Section 301.620  Eligibility

Only a volunteer meeting all of the following requirements is eligible for coverage under the Workers' Compensation Act or Workers' Occupational Diseases Act:

a)         Volunteer, age 18 and above, of IEMA or of an ESDA accredited pursuant to Section 301.510 of this Part;

b)         Volunteer not compensated by IEMA or the ESDA for which he/she is volunteering;

c)         Duly qualified through appointment by IEMA or the ESDA to perform disaster response functions consistent with the IEMA Act and the political subdivision's ESDA ordinance;

d)         Enrolled (sworn in) in accordance with Section 20 of the Act; and

e)         Suffering disease, injury or death while participating in a disaster response, disaster exercise, training related to the EOP of the political subdivision, or a search-and-rescue team response to an occurrence or threat of injury or loss of life that is beyond local response capabilities, if:

1)         For disaster response:

A)        IEMA is notified at the time of disaster response by contacting the IEMA Communications Center at 1-800-782-7860; and

B)        The coverage request, on a form prescribed by IEMA, is received by IEMA within 10 calendar days after the disaster response.

2)         For a disaster exercise or training related to the EOP of the political subdivision, the event is planned and:

A)        The event is specifically and expressly pre-approved in writing by IEMA for a specific date; and

B)        The coverage request, on a form prescribed by IEMA, is received by IEMA at least 5 days, but not more than 30 days, in advance of the planned event.

3)         For a search-and-rescue team response:

A)        The search-and-rescue team response is to an occurrence or threat of injury or loss of life that is beyond local response capabilities;

B)        The search-and-rescue team response is specifically and expressly requested by IEMA or by the ESDA that appointed and enrolled the search-and-rescue team volunteer and is specifically and expressly approved by IEMA prior to the search-and-rescue team response.  The Director of IEMA shall determine the termination of the approval period.  IEMA shall document its approval and termination on a form prescribed by IEMA; and

C)        Each search-and-rescue team volunteer used in the response has completed training appropriate to the function he or she performs during the search-and-rescue team response.