Delaware Paid Leave | AbsenceSoft Documentation

Overview

Starting January 1, 2026, Delaware introduces its Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program, providing paid leave and job protection for qualifying employees.

What's new: Delaware employees can receive paid benefits and job protection for various qualifying family and medical leave reasons, including parental leave, medical leave, family caregiving, and qualifying exigency.

For detailed legislative requirements, see our Legislative Guidance.

How to Use

Throughout this guidance, look for these labels to quickly identify what actions may be needed:

Automatic: System handles this automatically, no action needed

Manual Action or Tracking Required: User must complete this action or track elsewhere

Configuration Note: How the policy is set up in the platform

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Best Practice: AbsenceSoft recommendation for optimal management

How AbsenceSoft Manages Delaware Paid Leave

AbsenceSoft uses two separate policies that work together to provide Delaware Paid Leave benefits:

Policy Name	Policy Code	Policy Type	Purpose
Delaware Paid Leave	DE-PL	Paid Leave	Provides wage replacement during qualifying leave
Delaware Paid Leave - Job Protection	DE-PL-JP	Job Protection	Protects employee's position during leave

Configuration Note: These policies run concurrently and are automatically applied to new qualifying cases starting January 1, 2026.

Administration Options

Delaware Paid Leave can be administered through:

State Plan (default)
Private Plans (fully or self-insured for employers with 100+ employees) requiring custom policies
Employers with “grandfathering approval” (expiring no later than December 31, 2029) for one or more “lines of coverage” (i.e., parental leave, medical leave, family caregiving leave, and qualified exigencies) will require custom policies
Employers with 10 to 24 employees who opted to temporarily reduce maximum parental leave benefits from 12 weeks to 6 weeks for claims submitted prior to January 1, 2031, will require custom policies.

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Best Practice: Private fully, self-insured plans, grandfathered plans, and temporarily reduced plans should disable the core policies and create custom policies to track separately.

Employer Coverage Requirements

Employee Count Thresholds

Delaware coverage requirements are based on employee count:

Employee Count	Coverage Required
9 or fewer	Excluded (may opt in voluntarily)
10 to 24	Parental Leave only (Bonding, Adoption/Foster Care)
25 or more	Full Coverage (all absence reasons)

Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft has Adoption and Bonding absence reasons configured for a minimum of 10 active employees. All other absence reasons are configured for a minimum of 25 active employees.

Manual Action Required: Eligibility should be manually overridden for:

Employees excluded from or who opted into/out of the program
Employees based on employee count/threshold changes as determined with the state (if they differ from AbsenceSoft’s counts)

Employee Eligibility

Work State Requirements

Employees must spend 60%+ time in Delaware (working or residing).

Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft's policy is configured to apply to employees with Work State = Delaware.

Manual Action Required: Manually override eligibility for:

Employees without Delaware work state but who reside there 60%+ of the time
Employees with Delaware work state who don't actually work/reside there 60%+ of the time

Eligibility Exceptions

Excluded Employees

Independent contractors are excluded from coverage

Manual Action Required: Manually override eligibility for excluded employees.

Waivers

Ineligible employees (e.g., short-term, seasonal, or those working <25 hours/week) may waive participation and contribution requirements.

Manual Action Required: Manually override eligibility for employees who have waived participation.

Reclassification

Excluded employees may join the program under certain circumstances when at least 60% of their time is not worked in Delaware.

Manual Action Required: For reclassified employees:

Update employee's work state to Delaware
Manually add policies to qualifying cases

Qualifying Family Members

Special Family Relationship Requirements

Child over age 18 with impairment:

Configuration Note: Must be selected at intake for the Family Health Condition or Adoption/Fostercare absence reasons for children over 18 with an impairment.

Leave Entitlements and Duration

Entitlement Overview

Absence Reason	Entitlement	Period
Parental Leave (Bonding + Adoption/Foster Care combined)	Up to 12 weeks	12 months
Medical Leave (Employee Health + Pregnancy/Maternity combined)	Up to 6 weeks	24 months
Family Caregiving (Family Health Condition)	Up to 6 weeks	24 months
Qualifying Exigency	Up to 6 weeks	24 months
Combined Maximum (all reasons)	12 weeks	12 months

Automatic: AbsenceSoft automatically calculates entitlement based on the above overview when using core policies.

Entitlement Rules

Pregnancy and Bonding Cases

Pregnancy (6 weeks in 24 months) and Bonding (12 weeks in 12 months) have separate, non-shared allocations.

Manual Action Required: If Bonding is requested in association with a Pregnancy/Maternity case, the bonding portion must be submitted as a separate case with a Bonding absence reason so entitlement is calculated properly.

A workflow will generate a todo upon case creation of a pregnancy/maternity case that reminds the user to create a separate bonding case if applicable. This generates for employees in work state Delaware for new cases that start on or after 1/1/2026.

A full 12 weeks of entitlement may show in the separate bonding case until entitlement in the pregnancy case is approved. Once entitlement is approved within the pregnancy case, bonding entitlement will adjust to appropriate exhaustion. This is expected behavior.

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Best Practice:

Create the bonding case without delay if needed to ensure it does not get missed.
Communicate this requirement clearly to employees requesting both pregnancy and bonding leave.
Approve cases in order according to case start date to ensure accurate entitlement renderings in communications.

Manual Action Required: When the Bonding case is created, eligibility may need to be overridden to match the eligibility status as of the start of the pregnancy case. This is only needed if the bonding case immediately follows the pregnancy case.

