City Year LA Orientation Guide May. 2015 | Page 12

Attendance Policy: FAQs
While the language above may sound a little scary, we’ll help break it down in more manageable pieces. City
Year staff will also spend more time during registration explaining this policy to you and answering any
questions you may have. But for now, we’ve included responses to some of the most commonly asked
questions of our attendance policy:

Are personal days the same as vacation days?

No, you cannot use your personal days for
vacation days. The personal days can only to be used for these qualified reasons as stated in the contract:

-

Academic or career visits/interviews
Illnesses and doctor’s appointments
To observe a specific ethnic, religious or cultural holiday not officially celebrated
Childcare emergencies
Bereavement

Why is the attendance policy important?

It’s important to keep in mind that this is your year of
service and that your students, teachers and community are investing in you to be there. National service
program’s hours requirements (1,700 hours to be exact)
are no small feat. These attendance requirements are
ultimately in place to ensure that we are fulfilling our
service commitments to the community as well as
enabling corps members to meet the necessary hours
requirements for successful graduation.

Do I have to get approval in advance to
use my personal days? Yes. AmeriCorps
members must request approval in advance from their
supervisor to use their allotted personal days. If a corps
member fails to receive approval for a day off and does not report to service, it will count as an unexcused
absence and the corps member will not be paid for this day. In addition, the corps member will be subject to
the professional accountability system.

Are there any breaks in service?

Yes! 1,700 hours of service packed into 10 ½ months is crazy
enough and it would be even crazier if there weren’t any breaks in the year. Since we follow LA Unified School
District instructional calendar, AmeriCorps members are typically off when class is not in session. These
breaks typically include most federal holidays and LAUSD’s winter break (late December to early January),
which is the longest period of time that AmeriCorps members have off.

Please note you will be in service:
-

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January, a national day of service for City Year across the country
During LAUSD’s spring break, which typically takes place in April

Including all the holidays and winter break, AmeriCorps members in Los Angeles have approximately 16
additional days off outside of their allotted 10 personal days – and this does not the weekends that many of
these holidays and breaks fall on.
12 | C o r p s M e m b e r O r i e n t a t i o n & R e s o u r c e G u i d e
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