Sick leave may be used by an employee for the illness of the employee or illness or death of immediate members of the employee’s family or an extension for bereavement leave. "Immediate members of family" shall be defined as grandparents, parents, spouse, children, grandchildren, siblings, dependents living in the household, in-laws, and stepfamily.

Full-time (40 hour) employees will accrue at a rate of nine (9) hours of sick leave per month. Sick leave will be prorated for full-time employees who work less than forty (40) hours per week. Employees must work three (3) months in a full-time position before utilizing any sick leave benefits. Sick leave balances may carry over from year to year, up to a maximum of 720 hours.  After reaching this maximum, no additional leave will be credited until leave time is used and the balance falls below 720 hours.  Upon retirement, any forfeited sick leave will be reported to the Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) for use in calculating potential sick leave credit.

Employees rehired less than one year (365 days) after terminating employment may request reinstatement of previous earned sick leave balances. State paid employees transferring to Hall County may request their unpaid leave balances be transferred up to the maximum amount allowed by the library.

Sick leave requests shall be made in increments of one hour. Sick leave requests for pre-arranged appointments should be reported as soon as possible.

Sick leave that extends beyond two (2) days requires a medical statement regarding the employee’s inability to report to work and expected return to work date.

If an employee requires more sick leave than accumulated, annual leave will be used for this purpose. All leave must be exhausted before leave without pay can be requested under Family Medical Leave.

A medical release is required before an employee can return to work from being out of work on sick leave due to hospitalization or serious injury. The medical release needs to state conditions the employee is expected to work under and the duration of any restrictions.

Abuse of sick leave or failure to follow sick leave policy is cause for dismissal.

In case of termination of employment, no payment shall be made for unused sick leave. Upon retirement, unused sick leave may be applied toward retirement service credit as determined by the Teacher’s Retirement System of Georgia.