Family Caregiver Leave/Bereavement

Family caregiving cases where the family member passes away are limited to 7 days after death or the previously approved end date of leave, whichever is earlier.

Manual Action Required: Track bereavement limitation and end or manually deny after 7 days for both policies.

Qualifying Exigency Stipulations

Special time limitations apply to certain qualifying exigency reasons:

Exigency Type	Time Limitation
Short Notice Deployments	Limited to 7 calendar days beginning on date the military member is notified
Rest and Recuperation	Limited to 15 calendar days beginning on date each instance of R&R commences
Post-Deployment Activities	Must be taken within 90 days of end of active duty status

Manual Action Required: Track these time limitations manually and deny requests outside allowed periods.

How Leave Can Be Taken

Intermittent Leave Requirements

Benefits are not payable for less than 1 work day of covered leave taken in 1 work week.

Manual Action Required: Track intermittent leave carefully and deny if minimum threshold is not met.

Required Paperwork

Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft has core paperwork configured to support the law’s notice of Employee Rights under Delaware Paid Leave for these policies. Paperwork is configured to be sent with the Employee Eligibility packet.

Manual Action Required: Customers with customized communications may need to adjust their configurations to include this paperwork.

Employers must provide in writing when PTO, vacation, personal leave, sick leave, or disability pay are being used in conjunction with the Delaware Paid Leave which may require employers to review or make additions their communication templates based on their organization’s preference.

Delaware Paid Leave certification forms are made available to the employee through Delaware’s online portal, when a claim is filed. Certifications will not be available in the platform.

Platform Workflow & Required Actions

Identifying Qualifying Cases

Automatic: The platform automatically identifies qualifying cases starting January 1, 2026 based on:

Work State = Delaware

Qualifying absence reason

Employee count thresholds met

Employee eligibility criteria met

Adding Delaware Paid Leave Policies

Automatic: Both policies are automatically added to new cases with qualifying absence reasons starting on or after January 1, 2026:

Delaware Paid Leave
Delaware Paid Leave - Job Protection

Manual Action Required: For cases with special circumstances (waivers, overrides, exemptions), manually add, remove, or override eligibility for policies as needed.

Managing In-Flight Cases

Cases Spanning January 1, 2026

For leaves that began before but continue after January 1, 2026, manual intervention is required.

Manual Action Required: Review all active Delaware cases to identify those that:

Were open before January 1, 2026

Continue on or after January 1, 2026

Meet qualifying criteria for Delaware Paid Leave

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Best Practice: Proactively communicate with employees about their new benefit eligibility. Many may not be aware.

Tracking Required: Create a list of all potentially eligible in-flight cases before January 1, 2026 to ensure none are missed.

In-Flight Cases: Standard Absence Reasons

Qualifying Absence Reasons

Adoption/Foster Care
Bonding
Employee Health Condition
Family Health Condition
Qualifying Exigency
Pregnancy without Bonding

Re-adjudication Instructions (Effective 1/1/2026)

For cases that are open and span 1/1/2026:

Manual Action Required:

Manually add the Delaware Paid Leave policy (if applicable/eligibility criteria is met)

Manually add the Delaware Paid Leave - Job Protection policy (if applicable/eligibility criteria is met)

Both policies should start on 1/1/2026

Send Delaware Paid Leave Notice of Employee Rights to employee

Documentation Requirements

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Best Practice: Document in case notes:

"Delaware Paid Leave added retroactively for in-flight case effective 1/1/2026"

In-Flight Cases: Pregnancy with Bonding

Legislative Distinction

The Pregnancy absence reason does not share its 6-week entitlement with the 12 weeks of entitlement for the Bonding absence reason for Delaware Paid Leave.

Manual Action Required: If bonding leave is requested in correlation with pregnancy leave, they must be submitted as separate cases so entitlement can be allocated properly.

Example 1: Bonding Starts On or After 1/1/2026

Scenario:

Employee has a Pregnancy/Maternity case that also requests Bonding
Case is still open and spans 1/1/2026
Bonding is scheduled to start on or AFTER 1/1/2026

Instructions (Effective 1/1/2026):

For Existing Pregnancy/Maternity Case:

Perform a case change to end this case the day before bonding is scheduled to begin
Manually add the Delaware Paid Leave policy (if applicable/eligibility criteria is met)
Manually add the Delaware Paid Leave - Job Protection policy (if applicable/eligibility criteria is met)
Both policies should start on 1/1/2026
Send Delaware Paid Leave Notice of Employee Rights to employee

For New Bonding Case:

Create a new Bonding case that starts on the scheduled bonding start date
Delaware Paid Leave policies should automatically be applied to this new case

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Best Practice: Document the split clearly in both case notes, explaining the separate entitlement allocations.

Example 2: Bonding Starts Before 1/1/2026

Scenario:

Employee has a Pregnancy/Maternity case that also requests Bonding
Case is still open and spans 1/1/2026
Bonding is scheduled to start BEFORE 1/1/2026

Instructions (Effective 1/1/2026):

For Existing Pregnancy/Maternity Case:

Perform a case change to end this case on 12/31/2025

For New Bonding Case:

Create a new Bonding case that starts on 1/1/2026
Delaware Paid Leave policies should automatically be applied to this new case

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Best Practice: Document the split clearly in both case notes, explaining the separate entitlement allocations.

Need Help?

For questions about policy configuration or case management, contact your AbsenceSoft support team or consult the Legislative Guidance for compliance details.