Carleton College will comply with all applicable laws such as FMLA, state and any applicable regulations. We recognize that situations may arise requiring a regular employee to request an unpaid leave of absence. The reason may be personal, medical (illness, injury, accident, or maternity) or for military service. Requests for leave should be in writing to the direct supervisor for approval. Supervisors will forward the request to Human Resources to process the leave. Leaves must contain the reason for the leave, specific inclusive dates of the time you will need off of your regular scheduleand the approval of the supervisor. Any accrued sick, vacation or holiday hours will be used during a leave of absence. If the absence is due to illness or injury, accumulated sick leave will be paid out according to the amount of time indicated by the employee's physician, time off in addition to the physician's request will require the use of employee's accrued vacation and/or floaters. College holiday hours will be paid during a leave of absence, based on the budgeted FTE. Leaves of absence will generally be for less than six months although longer leave may be considered if circumstances are determined by the College to be extenuating. Under no circumstances are leaves to exceed a rolling twelve month period.

During personal or certain medical leaves, it may be necessary to fill the position during the absence. One may return to the position if the leave does not exceed six months, and if that position has not been eliminated due to work force reduction or reorganization. If leave extends beyond six months and an extension is granted or the position is no longer available, Carleton College will attempt to place the employee in a comparable job and with a comparable rate of pay.

Employees who work six months consecutively prior to the beginning of their leaves will be eligible for continued College contributions to benefit programs during the first six months of an unpaid leave. Employees with leave extensions beyond six months or those who will not be returning to work may make special arrangements to continue certain insurance programs up to 18 months.

Leave of absence forms are available to download under Forms.