Foster Parent Shared Leave Pool

The Foster Parent Shared Leave Pool (FPSLP) allows any state employee to donate their leave as shared leave for any eligible state employee who:

  • Is a licensed foster parent pursuant to RCW 74.15.040 and
  • is caring for a foster child or is preparing to care for a foster child in their home. 

The FPSLP is administered by the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF). State employees who want to contribute or request FPSLP leave, can use the processes, forms, and information below.

Eligibility & Forms

Donate Shared Leave

An employee who is eligible to donate leave under WAC 357-31-890 may donate vacation leave, sick leave, and all or part of a personal holiday.

  • Vacation Leave: An employee’s request to donate leave may not cause their vacation leave balance to fall below 80 hours after the transfer.
  • Sick Leave: An employee’s request to donate leave may not cause their sick leave balance to fall below 176 hours after the transfer.
  • Personal Holiday: An employee can donate all or part of their personal holiday.

Receive Shared Leave

  • An employee is eligible to receive shared leave from the FPSLP if the employee is currently licensed as a foster parent or kinship caregiver and is caring for or preparing to care for a foster child.
  • To receive shared leave from the pool to care for or prepare for a foster child, the employee must exhaust all compensatory time, recognition leave, and their personal holiday. The employee does not need to deplete their vacation leave and sick leave. They can maintain up to 40 hours of vacation leave and 40 hours of sick leave in reserve.
  • An eligible employee may receive up to five days of shared leave (40 hours), per occurrence, from the FPSLP.

Forms

REQUEST Leave

DONATE Leave

Definitions

  • Caring for: Taking a foster child to health care or court appointments, visitation with family members and/or any other reasons that sick leave may be used for in WAC 357-31-130.
  • Donated leave: Dollar value of the leave hours a donor donates through the Shared Leave Program.
  • Donor: An employee who donates leave to the FPSLP.
  • Employee: An employee of the state who is entitled to grow sick leave or vacation leave and for whom accurate leave records are maintained as defined in RCW 41.04.655.
  • Monthly salary: Monthly salary and special pay and shift differential, or the monthly equivalent for hourly employees. Monthly salary does not include overtime, callback, or standby pay or performance bonuses.
  • Occurrence: A single qualifying foster care or kinship care event for which an employee may receive Foster Parent Shared Leave (FPSL). For employees preparing to receive a foster child or kinship placement, each placement is a separate occurrence. For employees caring for a foster child or kinship child, an occurrence is any qualifying event that requires the employee to take time away from work to provide care.
  • Preparing to care for: Arranging the foster child’s living space, enrolling in school, and/or enrolling in child care.
  • Recipient: An employee who receives donated leave from the FPSLP.
  • Shared leave: Donated leave converted to hours by the receiving agency at the recipient’s rate of pay. This may be more or less than the literal hours donated depending on the relative salary rates of the respective employees.
  • Timekeeper: An employee who processes all leave and overtime slips and enters leave and overtime hours into the Human Resource Management System (HRMS) to make sure there is accurate payment to employee.
     

Frequently Asked Questions

FPSL must be returned if it’s not needed for the intended use, when the caregivers license has expired, and upon termination/separation of an employee. Eligibility for FPSL ends on the expiration date of the employee's foster parent or kinship care license. 

Yes.

Yes.

No. The employee can choose which shared leave source to use.

The Foster Parent License Certification is valid for 12 months from the date of request, or until the license expires, whichever comes first.

No. It is the applicant's responsibility to report revocation of their license for FPSL as documented on DCYF Form 03-492 Foster Parent Recipient Shared Leave. If the applicant does not report a loss of eligibility and continues to receive FPSL that would be considered an abuse of the pool.

Only funds currently available in the Pool can be disbursed. Up to 40 hours (five days) of FPSL will be disbursed for the initial request. When the initial 40 hours of FPSL have been exhausted, the employee may submit a request to their agency HR/PR office, for an additional disbursement of up to 40 hours. A new certification form will not be required. HR may send the e-mail on to the FPSLP email for processing. Within the certification period, this process may be followed until the maximum allowed 522 days has been reached, or until the date the certification expires, whichever comes first.

The appointing authority signature is the requesters appointing authority at your agency, not a DCYF appointing authority. This is to make sure that your agencies’ policies have been reviewed and approved while also meeting WAC requirements

  • Per WAC 357-31-850: each agency must have a written policy regarding the FPSL pool.
  • Per WAC 357-31-895: employees who are eligible to receive leave from the FPSL pool must suspense and maintain specific balances of leave.

Those who use AFRS as their accounting system will be distributed to the fund and agency that is provided on the recipient FPSL form. Those who do not use AFRS as their accounting system will be given the leave by either a paper check or, if registered with an accurate vender number, we can process a vender payment.

Once the payment is sent by DCYF to your agency, then it will be the gaining agency’s responsibility to distribute the Shared Leave to the employee.

Info for HR & Payroll Offices