(a) A sick leave pool program is established to help alleviate the hardship caused to an employee and the employee's family if a catastrophic illness or injury forces the employee to exhaust all accrued leave time and to lose compensation from the state.
(b) A family leave pool program is established to provide eligible employees more flexibility to: bond with or care for a child in the child's first year after birth, adoption or foster placement; care for a person 18 or older in guardianship placement; care for a seriously ill family member or for the employee, including pandemic-related illnesses or complications caused by a pandemic; and provide essential care to a family member due to an extenuating circumstance created by an ongoing pandemic. Employees must have exhausted all eligible compensatory, discretionary, sick and vacation leave.
(c) The Human Resources Director or other employee designated by the Executive Administrator will act as Sick Leave Pool and Family Leave Pool Administrator.
(d) The Sick Leave Pool and Family Leave Pool Administrator, with the advice and consent of the Executive Administrator, will prescribe and implement policies and procedures for operation of the sick leave pool and family leave pool programs and include the policies in the Employee Handbook. The policies and procedures must be consistent with Texas Government Code Chapter 661.
(e) Employee donations to the sick leave pool and family leave pool are strictly voluntary and must be made in writing.

Source Note: The provisions of this §353.32 adopted to be effective June 3, 2018, 43 TexReg 3458; amended to be effective February 20, 2022, 47 TexReg 659