This is updated information guidance is intended for DoDEA employees regarding the FY26 lapse in appropriations. DoD civilian employees will not receive pay or allowances during the shutdown period. Currently, the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 provides that military personnel and other federal employees should receive retroactive backpay once a shutdown concludes.
Outside Employment Information
In accordance with applicable regulations and guidance, DoDEA was required to issue a second furlough notice to impacted employees because the lapse in appropriations extended beyond 30 calendar days. The current notice is effective through November 29, 2025.
Citibank GTCC customer service will remain open to support cardholders and CitiManager remains available. Travel cards will remain operational to the extent accounts remain in good standing (no delinquent balance owed). Citi will ensure accounts will not age delinquent or be suspended or cancelled during the lapse. Finance charges will also not be assessed during the shutdown; however, Statements of Account will continue to be generated. If an individually billed account (IBA) was delinquent prior to the shutdown, it will continue to be considered delinquent until full payment is made.
No. Under Federal and state law, because these individuals continue to provide full-time services, excepted employees are not unemployed and are not eligible.
Yes. Regardless of whether an employee will receive backpay, furloughed employees have a loss of hours and wages and are considered to be unemployed during a shutdown. Please note that the payment of backpay to furloughed Federal employees who received unemployment compensation may result in overpayments under state law. In this situation, unemployment compensation received would need to be repaid to the state from which it was received. Additional information about unemployment insurance is available here: https://www.dcpas.osd.mil/policy/benefits/unemploymentcompensation.
Employees must file directly with their respective State Unemployment Insurance Agencies using the DoDEA SF-8 . The state agencies communicate directly with ABC-C to verify your non-pay status. It is the state agencies that adjudicate and make all decisions concerning unemployment compensation. ABC-C can answer basic processing questions only and can be reached at usarmy.riley.chra-hqs.mbx.abcc-uc-inquiry@army.mil.
Employees in this situation should make every effort to reschedule “use-or-lose” annual leave for use before the end of the current leave year. However, OPM and OMB have determined that a lapse in appropriations qualifies as an exigency of the public business for purposes of annual leave restoration. For 2025, to be considered for restoration, leave must be scheduled before 29 November 2025.
No, unless Congress enacts legislation providing otherwise. There is nothing in existing law or regulation that allows restored annual leave to be restored a second time —even if the forfeiture was due to the lapse in appropriations.
Yes, the processing of travel entitlements, to include Educational Travel (EdT), has been temporarily suspended due to the shutdown to prevent disbursement against unfunded accounts. However, EdT remains an authorized entitlement, and travel will be booked through official channels once funding is restored. At this time, due to the lapse in appropriations, reimbursement for self-procured tickets is not guaranteed.
Generally, yes, as there is no government-wide restriction on outside employment for career employees. However, employees may not accept outside employment that would conflict with their official duties. Per the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, outside employment is unlikely to conflict with an employee’s official duties unless the outside employer is an organization with which the employee is likely to interact or otherwise affect in the course of the employee’s government duties.
All DoDEA employees remain subject to the Federal ethics rules and DoW's supplemental regulations, regardless of whether they are furloughed or excepted. Employees who file a financial disclosure report (OGE 450 or OGE 278 filers) should notify their Division Chief or Supervisor prior to engaging in outside employment. Additionally, DoW personnel who file a financial disclosure report (OGE 450 or OGE 278) must obtain approval from their supervisor before engaging in a business activity or compensated outside employment with a prohibited source, as defined in 5 C.F.R. § 2635.203(d).
Questions may be directed to gov.shutdown@dodea.edu.
Federal employees whose agencies are funded by FY26 annual appropriations, to include DoDEA, are either deemed excepted or non-excepted/furloughed.
Excepted employees are required to continue working; however, they must also be coded KE/furlough in DAI. Because furlough is a leave without pay (LWOP) status (both systemically and insofar as no pay is being received right now), time coded KE is showing up in both rows for all employees. Once an appropriation is approved and pay for this time is disbursed, the rows may still appear on your LES but will show as cleared/zeroed out.
No, you are not expected to log in and submit your timecard(s) during a furlough. Your supervisor and Resource Management are ensuring that your timecard is properly coded and submitted, as needed.
Furlough hours reported to DFAS during the lapse in appropriations result in entitlement payments temporarily being stopped to ensure payments are not processed against unfunded appropriations. Once an appropriation is approved, any missed entitlements will be paid.
DoDEA has been notified that DFAS has disbursed some FY 2025 entitlements and allowances that had been held in PPE 4 OCT.
