Understanding Type C Professional Development Leave

By Rebecca Goodchild, LRCFT SCC Campus Union Vice President

Type C Professional Development Leave is a benefit that lets fulltime faculty exchange unpaid overload work for paid time off. Instead of being paid for your overloads, you can “bank” them and later use them as paid time off. This is great if you want a paid semester “off” right before retiring, or you want to live for a semester or a year in another country doing something else while earning your regular salary and benefits. Type C leave is the way to go. The possibilities are vast.

How It Works for Classroom Faculty— this is going to get confusing – buckle up!

Classroom (instructional) faculty accrue Equivalent Formula Hours (EFHs) when they teach unpaid overloads. These EFHs are a way of translating overload work into units of leave:

One semester of regular teaching = 15 EFH

One 3-unit class (regular load) = 3 EFH

Here’s the catch: overload EFHs are calculated at ¾ of a regular class.

One overload 3-unit class (0.2 FTE) = 2.25 EFH (instead of 3 EFH)

To take one semester of Type C Leave, you need 15 overload EFHs, which works out to teaching the equivalent of about 6.66 three-unit overload classes (most faculty who teach 0.2 FTE classes bank 7 classes to take off one semester). You can accrue up to 30 EFHs total (enough for a full year of leave). If you earn more than that, the excess is paid out to you at your regular Schedule B pay rate.

How It Works for Non-Classroom Faculty— less confusing (sort of)

Non-instructional faculty, such as librarians and counselors, accrue overloads differently. Instead of EFHs, they bank them as FTE credit:

One semester = 0.5 FTE (weird district lingo for 1 semester even though we would normally think of this as 1.0 FTE)

One year = 1.0 FTE (the maximum you can bank for Type C Leave – and again, we would normally think of this as 2.0 FTE)

If your overloads are instructional (e.g., teaching a class in addition to your counseling/librarian load), the ¾ EFH calculation applies. But if your overloads are part of your non-instructional assignment, you bank the full FTE value.

Example: A 0.2 FTE instructional overload = 2.25 EFH

Example: A 0.2 FTE non-instructional overload = 0.2 FTE or 3 EFH (the full amount, no ¾ adjustment)

When Can You Take Leave

Type C Leave is usually taken in half-year or full-year increments. The only exception is if you’re using it to supplement parental leave or certain unpaid leaves, in which case it can be applied in smaller chunks to help maintain partial or full pay.

Salary and Benefits While on Leave

During your Type C Leave, you keep your regular salary step (on Schedule A), and your health, dental, and disability benefits continue. You also keep earning service credit for both retirement and salary advancement.

How to “Bank” Your Overloads for Type C Leave

Simply fill out the overload banking form (p-169) and submit it to your dean (before the beginning of the semester you plan to bank your overloads).

https://employees.losrios.edu/lrccd/employee/doc/hr/forms/p-169.pdf

Please track what you bank and check in with HR months (maybe even like 6 months) before you plan to use your Type C as they often make mistakes. If you don’t hear back from HR on how much Type C FTE/EFH you have banked, talk to a union rep immediately!

Can I Bank Summer Classes? Yep!

Applying for Type C Leave

To request a Type C Leave, you submit a written application to your supervisor. It’s reviewed by your College President and then forwarded to Human Resources for approval.

Other Key Points

If you leave the district or retire, you will be paid out for unused EFHs.

There is no service obligation after completing a Type C Leave, meaning you can use it right before retiring.

This system is complicated, and HR (or your union rep) can help you work through the details of how your overloads translate into EFHs or FTE.

In short, Type C Leave is a way to turn your unpaid overloads into valuable paid time to do what you want. For instructional faculty, the math involves EFHs (with the quirky ¾ rule for overloads). For non-instructional faculty, it’s based on FTE (or a combination of EFH and FTE). Either way, banking this time gives you a pathway to step away for a semester or year while keeping salary and benefits intact.