For the purposes of determining which employees may be exempted from emergency paid sick leave or expanded family and medical leave, per the Department of Labor, health care provider includes two groups.

The first group is anyone who is a licensed doctor of medicine, nurse practioner, or other health care provider permitted to issue certification for purposes of the FMLA.

The second group is Any other person who is employed to provide diagnostic services, preventive services, treatment services, or other services that are integrated with and necessary to the provision of patient care and, if not provided, would adversely impact patient care. (See list below this paragraph for more detailed definitions of these terms.) This group includes employees who provide direct diagnostic, preventive, treatment, or other patient care services, such as nurses, nurse assistants, and medical technicians. It also includes employees who directly assist or are supervised by a direct provider of diagnostic, preventive, treatment, or other patient care services. Finally, employees who do not provide direct heath care services to a patient but are otherwise integrated into and necessary to the provision of those services—for example, a laboratory technician who processes medical test results to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of a health condition—are health care providers.

Diagnostic: Includes taking or processing samples, performing or assisting in the performance of x-rays or other diagnostic tests or procedures, and interpreting test or procedure results.

Preventative: Includes screenings, check-ups, and counseling to prevent illnesses, disease, or other health problems.

Treatment: Includes performing surgery or other invasive or physical interventions, prescribing medication, providing or administering prescribed medication, physical therapy, and providing or assisting in breathing treatments.

Integrated: Those services that are “integrated with and necessary to diagnostic, preventive, or treatment services and, if not provided, would adversely impact patient care, including bathing, dressing, hand feeding, taking vital signs, setting up medical equipment for procedures, and transporting patients and samples."

An employee is not a health care provider merely because their agency provides health care services or because the person provides a service that affects the provision of health care services. For example, IT professionals, building maintenance staff, human resources personnel, cooks, food services workers, records managers, consultants, and billers are not health care providers, even if they work at a hospital or a similar health care facility.

​For the purposes of determining which employees may be exempted from emergency paid sick leave or expanded family and medical leave, per the Department of Labor, an emergency responder is “an employee who is necessary for the provision of transport, care, health care, comfort, and nutrition of such patients, or whose services are otherwise needed to limit the spread of COVID-19.

​This includes but is not limited to military or national guard, law enforcement officers, correctional institution personnel, fire fighters, emergency medical services personnel, physicians, nurses, public health personnel, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, emergency management personnel, 911 operators, public works personnel, and persons with skills or training in operating specialized equipment or other skills needed to provide aid in a declared emergency as well as individuals who work for such facilities employing these individuals and whose work is necessary to maintain the operation of the facility.”

Finally, the Secretary, or Agency Head, is also able to make an individual determination to identify an employee as an emergency responder essential to our response to COVID-19. Agencies are in the process of making these determinations now and will communicate directly with agency staff regarding who is included as an emergency responder at each agency.

Under the Emergency Paid Sick Leave program: Employees will receive their regular rate of pay, subject to a daily maximum of $511, if the employee is unable to work or telework because they:

• ​Are subject to a Federal, State, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19;
• Have been advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to concerns related to COVID-19;
• ​Are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and are seeking medical diagnosis.

• Caring for an individual who is subject to a Federal, State, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19 or an individual who has been advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to concerns related to COVID-19;
• Caring for your son or daughter whose school or place of care is closed, or childcare provider is unavailable, due to COVID-19 related reasons.

**Employees who are receiving 2/3 pay when using the emergency paid sick leave may choose to supplement the additional one-third of their pay by using their own available state leave, but not state-provided paid administrative leave.

Under the Expanded FMLA program: The first 10 days of expanded family and medical leave for childcare, due to school or day care closure are unpaid. Employees may substitute any available state leave (e.g., vacation, personal leave, sick leave) or emergency paid sick leave. For the following ten weeks, employees will be paid 2/3 of their regular pay rate, subject to a daily maximum of $200. Paid FMLA for weeks 3-12 cannot be supplemented. However, employees can use their own leave as substitute while using expanded FMLA.

No. Employees are not required to use their own accrued leave prior to accessing the available federal leave balances.

No. Only weeks 3-12 of leave for childcare due to school or day care closure is paid for eligible employees.

No. The provisions are effective beginning April 1, 2020​.

Employees will be asked to fill out a short form to access either leave program. This is primarily to ensure usage is accurately tracked and submitted to the HR/payroll teams. Additional information* may be required as follows:

If the employee has been advised by a health care provider** to self-quarantine due to concerns related to COVID-19:

• The employee’s name
• The name of health care provider who advised
• A statement that the employee is unable to work, including telework, for that reason
• The date(s) for which leave is requested

• The employee’s name
• The name of health care provider who has been contacted
• A statement that the employee is unable to work, including telework, for that reason
• The date(s) for which leave is requested

​If the employee is caring for a sick family member:

• Employee’s name
• The name of the individual the employee is caring for
• The applicable order (e.g. Safer at Home Order) or name of health care provider** who ordered the individual being cared for to self -quarantine (depending on the reason)
• A statement that the employee is unable to work, including telework, for that reason
• The date(s) for which leave is requested is all that is required.

