Paid Parental Leave for Faculty

Overview

This page provides guidance for deans and academic unit leaders in navigating the federal and state entitlements as related to paid parental leave (PDF) (PPL) usage for academic-year (nine-month) contract faculty.  The number of hours of PPL entitlement increased from 120 to 240 hours, per Georgia law, effective July 1, 2024.  PPL can be used on a continuous or intermittent basis to reduce teaching and other responsibilities.  In all cases, PPL usage arrangements must consider the needs of the faculty member, the unit, and the University of Georgia to support critical instructional, research, and service missions.  Effort allocation, as a general matter, and application of intermittent PPL to reduce effort, is in the units’ discretion, in consultation with University Human Resources.

Advance Notice to the Extent Possible: 

As an employer, the University of Georgia values faculty work-life balance and abides requirements under controlling state and federal law.  Faculty, especially those on academic-year contracts with teaching assignments, serve in a unique employment posture that does not lend itself to traditional human resources leave approaches for staff, non-instructional faculty, or even 12-month faculty.  PPL qualifying events (e.g., birth, adoption, foster placement of a child) may occur before, after, or during the semester; sometimes, but not always, with advance notice.  To the extent the faculty member is able to anticipate a qualifying event (e.g., birth of a child) that will occur during an instructional semester, they are encouraged to inform their unit leaders as soon as possible to allow for appropriate planning, support, and instructional continuity.

Appropriate Leave Submission: 

As a general matter, faculty, like all other University employees, should submit appropriate leave requests (e.g., sick, annual, FMLA, parental) when they will not be performing work duties during work time.  Recognizing that faculty do not work traditional 40-hour-week, 8-to-5, schedules, they nevertheless should submit leave when appropriate.  Leave is an employment benefit that, in some cases, has cash value; can be applied to the years of service calculation retirement; and/or may be donated to a shared leave pool.  By submitting leave, faculty members also appropriately protect themselves from performance expectations during any time periods for which leave was approved.  Accordingly, use of PPL or other leave entitlements, is encouraged for any time during which assigned effort is reduced due to a PPL or other qualifying event.

Details of the State PPL Entitlement: 

Effective July 1, 2024, all state employees are entitled to 240 hours (6 weeks) of PPL.  The University System of Georgia’s updated policy (PDF) describes the established eligibility criteria and qualifying life events.  The guidance in this document pertains specifically to full-time, regular (i.e., contract-eligible, non-temporary) academic-year contract faculty with the requisite six months of continuous service. Qualifying life events for PPL include birth of a child; placement of a minor child for adoption; and placement of a minor child for foster care. 

PPL may be used on a continuous or intermittent basis but must be taken within twelve months of the qualifying event.  Unused PPL does not carry over for future use, and PPL has no cash value upon separation from employment.  While the leave itself is an entitlement, intermittent usage of PPL is in the employer’s discretion and may not unduly disrupt the employer’s operation.

PPL may be used in conjunction with the federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) entitlement.  FMLA allows 480 hours (12 weeks) of unpaid leave, continuous or intermittent, following an FMLA qualifying event.  While FMLA is unpaid, faculty may use any available PPL, sick leave, annual leave, or shared sick leave pool days to pay themselves during FMLA leave.  Applying the state PPL entitlement to an FMLA leave period allows the employee to be paid for half of the FMLA period.  After exhausting the FMLA entitlement leave period, whether paid or unpaid, faculty may request additional non-FMLA leave (if medically supported; with or without pay, depending on their accrued leave balance) or personal leave without pay. Personal leave without pay and non-FMLA extended medical leave for faculty are subject to Provost approval.

Regardless of the type of leave (e.g., sick, annual, FMLA, parental), employees are not expected to perform job duties during the approved leave period and may not be evaluated for performance during the period(s) for which they were on approved leave.

Historical Challenges with Faculty PPL Usage

Informal Arrangements:  Historically, even without formal guidance, some units have allowed faculty experiencing qualifying life events (including birth, adoption, or foster placement) to have a course release, non-teaching/research-intensive semester, and/or shift in duties (typically, teaching) from an earlier or later semester.  While those approaches varied across units, the expectation remained that the faculty member was performing a full, 100% effort, unless leave was submitted.  In many cases, under these “handshake” arrangements, faculty may not have submitted any leave (FMLA or other) request at all but instead informally rearranged duties with unit leaders to avoid leave usage.  

