Page 16 - June2020 FOP Magazine

Tuition reimbursement review
As I write this article, the city of Chicago contin- ues to be under a shelter-in-place order. Many lo- cal businesses, restaurants, bars and nonessential stores remain closed. All schools have been shut- tered since March and will not open for the rest
of this school year. Hopefully, this quarantine
will not last too much longer. Of course,
the men and women of the Chicago Police Department continue to put on their uni-
forms, show up for their watches, and serve and protect the city.
Some police officers pursuing college degrees also may
be impacted by these same restrictions. I thought it might be a good idea to review the Department’s educational reimburse- ment policy for those officers who may avail themselves of this benefit. Currently, about 1,000 sworn officers participate in this program each year.
As with any benefit, we start by looking at the contract. The parties’ collective bargaining agreement contains a provision in Article 24 captioned “Educational Reimbursement,” which sets forth the contractual eligibility requirements for extra-depart- mental education reimbursement. The criteria are straightfor- ward:
1. 2.
3. 4.
sented upon request.
Each course taken must grant college-level credit.
Each course must be taken through an accredited college or university.
More importantly, employees also must file applications for reimbursement on the appropriate forms no later than 30 days after the beginning of the course of study. Unfortunately, this requirement can often be confusing and has led to some officers not getting the proper re- imbursement they otherwise would have been eligible
to receive.
Depending on when police officers started pursuing
PAT FIORETTO
Each course taken must be job-related or necessary for a degree.
Proof of acceptance for a degree program must be pre-
their degree (before or after Sept. 1, 2016), the Department will reimburse a portion of the tuition (at 100 percent, 75 percent or 50 percent) based on the grade received for each class. An officer can receive reimbursement for up to a maximum of two courses per school term.
On certain rare occasions, the Department can deny reim- bursement if an officer’s work performance is deemed inad- equate or if an officer has a record of sustained infractions of Department orders, directives or procedures. Further, reim- bursement will not be granted if:
• Tuition costs are covered by Veterans Administration or other funds.
• The program in which the officer is enrolled is reimburs- able through a federal grant-in aid program.
16 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JUNE 2020