the employee is currently licensed as a foster parent and is caring for or preparing to care for a foster child.
- To receive shared leave from the pool to care for a foster child, the employee must exhaust all compensatory time, recognition leave, and their personal holiday. The employee is not required to deplete all of their vacation leave and sick leave and can maintain up to 40 hours of vacation leave and 40 hours of sick leave in reserve.
- To receive shared leave from the pool to prepare for a foster child, the employee must exhaust all compensatory time, recognition leave, and their personal holiday. The employee is not required to deplete all of their vacation leave and can maintain up to 40 hours of vacation leave and 40 hours of sick leave in reserve.
- An eligible employee may receive up to five days of shared leave (40 hours), per occurrence, from the Foster Parent Shared Leave Pool.
Forms
Definitions
- Caring for: taking a foster child to health care appointments, court appointments, visitation with family members and/or any other reasons that sick leave may be used for in WAC 357-31-130.
- Employee: an employee of the state, including employees of school districts and educational service districts, who are entitled to accrue sick leave or vacation leave and for whom accurate leave records are maintained as defined in RCW 41.04.655.
- Monthly salary: the monthly salary and special pay and shift differential, or the monthly equivalent for hourly employees. Monthly salary does not include overtime pay, callback pay, standby pay, or performance bonuses.
- Preparing to care for: arranging the foster child’s living space, enrolling in school and/or enrolling in child care.
- Recipient: an employee who receives donated leave from the Foster Parent Shared Leave Pool.
- Shared leave: the donated leave converted to hours by the receiving agency at the recipient’s rate of pay. This may be more or less than the literal hours donated depending on the relative salary rates of the respective employees.
- Timekeeper: an employee who processes all leave and overtime slips and enters leave and overtime hours into the Human Resource Management System (HRMS) to ensure accurate payment to employee.
- Donor: an employee who donates leave to the Foster Parent Shared Leave Pool.
- Donated leave: the dollar value of the leave hours a donor donates through the Shared Leave Program.
Frequently Asked Questions
Foster Parent Shared Leave must be returned upon discovery that it is no longer needed for the intended use, and upon termination/separation of an employee.
Yes
Yes
No. The employee can choose which shared leave source to use.
The Foster Parent License Certification is valid for 12 months from the date of request, or until the license expires, whichever comes first.
No. It is the applicant's responsibility to report revocation of their license for FPSL as documented on DCYF Form 03-492 Foster Parent Recipient Shared Leave. If the applicant does not report a loss of eligibility and continues to receive FPSL that would be considered an abuse of the pool.
Only funds currently available in the Pool can be disbursed. Up to 40 hours (5 days) of Foster Parent Shared Leave will be disbursed for the initial request. When the initial 40 hours of Foster Parent Shared Leave has been exhausted, the employee may submit a request to their agency HR/PR office, for an additional disbursement of up to 40 hours. A new certification form will not be required. HR may send the e-mail on to the Foster Parent Shared Leave Pool e-mail for processing. Within the certification period, this process may be followed until the maximum allowed 522 days has been reached, or until the date the certification expires, whichever comes first.