With PPL as a legal entitlement, there is the possibility that faculty may request an historical, informal approach (i.e., course release, research-intensive semester, duties shift) while also holding onto the possibility of subsequently seeking to use their PPL entitlement.  PPL is protected by state and/or federal law and may not be bargained away; accordingly, any informal agreement would not replace the legal entitlement, again, as long as the faculty member is within one year of the qualifying event.  This guidance strongly discourages informal arrangements that do not include PPL or other leave usage for qualifying events.

Timing Challenges:  PPL usage for nine-month instructional faculty presents additional timing and logistical challenges because the entitlement is not available until the date of the qualifying life event.  It is not uncommon for the qualifying event to fall during the middle of an instructional semester.  Using PPL entitlement, rather than the historical informal arrangements, presents the possibility of the faculty member teaching for the start of the semester, then withdrawing mid-semester when the qualifying event occurs, causing instructional disruption and course coverage challenges for the unit.  Additional policy questions arise with a summer qualifying event for an academic year-contract faculty member who is not on contract but desires to take PPL during the following academic year.  While in some cases, such as adoption or foster placement, the event may not be forecast in advance, and the unit will need to make appropriate arrangements, as with any other FMLA or unexpected leave event.  But, as noted above, when the event can be forecast, faculty members are strongly encouraged to provide advance notice to their unit leadership to allow appropriate planning and instructional continuity.

Tenure Clock Extensions:  At present, UGA’s guidance on tenure probationary period extension requests borrows the FMLA definitions of qualifying events.  That guidance, at present, does not require a faculty member actually to have taken FMLA (or PPL) leave in order to request an extension.  This allowance recognizes that FMLA qualifying events expectedly delay progress towards tenure, even if the faculty member does not formally take leave.  Without taking leave, however, the faculty member’s performance expectations (i.e., for annual evaluation, third-year review, and promotion and tenure) is not adjusted below 100%.  This guidance suggests that PPL usage should be taken, as appropriate, as the entitlement is intended to provide protection and compensation for leave taken for qualifying events.  Leave usage is consistent with the rationale for granting tenure probationary period extension, recognizing that faculty productivity following qualifying event almost certainly is reduced.

PPL Usage Options

Modified Duties in the Semester of the Expected Qualifying Event:

Offer course release(s) for the semester in which qualifying event occurs, shifting some or all the courses that otherwise would have been assigned to an earlier or later semester.  Effectively, the faculty member is assigned 100% research/other non-teaching duties for the semester, with corresponding increased teaching effort in a different semester. Even with modified duties, the faculty member would utilize PPL beginning with qualifying event date to reduce effort for the remaining research/other non-teaching duties. Thus, this option would justify a tenure clock extension request and alleviate the faculty member of performance expectations to the extent of the PPL usage.

Pros:

• No disruption to instructional continuity by placing faculty member in leave status mid-semester
• Minimal financial impact to the unit because teaching coverage is made up (fully or mostly) in another semester and can be covered with overload or lower cost replacement instructor in semester of qualifying event.
• Faculty member’s overall instructional effort remains fully or mostly intact, even though shifted to an earlier or later semester.
• Accurate reflection of faculty member’s actual work effort during the semester of the qualifying event, with PPL taken beginning with the qualifying event.
• Accurate reflection of adjusted performance expectations to the extent of intermittent PPL usage.

Continuous or Intermittent Leave Usage at the Time of Qualifying Event:

Maintain existing allocation of duties (i.e., percentage efforts in teaching, research, service, etc.) in advance of the expected qualifying event, while taking appropriate continuous or intermittent leave at the time of the qualifying event.  This option would justify a tenure clock extension request and alleviate the faculty member of performance expectations to the extent of the paid leave.

Pros:

• Continuous or intermittent PPL usage for assigned teaching, research, and/or service obligations once qualifying event occurs
• Accurate reflection of faculty member’s actual work effort during the semester of the qualifying event
• Accurate reflection of adjusted performance expectations to the extent of intermittent leave usage

Cons:

• Disruption of instructional continuity at the point of qualifying event, if the faculty member is assigned teaching during the semester of the qualifying event and uses PPL to reduce or remove teaching effort
• Difficulty finding and paying a replacement instructor for partial semester
• Faculty member may lack sufficient leave balance to self-pay for entire semester, resulting in a period of unpaid leave

Delayed Continuous Leave in a Semester Following the Qualifying Event:

Place on continuous leave for entire semester following the semester in which the qualifying event occurs. This option would justify a tenure clock request and alleviate the faculty member of performance expectations to the extent of the PPL usage.

