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Life Events
During the course of your FCPS career, you may experience life changes such as a marriage, birth or adoption of a child, a death in the family, retirement, and other life journeys that can impact your FCPS benefits. These are called “qualifying life events” in which you can make benefit elections or changes.
The window for making adjustments to your benefit elections outside the annual Open Enrollment period is limited to 30 days from any of the “qualifying life” changes in family status events noted below, so it's important to act within that timeframe.
You are allowed to make changes only to those benefits directly affected by the qualifying life event. For example, the birth of a baby would allow you to enroll in or add the baby to a medical or dental plan, and enroll in a flexible spending account or increase current election amount(s), but would not allow a participant to terminate coverage.
For example, if your spouse lost coverage due to job loss, you would be able to enroll and elect medical, dental or vision and enroll in the FCPS plans for the members who had been covered under the spouse plan(s).
Why the Period for Making Changes Is Limited
Most of the benefits plans offered through FCPS are paid with pre-tax dollars. In exchange for that tax advantage, you legally cannot enroll in, cancel, or make changes to your spending account plans outside the annual Open Enrollment period, unless you experience one of the qualifying events described below.
A change in coverage elections due to a birth, adoption or placement for adoption will be effective as of the date of the birth, adoption or placement for adoption. All other changes in coverage elections will be effective as of the first day of the month following the date the change in election application is received by the Plan Administrator.
FCPS follows the Internal Revenue Service Section 125 guidelines and requirements for pre-tax deductions. Therefore, the IRS limits when certain changes can be made or changed under a pre-tax plan(s).
Qualifying Life Events in Family Status
Getting married is a qualifying event, and allows for you to make certain benefit changes. If you get married, you are able to cover your new spouse and step-children on FCPS’s health and dental plan within 30 days of the marriage date. If you miss the window, you must wait until the Open Enrollment period.
To enroll a new spouse, simply provide a copy of the marriage license, and complete the medical insurance Enrollment form. Both items must be submitted to the Benefits Office within the 30 day time period for processing. Also, if you are covering dependent step-children, please provide a copy of their birth certificate or legal court documents to the Benefits Office for processing.
You are also able to begin or modify your Health and/or Dependent Care Flexible Spending account. Simply complete the FSA form and submit to the Benefits Office within the 30 day window. More details are included on the Healthcare Flexible Spending tab or the Depending Care Flexible spending tab.
You may want to consider updating your FCPS Life Insurance beneficiaries through Employee Self Service as well as updating your beneficiary with the MD State Retirement Agency by completing Form 4. You should have this form notarized and then submit to the FCPS Benefits Office.
Divorce can be a difficult time, and it is easy to overlook some areas that might need attention. This page will help to assist you through this time. It is the employee’s responsibility to notify FCPS with in 30 days of a divorce as an ex-spouse is not considered an eligible dependent. Please note that employees sometimes state that the court order/divorce decree requires them to continue to cover their ex-spouse. An offer of COBRA will be made to your ex-spouse, however, FCPS will not continue to cover them as your eligible dependent as they no longer fall under our requirements for coverage.
To end coverage of Medical and Dental coverage for your former spouse, you will need to complete the medical insurance Enrollment form and provide a copy of the divorce decree within 30 days of the event.
You are also able to begin or modify your Health and/or Dependent Care Flexible Spending account. Simply complete the appropriate FSA form and submit to the Benefits Office within the 30 day window. More details are included on the Healthcare Flexible Spending tab or Dependent Care Flexible Spending tab.
You may want to consider updating your Life Insurance beneficiaries through Employee Self Service as well as updating your beneficiary with the MD State Retirement Agency by completing Form 4. You should have this form notarized and then submit to the FCPS Benefits Office.
If you had covered your former spouse on Dependent Life Insurance you can update that under Employee Self Service.
Birth of child, adoption or guardianship is a “life qualifying event” and you may add the child to your health or dental insurance within 30 days of the event. Upon the birth, adoption, or guardianship of your child, please complete the medical insurance Enrollment Form and provide a copy of the Birth Certificate or legal court document(s) to the Benefits Office for processing.
You are also able to begin or modify your Health and/or Dependent Care Flexible Spending account. Simply complete the appropriate FSA form and submit to the Benefits Office within the 30 day window. More details are included on the Healthcare Flexible Spending tab or Dependent Care Flexible Spending tab.
You may want to consider updating your Life Insurance beneficiaries through Employee Self Service as well as updating your beneficiary with the MD State Retirement Agency by completing Form 4. You should have this form notarized and then submit to the FCPS Benefits Office.
Employees are able to cover their children on health and dental insurance up until age 26. After this time, they will be removed from coverage and become eligible for coverage elsewhere. A disabled child is eligible for coverage for the entirety of their dependency.
If your child is a disabled child that meets the eligibility for coverage under the plan, you must complete the Statement of Disability for Eligibility form and submit it for review. Employees should submit tax forms that show the individual as a financial dependent.
