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Sick Leave

Eligible employees are entitled to use sick leave for medical and mental health issues. Employees may begin to use their sick leave accruals immediately upon hire with no waiting period. Sick leave accruals are earned at a rate of eight (8) hours per month for a full-time employee and earned proportionally down to 50% effort (a 50%-effort employee will earn four (4) sick leave hours per month).

Absences Qualifying for Sick Leave With and Without Pay

You may use sick leave for the following reasons:

  • Your condition: when sickness, injury, illness, or pregnancy prevents you from performing your duty; however sick leave can not be used for baby bonding.
    • Baby bonding time refers to the period of time for which an employee requests leave for the purposes of caring for and bonding with their newly-born or newly-adopted children, in which neither the employee nor the child are under medical care from a healthcare provider.
  • Care for immediate family:
    • Who live in your household (eligible: related by kinship, adoption, or marriage)
    • Who do not live in your household (eligible: employee's child, spouse, or parent; must have a documented medical condition)

Sick Leave and Documentation

You must account for your use of sick leave in the following instances:

Absences of three continuous working days or less

  • Your condition: no documentation required unless supervisor suspects abuse
  • Care for immediate family:
    • Family member residing in your household: no documentation required
    • Family member not residing in your household: must provide an explanation of the immediate family member's relationship (includes parents, but not in-laws) and need for care and assistance that results from a documented medical condition

Absences in excess of three continuous working days

  • Your condition: medical documentation required indicating estimated date of recovery and cause of illness or some other written statement of the facts concerning the illness that is acceptable to the CEO or their designee
  • Care for immediate family:
    • Must specify if leave is for family member
    • If time off is needed to care for a spouse after childbirth, the non-birthing parent is allowed to use five (5) days of Sick leave. Absences in excess of five days must be supported by updated medical documentation that indicate a serious health condition or complication at birth with either the spouse or child at birth. Baby bonding time is not a permissible use of sick leave.
    • Eligible family members residing and not residing in your household: must provide a health care provider's statement that indicates the cause or nature of the illness and estimated recovery date, or other written statement of the facts concerning the illness that is acceptable
  • Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA): you may qualify for FMLA benefits.
  • Documentation: The following completed certification forms will satisfy the university's sick leave documentation requirements for absences in excess of three continuous days:

Administrators: Medical documentation provided by the employee often contains medical diagnosis and history, or lists medication used in the treatment plan. This is confidential and should not be forwarded or shared with other employees, except in the course of business for leave purposes or Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) benefits. Employees should be encouraged to submit documentation directly to their HR Professional.

Important: The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) prohibits Texas A&M University from acquiring genetic information from its employees. Administrators and Human Resources Generalists/Managers must take steps to ensure that such information is not received.

Use of Sick Leave to Attend Children's Educational Activity

Employees may use up to eight hours of eligible sick leave with pay each fiscal year to attend an Educational Activity relating to their children in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. For purposes of using this leave type, an educational activity means a school sponsored activity, including registration, a parent-teacher conference, tutoring, a volunteer program, a field trip, a classroom program, a school committee meeting, an academic competition, an athletic, music, or theater program.

General Usage Guidelines

  • Employees must provide their supervisors with reasonable advance notice of the need for this leave type.
  • Employees are limited to a total of eight hours of educational activity leave per fiscal year, regardless of the number of school-aged children in their respective households.
  • A parent-teacher conference for this leave type is limited to parental meetings or interactions with the child's teachers and/or administrators (counselors, principals, etc.)
  • Employees should select Educational Activity when entering leave in Workday and in the Comments indicate which school sponsored activity they are participating in such as volunteering at a school book fair, attending band competition, field trip with daughter's 3rd grade class, etc.

Paid Leave Received From Or Transferred To Another State Agency

New Texas A&M employees with prior state employment or departing Texas A&M employees who transfer to another state agency (covered under Texas Government Code) may have their sick and/or vacation leave transferred to their new positions where appropriate. Employees that transfer mid-month are only entitled to accruals at the agency where they were employed on the 1st of the month.

Administrators: You may use the forms below to validate the number of hours to be transferred or received.

Exception: UT Health Center San Antonio has a Comprehensive Leave Policy which means that their employees earn leave under Texas Education Code and not Texas Government code and the leave doesn’t transfer with the employee. Per Texas Education Code, Section 51.961(d), Texas Government Code 661 does not apply to employees covered by a policy adopted under this section. The authority to transfer vacation and sick leave, is regulated by Texas Government Code 661.153 and 661.204 respectively.

Leave Transfer Out Form:
Use this form to validate leave hours transferred out to your former employee's new state agency.
Leave Transfer In Form:
Use this form to validate hours received from your new employee's prior state employer.

Sick Leave Upon Termination of Employment

Employees do not receive monetary compensation for unused sick leave accruals at the time of separation. In general, an employee has three options regarding his/her sick leave balance upon termination:

  • Donate any portion of or all remaining sick leave to the Sick Leave pool or Family Leave pool.
  • Do nothing with remaining sick leave accruals.
  • TRS Participants only can submit a completed TRS 587 form to verify 400 hours of remaining sick leave accruals and request a quote for the cost to purchase an additional year of TRS retirement service credit. A Benefits/Retirement Specialist will complete this form for you.

An employee will have sick leave restored if they leave state employment but are re-employed within 12 months after the end of the month in which employment ended, and if the employee:

  • was laid off under a formal reduction-in-force policy and returns to work for any state agency;
  • returns to work for a different System component or state agency; or
  • returns to work for the same System component and had at least a 30-calendar-day break in service.

Sick Leave Quick Facts

  • The estate of active employees who die will be paid for one-half of unused sick leave, or 336 hours, whichever is less, provided the employee has fulfilled 6 continuous months of service with the state.
  • An employee who adopts a child younger than three years may use the amount of available sick leave following the adoption that would normally be granted for recovery from pregnancy and childbirth (up to six weeks).
  • An active employee may donate hours to the Sick Leave pool or Family Leave pool at any point in their career in increments of 8 hours (Ex. 40 hours, 400 hours).

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