Pros:

• Full semester of continuous leave, utilizing full 12 weeks FMLA (paid via PPL and any accrued sick leave), plus additional non-FMLA extended leave (if medically supported; paid with any accrued sick leave) for the remainder semester
• Faculty member fully able to focus on qualifying event, after the previous semester’s duties are completed

Cons:

• Faculty member may lack sufficient leave balance to self-pay for entire semester, resulting in a period of unpaid leave
• Non-FMLA extended leave is not an entitlement but subject to employer (Provost) approval, creating uncertainty regarding the full semester leave, unless presented sufficiently in advance to timely gain all approvals

Appendix:  Illustrative Examples of PPL Usage

•  9-month tenure-track faculty member with 3-course load for the academic year, 45% instructional effort, with mid-semester qualifying event.
  Note:  The faculty member is strongly encouraged to make the unit aware as soon as possible regarding any anticipated qualifying event, i.e., the spring before a fall mid-semester qualifying event, or the summer before a spring mid-semester qualifying event.
  • Leave Usage at Time of Qualifying Event: The faculty member may begin the semester with the regular teaching, research, and/or service assignment.  Following the qualifying event, the faculty member could submit continuous or intermittent leave for the remainder of the semester, with respect to the teaching, research, and/or service effort.  Intermittent leave is not automatic and may not be approved if unduly disruptive to the employer.  If intermittent leave is requested with respect to teaching, the amount of leave may be calculated according to the UGA contact-hour conversion chart (see below).  If the intermittent leave usage for research and/or service effort, the faculty member, unit, and University Human Resources may estimate the percentage of reduced effort by reference to the faculty member’s existing effort allocation.  A tenure probationary period extension request would be permissible in this scenario because there would be leave usage for the reduced effort.
    
    For intermittent leave, it may be appropriate to claim 10 hours/week per 3-hour course.  Additional intermittent leave may be applied to research or other effort, up to the total amount of leave time requested (e.g., 50% leave, with a combination of 10 hours teaching effort and 10 hours research effort).  As emphasized above, faculty allocation of effort is within the unit’s discretion.  Accordingly, faculty requesting intermittent leave should work collaboratively with unit leadership and human resources to make arrangements that are both supportive of the faculty member and workable for the unit.
    
    
  • Leave Usage Following Qualifying Event: The faculty member may complete the semester in which the qualifying event occurs, with the regular teaching, research, and/or service assignment.  In a subsequent semester, as long as within one year of the qualifying event, the faculty member may submit continuous leave for up to 6 weeks PPL, plus additional 6 weeks FMLA, and possible additional weeks non-FMLA extended leave (if medically supported) or personal leave, subject to unit recommendation and Provost approval.  Any leave beyond available PPL would be paid, using accrued sick or other leave.  Intermittent leave also could be requested in the semester following the qualifying event, as long as within one year.  A tenure probationary period extension request would be permissible in these scenarios because there would be leave usage.

• 9-month tenure-track faculty member with 4-course load for the academic year, 50% instructional effort, with summer qualifying event, when the faculty member typically engages in summer teaching.
  • As the faculty member’s academic year contract does not cover the summer, and summer teaching is optional, no leave would be submitted, and the PPL entitlement would be available during the following academic year, within one year of the qualifying event. The entitlement could be invoked for continuous leave or, with employer approval, intermittent leave up to 240 hours.  A tenure probationary period extension request would be appropriate.
    
    
• 9-month lecturer-track or instructional faculty member with 3 or 4 course load each semester, 90% to 100% instructional effort, with mid-semester qualifying event.
  • As this faculty member does not have research expectations, the shifting of duties would not be appropriate, unless meaningful, tangible service or administrative duties could be assigned. Accordingly, continuous or intermittent leave should be submitted following the qualifying event, depending whether the entire teaching load or a course reduction is arranged.  Alternatively, the faculty member could finish the teaching assignments during the semester of the qualifying event and utilize continuous or intermittent leave in a subsequent semester, as long as within a year of the qualifying event.

Contact Hour Conversion Chart, from UGA Policy 03.01.011

The contact hour conversion chart, which is referenced for determining benefits eligibility for part-time faculty, also may provide a useful way of calculating reduced teaching effort, by credit hour.