Dependents no longer meeting the eligibility for coverage and are dropped due to age 26 will be offered COBRA coverage.
Should your spouse or dependent lose their insurance, you may be eligible to make some changes to your benefits. In order to do so, you will need to provide a copy of the COBRA notice or equivalent official confirmation of loss of employment on employer letterhead within 30 days. If you miss the window, you must wait until the Open Enrollment period.
You would be able to add your spouse and children to your health insurance, if not already covered. To add coverage of Medical and Dental coverage for your spouse and children, you will need to complete the medical insurance Enrollment form, and submit it along with the COBRA notice to the Benefits Office. In addition, you will need to provide a copy of your marriage certificate for your spouse, copy of the birth certificate or legal court document for your dependent(s) to submit with your forms for processing.
You are also able to begin or modify your Health and/or Dependent Care Flexible Spending account. Simply complete the appropriate FSA form and submit to the Benefits Office within the 30 day window. More details are included on the Healthcare Flexible Spending tab or the Dependent Care Flexible Spending tab.
If this job loss results in your becoming eligible for Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program, you have 60 days to make changes to your Health Care FSA.
To make any of these changes to your benefits, you must provide the Benefits Office a copy of your spouse's COBRA notice or equivalent official confirmation of loss of employment on employer letterhead.
When your eligibility for Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) changes, you have 60 days from the time you lose or gain eligibility to make a corresponding change to your health-related benefits.
Eligibility
To determine your eligibility for these programs, please visit their websites. You may review the participating states by accessing the Model Chip Notice.
To make a change
If you find that you are eligible for one of these programs and wish to discontinue the FCPS coverage, please complete the medical insurance Enrollment form and submit it to the Benefits Office along with proof of coverage under the Medicaid or SCHIP plan. This must be submitted within 60 days.
If you have lost coverage under the Medicaid or SCHIP plan, you may enroll in the FCPS plans. Please complete the medical insurance Enrollment form and submit to the Benefits Office along with proof of coverage loss. This must be submitted within 60 days. In addition, you will need to provide a copy of the birth certificate or legal court document for your dependent(s) to submit with your forms for processing.
You are also able to begin or modify your Health and/or Dependent Care Flexible Spending account. Simply complete the appropriate FSA form and submit to the Benefits Office within the 30 day window. More details are included on the Healthcare Flexible Spending tab or the Depending Care Flexible Spending tab.
If you don't notify the Benefits Office of your change in eligibility within 60 days, you must wait until the annual Open Enrollment period to make any changes to these health and medical plans.
FCPS offers employees an opportunity to take time off work, unpaid, for a variety of reasons including health related, parental, and personal, etc. The employee remains employed by FCPS, however, does not have an active job assignment, i.e. ‘Custodian at Lewistown Elementary School’.
This option is unpaid, and typically lasts until the end of the fiscal year. The employee is able to continue health insurance but at the full cost. The employee is billed for any continued coverage by the FCPS finance department. Payments are due at the first of each month and coverage may be cancelled due to non-payment/late payment. As a reminder, if you retire from FPCS while on a leave of absence you may only choose to continue the insurance benefits you have in place at the time of your retirement.
Leave of Absence Rates FY 2023
Effective July 1, 2022
| Leave of Absence | Monthly Premium |
|---|---|
| Medical | |
| Employee Only | $769.10 |
| + 1 Dependent | $1,676.64 |
| Family | $1,768.94 |
| Dental Standard | |
| Employee Only | $28.82 |
| + 1 Dependent | $89.36 |
| Family | $98.88 |
| Dental Buy Up | |
| Employee Only | $39.64 |
| + 1 Dependent | $122.92 |
| Family | $135.98 |
| Life Insurance: $0.113 per $1000 per Month (ie. 100,000/1000 * .113 = $11.30 per month) Life insurance is 2 times salary rounded to highest thousand. |
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Returning from an LOA
Upon confirmation that you are returning for the following fiscal year, you will receive communication regarding a work assignment. It is the employee’s responsibility to notify the Director of Human Resources no later than March 1 of their plans to return for the following fiscal year and/or to remain on leave for an additional year. Please see the negotiated agreements for additional information on Leaves of Absence.
How to request an LOA
To request an LOA, you must submit a Status Change Form to Human Resources. In health related cases, please contact the Benefits Office.
Pension Information
The MD State Retirement Agency considers certain types of LOA’s will ‘Qualifying Leave’ for pension service. This means that you will be able to ‘purchase’ this time towards your future pension payments. More information can be found on Form 46. Complete Form 26 in order to purchase an approved leave of absence
If there is a death in the family and you need to make a life insurance claim, please contact Christine Hobble at (301) 644-5052 or Evelyn Davis at (301) 644-5115. You will be asked to provide a copy of the death certificate. Please note, that the Benefits Office will only discuss life insurance with the Beneficiary on record.