Frequently Asked Questions
School Assistance & Volunteer Service Leave (formerly Community Service Leave)
For the complete policy, please see the Department of Human Resource Management (DHRM) School Assistance & Volunteer Service Leave policy document.
Full-time classified employees receive sixteen hours of paid leave per calendar year (pro-rated for part-time classifed) to provide volunteer services through eligible non-profit organizations within or outside their communities. Such service may be provided as a member of a service organization or through authorized school assistance.
Volunteer opportunities include:
- Members of volunteer fire departments and rescue squads
- Voluntary service as part of an organized service project sponosored by a community, national or other service organization (Examples include Meals on Wheels, Boy/Girl Scouts, Big Brother/Big Sister, Red Cross)
- Donation of blood or blood products (not for pay)
School Assistance includes:
- Employees with children may be granted paid leave to meet with a teacher or administrator of a public or private preschool, elementary school, middle school, or high school concerning their children, step-children, or children for whom the employee has legal custody<.li>
- Attend a school function in which such children are participating
- Any employee may be granted leave to perform volunteer work approved by any teacher or school administrator to assist a public preschool, elementary, middle, or high school.
- Classified employees who are not parents of elementary, middle or high school age children may still use this leave to perform school-approved volunteer work for any public elementary school, middle school or high school. Part-time classified employees are entitled to this leave based on the proportion of a 40 hour week they work.
Employees must receive approval from their supervisors prior to using volunteer leave. This leave is recorded in the same manner as other types of leave. If the employee uses more than the allotted 16 hours of leave for this purpose, the next appropriate type of leave will be charged, i.e. annual leave, compensatory leave, etc.
This leave is not carried over from year to year and there is no payout for unused volunteer leave upon separation. The Commonwealth of Virginia has specifically tailored this leave for classified employees. Faculty are not eligible for this particular leave benefit.
