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Illinois Family Neonatal Intensive Care Leave Act

Overview

The Illinois Family Neonatal Intensive Care Leave Act (IL-NICU) requires covered Illinois employers to provide unpaid, job-protected leave when an employee's child is a patient in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The amount of leave available varies based on employer size.

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

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

💡 Best Practice: AbsenceSoft recommendation for optimal management

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

How AbsenceSoft Manages Illinois NICU Leave

AbsenceSoft manages this law through a single policy:

  • Policy Name - Illinois Family Neonatal Intensive Care Leave

  • Policy Code - IL-NICU

  • Policy Type - State FML

  • Purpose - Provides job-protected unpaid leave while a child is a NICU patient

📝 Configuration Note: This policy is configured for the following absence reasons: Adoption/Foster Care, Bonding, and Pregnancy/Maternity. All three absence reasons share the same per-case entitlement structure.

📝 Configuration Note: This policy is configured to run Consecutive To: FMLA and/or FMLA-Flight Crew policies, meaning it is designed to run after FMLA leave is exhausted for FMLA-eligible employees. For employees who are not FMLA-eligible, the IL-NICU policy will run independently.

Employer Coverage Requirements

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

Employee Count Thresholds

📝 Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft's IL-NICU policy is configured with a minimum eligibility threshold of 16 active employees in Illinois work state. The entitlement adjusts automatically based on whether the employer has 16–50 or 51+ active employees in the work state.

Excluded Employers

Independent contractors are excluded from coverage under this law.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Manually override eligibility for employees of excluded employers.

Leave Entitlements and Duration

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

Entitlement Overview

Entitlement is calculated per case and varies by employer size:

  • Employers with 16–50 employees - 10 workdays; per case

  • Employers with 51 or more employees - 20 workdays; per case

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: This policy must be manually added to qualifying cases.

✅ Automatic: AbsenceSoft automatically generates a todo on Pregnancy, Bonding, and Adoption cases in Illinois asking whether the child was in NICU during a period when FMLA was exhausted or not eligible; if yes, the todo prompts the case manager to manually add the Illinois Family Neonatal Intensive Care Leave policy to the case.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: This workflow only generates on case creation (not for case extensions). If the FMLA was eligible at case creation, but exhausts, the employer must add the IL-NICU onto the case and there will be no prompt to do so.

Entitlement Rules

Per-Case Configuration and Multiple Cases

The IL-NICU policy is configured on a per-case basis.

💡 Best Practice: Per-case configuration does not prevent an employee from opening multiple cases for the same NICU situation or child back to back. Employers should ensure the employee is taking leave for a different child or a new qualifying NICU admission for each new case to prevent overentitlement.

Leave Duration Cap

An employee is entitled to take this leave during the child's NICU admission and should end when the child is discharged, within the allowed entitlement.

💡 Best Practice: The maximum leave available is up to 10 or 20 workdays (based on employer size). If the child is discharged from NICU care before the entitlement is exhausted, the leave should end at discharge. Employees are entitled only to the lesser of the maximum or the actual length of the child's NICU stay. Document verification in case notes.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: If the child is discharged from the NICU before the entitlement is fully used, end or deny the remaining leave accordingly. The platform will not automatically end leave based on NICU discharge.

How Leave Can Be Taken

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

Minimum Increment Requirement

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: If your organization chooses to enforce a 2-hour minimum increment for intermittent NICU leave, this restriction must be tracked manually. Review intermittent leave requests against this threshold manually and deny any instances that fall below the minimum.

Interaction with FMLA

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

This law is separate from and in addition to FMLA. For employees who are FMLA-eligible, IL-NICU leave runs after FMLA leave is exhausted — it is in addition to any FMLA entitlement.

For employees who are not FMLA-eligible, IL-NICU leave runs independently.

✅ Automatic: The IL-NICU policy is configured to run Consecutive To: FMLA and FMLA-Flight Crew policies to enforce this sequencing for FMLA-eligible employees. This policy will only apply when FMLA is not eligible or exhausted.

Required Paperwork/Communication

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

📝 Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft does not provide core paperwork specific to this law. No certification form or notice to employee is required by statute. Once the policy is added to the case the communications will show the policy status giving insights to employees on which law applies to them.

Managing In-Flight Cases

Identifying Qualifying Cases

✅ Automatic: The platform automatically identifies qualifying IL-NICU cases starting June 1, 2026 based on:

  • Work State = IL

  • Qualifying absence reason (Adoption/Foster Care, Bonding, or Pregnancy/Maternity)

  • Employer has at least 16 active employees in work state

  • Employee eligibility criteria met

Adding the IL-NICU Policy

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: The IL-NICU policy must be manually added to new qualifying cases with an absence reason of Adoption/Foster Care, Bonding, or Pregnancy/Maternity as of June 1, 2026.

Cases Spanning June 1, 2026

Since the IL-NICU policy is a new law, no cases prior to June 1, 2026 would have had this policy applied. For any leave that began before June 1, 2026 and continues on or after that date, manual review is needed.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Review all active Illinois cases with the absence reasons below to identify cases that span June 1, 2026 and may now qualify for IL-NICU coverage:

  • Adoption/Foster Care

  • Bonding

  • Pregnancy/Maternity

For qualifying in-flight cases:

  1. Confirm the employee's child is currently a NICU patient and that the leave is being taken for NICU-related reasons

  2. Confirm employer coverage (16+ active employees in work state)

  3. Manually add the Illinois Family Neonatal Intensive Care Leave (IL-NICU) policy to the existing case, effective June 1, 2026

💡 Best Practice: Document in case notes:

"IL-NICU policy added for in-flight case effective 06/01/2026 per new law effective date."

💡 Best Practice: Proactively communicate with employees whose cases span the effective date. Employees with a child still in the NICU on or after June 1, 2026 may be newly entitled to additional job-protected leave under this law.

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

Need Help?

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