DFAS received approval to pay the following entitlements:
• Living Quarters Allowance (LQA)
• Post Allowance
• Separate Maintenance Allowance
• Temporary Quarters Subsistence Allowance
Beginning October 29, 2025, out-of-cycle payments (special pays) are being processed to cover the period of September 21-30 for impacted employees. Payments are scheduled for release beginning on October 29, 2025. Please note that employees may receive separate multiple payments as payments for different types of entitlements are processed.
Payments from DFAS will not be marked "Shutdown Pay". Contact your financial institution regarding any supplement deposits received.
Due to the government shutdown, furloughed and excepted employees are not receiving pay, and their timecards must be marked as KE. Because KE is a non-pay status, leave also does not accrue. Once an appropriation is approved and pay for this time is disbursed, accrued leave will also be reflected on your LES.
TP/AD employees received reduced pay due to Leave Without Pay (LWOP) penalties beginning PPE 4 OCT, as follows:
- PPE 10-4-2025
- Due to the lapse in appropriations for FY 2026, TP/AD employees were coded as furlough/KE for October 1-3, 2025.
- Pay was also reduced by the 3-day/24-hour LWOP penalties, as described above
- PPE 10-18-2025
- TP/AD employees received no pay as the full pay period (October 5-8, 2025) was coded furlough/KE.
- LWOP penalties for this period were processed by DFAS on November 1, 2025, and are reflected on employees’ LES for PPE 11-7-2025 and in debt letters dated 11-15-2025.
- PPE 11-1-2025
- TP/AD employees received no pay as the full pay period (October 19 – November 1, 2025) was coded furlough/KE.
- LWOP penalties for this period will be processed by DFAS on November 5, 2025, and generate a separate debt letter.
- Locate your LES (Leave and Earnings Statement).
- Box 6 (Basic OT Rate) minus Box 5 (Hourly/Daily Rate) is the LWOP penalty amount.
- Multiply the daily/hourly penalty by the number of LWOP or KE-coded days/or 8 hours per day. This total is the amount deducted from your pay.
TP Example:
Box 6 = $484.66 - Box 5 = $422.41 = $62.25 (LWOP penalty)
$62.25 × 10 days = $622.50 total LWOP penalty
AD Example:
Box 6 = $65.29 - Box 5 = $47.53 = $17.76 (LWOP penalty)
$17.76 × 80 hours = $1,420.80 total LWOP penalty
Yes. Once an appropriation is approved, timecards will be corrected/approved, and the LWOP penalty will be returned to the impacted TP/AD employee.
No. While LWOP must be carefully tracked to ensure that employee timecards are accurately input once an appropriation is in place, KE is the appropriate code that can be utilized for both excepted and non-excepted employees.
During a lapse in appropriations, all scheduled leave is canceled (annual leave, sick leave, or other) for both excepted and non-excepted/furloughed employees.
Yes. Excepted employees may request leave in the same manner as during normal operations (i.e., when the Federal government is fully funded and not in a shutdown), consistent with DoDEA Regulations 5630.9 and 5630.4, applicable collective bargaining agreements (CBAs), and established practices. By submitting a leave request, the employee acknowledges that the amount of leave requested will be deducted from the employee’s leave balance once an appropriation is in place. During the shutdown, an excepted employee who is approved to be absent from duty must also be furloughed during such an absence.
FEHB and FEDVIP coverage continues during a shutdown. Unpaid premiums are calculated on a continuous basis and will be withheld from pay upon return to pay status.
Employees should refer to the TSP website or contact their agency representative for information concerning TSP. The web address is https://www.tsp.gov.
During furlough, employees not receiving pay will not have garnishment deductions taken which means that no payment is sent to the entity ordering the garnishment. DFAS recommends employees contact the case worker at their state’s child support agency for child support orders and their assigned Bankruptcy trustee regarding missed payments as a result of furlough. NOTE: When an employee’s pay resumes, DFAS will NOT withhold the total amount of missed payments from any retroactive payments received after furlough has ended. Employees are responsible for making up their child support and/or Bankruptcy payments on their own.
I have a question not listed here.
For pay/timecard questions, please submit a ticket through the Employee Service Portal: https://service.dodea.edu/esp/
For questions about leave or other non-pay related topics, please contact gov.shutdown@dodea.edu.
Additional Information and Available Resources:
Federal Employee Education & Assistance Fund (FEEA)
Federal Benefit Continuation (Per OPM Guidance – Sept 28, 2025 - pdf)
Application of Ethics Rules to Personnel During a Lapse in Appropriations (Furlough)
The content on this page was last updated on November 5, 2025.