If the employee is caring for a son or daughter because the school or place of care has been closed, or the childcare provider is unavailable, due to COVID-19 precautions:

• The employee’s name
• The name of son or daughter and name of the school or day care that is closed.

*Note: Medical Coordinators, or supervisors when appropriate, are authorized to request further documentation of the information provided in each scenario listed above when needed.

** “Health care provider” for purposes of determining individuals whose advice to self-quarantine due to concerns related to COVID-19 can be relied on as a qualifying reason for emergency paid sick leave, means a licensed doctor of medicine, nurse practitioner, or other health care provider permitted to issue a certification for purposes of the FMLA.

Permanent and project employees will continue to earn continuous service, WRS contributions (by both the employee and employer) and creditable service, annual leave, and sick leave when using the paid emergency sick leave or expanded family and medical leave.

Employees who are receiving 2/3 pay when using the emergency paid sick leave may choose to supplement the additional one-third of their pay by using their own available state leave, but not state-provided paid administrative leave. For example, a full-time employee could receive eight hours of emergency paid sick leave at the two-thirds rate of pay and also use two and two-thirds hours of vacation or sick leave to receive a full paycheck for eight hours at the employee’s regular rate of pay.

Under the FFCRA, a “son or daughter” is your own child, which includes your biological, adopted, or foster child, your stepchild, a legal ward, or a child for whom you are standing in loco parentis—someone with day-to-day responsibilities to care for or financially support a child. Son or daughter also includes an adult son or daughter (i.e., one who is 18 years of age or older), who (1) has a mental or physical disability, and (2) is incapable of self-care because of that disability. For additional information about in loco parentis or requirements relating to an adult son or daughter, see DOL Fact Sheet #28B or Fact Sheet #28K respectively.

​You are unable to work if your employer has work for you and one of the COVID-19 qualifying reasons set forth in the FFCRA prevents you from being able to perform that work, either under normal circumstances at your normal worksite or by means of telework.

If you have been approved to telework and you are unable to perform those tasks or work the required hours because of one of the qualifying reasons for emergency paid sick leave, then you are entitled to take emergency paid sick leave.

Employees should review the Employee Guide to Paid Leave Available due to COVID-19 to confirm what leave types are available for their specific situation. There are two job aids available to help employees enter Federal Emergency Paid Sick Leave in STAR (Guide for Non-Healthcare Providers or Essential Workers / Guide for Healthcare Providers & Essential Workers).

Supervisors should review the Manager Self-Service COVID-19 Leave Review, Entry & Approval Job Aid for details.

Information regarding the entry of the expanded FMLA provisions will be available the week of April 19th.​

​It depends on why you are taking emergency paid sick leave and whether your employer agrees. In general, unless you are teleworking, emergency paid sick leave for qualifying reasons related to COVID-19 must be taken in full-day increments. It cannot be taken intermittently if the leave is being taken because:

• You are subject to a Federal, State, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19 other than the safer at home order
• You have been advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to concerns related to COVID-19
• You are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and seeking a medical diagnosis
• You are caring for an individual who either is subject to a quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19 or has been advised by a health care provider to self-quarantine due to concerns related to COVID-19.

If you are teleworking and become unable to do so for qualifying reasons related to COVID-19 (i.e. you feel unwell enough to work or are required to care for another), emergency paid sick leave must be taken in full-day increments. However, the leave may be taken intermittently over the course of your normally scheduled days.

​Yes, but only with your supervisor’s permission. Intermittent expanded family and medical leave should be permitted only when you and your employer agree upon such a schedule. For example, if your employer and you agree, you may take expanded family and medical leave on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, but work Tuesdays and Thursdays, while your son or daughter is at home because their school or place of care is closed, or child care provider is unavailable, due to COVID-19 related reasons, for the duration of your leave.

​Yes. The Department of Labor has determined that when “the physical location where your child received instruction or care is now closed, the school or place of care is ‘closed’ for purposes of [emergency] paid sick leave and expanded family and medical leave.” “This is true even if some or all instruction is being provided online or whether, through another format such as ‘distance learning,’ your child is still expected or required to complete assignments.”

​As long as the physical location is closed to your child, eligible employees may use emergency paid sick leave and EFMLA on days of closure due to COVID-19. This is true even if other children are attending the school on those days as a result of rotating in-person instruction (Group A attends Monday and Wednesday while Group B attends Tuesday and Thursday).

​When the school’s physical location is open for attendance, it cannot be considered closed for the purposes of emergency paid sick leave and EFMLA. Therefore, you will not be able to use emergency paid sick leave or EFMLA if you choose the virtual option.

​Because the school is open, neither emergency paid sick leave nor EFMLA can be used for 3 virtual days each week.

​If the school “closes” your child’s classroom and directs children to remain at home, emergency paid sick leave and EFMLA are available for those days. If you choose to keep your child home, you are not eligible to use emergency paid sick leave or EFMLA. Additionally, if the local health department directs quarantine of your child due to exposure, emergency paid sick leave could be used as is normally permitted.

​In order to be eligible for emergency paid sick leave or EFMLA, there must be no other suitable person available to care for the child. If a tutor or teacher has been hired, you will not be eligible to take leave. However, if there are multiple children requiring care, you may be eligible to take leave to care for children that are not receiving care from the tutor or teacher.