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Rhode Island Temporary Caregiver Insurance

Overview

Rhode Island Temporary Caregiver Insurance Leave (RI-CAREGIVER) provides eligible employees with paid, job-protected leave for qualifying family caregiving needs and for an employee's own bone marrow or organ donation.

For detailed legislative requirements, see our Legislative Guidance.

Policy Status Decisions

This policy is administered by the state.

💡 Best Practice: Follow the state's decision so the policy status matches the state's determination for benefits.

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 the Law

AbsenceSoft manages this law through 1 policy:

  • Policy Name - Rhode Island Temporary Caregiver Insurance Leave

  • Policy Code - RI-CAREGIVER

  • Benefit Type - Paid Leave and Job Protection

Administration Options

Rhode Island Temporary Caregiver Insurance is administered through:

  • State Plan -administered by the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training (RIDLT)

Rhode Island does not authorize a private plan alternative for this benefit — coverage is provided exclusively through the state program. See Legislative Guidance for details.

Employer Coverage Requirements

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Excluded employers are not covered under the law and may need to disable the policy in the platform to keep it from rendering. Discuss decisions with legal counsel for best approach.

Employee Eligibility

This policy is a state paid leave program that may have eligibility criteria tied to wages/earnings that are not available in the platform. Employers should follow the state's determination for the wage replacement policy.

💡 Best Practice: Follow the state's decision so the policy status matches the state's determination for eligibility.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Overrides in eligibility may be required if the state determines the employee has not met the eligibility requirements necessary for paid benefits.

Eligibility Exceptions

Excluded Employees

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Manually override eligibility from pass to fail for excluded employees.

Leave Entitlements and Duration

Adoption/Foster Care, Bonding, Family Health Condition, and Pregnancy/Maternity share a combined pool of up to 8 work weeks per 52-week Sunday Forward period. Bone Marrow Donation and Organ Donation draw from this same shared pool but are each individually capped at a lower amount.

Entitlement Overview

  • Adoption/Foster Care

    • Entitlement - Up to 8 work weeks per 52-week Sunday Forward period

    • Shares with: all other absence reasons under this policy

  • Bonding

    • Entitlement - Up to 8 work weeks per 52-week Sunday Forward period

    • Shares with: all other absence reasons under this policy

  • Family Health Condition

    • Entitlement - Up to 8 work weeks per 52-week Sunday Forward period

    • Shares with: all other absence reasons under this policy

  • Pregnancy/Maternity

    • Entitlement - Up to 8 work weeks per 52-week Sunday Forward period

    • Shares with: all other absence reasons under this policy

  • Organ Donation

    • Entitlement - Up to 6 work weeks per 52-week Sunday Forward period

      • Shares with: all other absence reasons under this policy, individually capped at 6 work weeks

  • Bone Marrow Donation

    • Entitlement - Up to 1 work week per 52-week Sunday Forward period

    • Shares with: all other absence reasons under this policy, individually capped at 1 work week

Entitlement Rules

✅ Automatic: AbsenceSoft automatically tracks leave against the shared entitlement and the individual caps for Bone Marrow Donation and Organ Donation.

📝 Configuration Note: Pregnancy/Maternity is included to support a seamless case transition into Bonding following pregnancy recovery, without requiring the employee to open a separate case.

📝 Configuration Note: Adoption/Foster Care and Bonding are each configured to end 12 months after the Adoption Date or Delivery Date, respectively; Pregnancy/Maternity is similarly configured to end 12 months after the Delivery Date.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Case managers should confirm the case's Adoption Date, Delivery Date, or Bonding Start Date is accurate and update it as needed so the policy event calculates the correct end date.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Under Rhode Island law, an employee may not be paid RI-CAREGIVER and RI-STD benefits that together exceed 30 times the employee's weekly benefit rate in a benefit year (R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-41-35(e)). AbsenceSoft cannot enforce this combined cap across the two separate policies; leave managers should track combined usage manually and follow the state's determination.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Rhode Island has not published guidance on whether Bone Marrow Donation and Organ Donation benefits can be paid in less than one-day increments for appointments or procedures leading up to the donation. Follow the state's determination as guidance becomes available.

Pay and Benefits

Elimination Period

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

📝 Configuration Note: RI-CAREGIVER is configured with a 7-calendar-day, inclusive elimination period.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Elimination periods should be recorded and confirmed in the platform based on the state's determination; follow the state's recommendation for claims that do not meet the payable limitation.

Interaction with other Policies

Refer to Legislative guidance for details.

📝 Configuration Note: RI-CAREGIVER is not concurrent with RI-STD.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Under Rhode Island law, an employee may not be paid RI-CAREGIVER and RI-STD benefits that together exceed 30 times the employee's weekly benefit rate in a benefit year (R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-41-35(e)). AbsenceSoft cannot enforce this combined cap across the two separate policies; leave managers should track combined usage manually and follow the state's determination.

Required Paperwork/Communication

📝 Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft provides core paperwork for RI-CAREGIVER through the RI Temporary Disability Insurance and Temporary Caregiver Insurance Programs (RITDIANDTCI) paperwork/attachment. Paperwork is configured to be sent as part of the Employee Eligibility packet.
RI-CAREGIVER certification forms are not available in the platform and are made available to the employee through the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training (RIDLT) online portal.

❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Updates to existing paperwork items can occur. When updates happen, they are automatically applied to paperwork unless the client has customized. Clients with customizations on the relevant paperwork will need to review to determine how to adopt the new paperwork and apply any new customizations to the updated paperwork manually.

Payroll Calculations

This policy uses a Base Wage Calculation Method developed from information published by the state of Rhode Island. It aims to closely replicate the calculations performed by the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training.

Pay History

Uses the 5 most-recent quarterly totals prior to the Leave Start Date.

📝 Configuration Note: Gross quarterly totals include all wages reported to the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training (DLT) on Form TX-17, including base wages, overtime, bonuses, commissions, tips, and vacation pay. Annual bonuses are reported in the quarter paid. Rhode Island uses the single highest quarter; a large bonus may significantly increase the estimate.

Policy Configuration

A State Weekly Max is configured in the policy's Benefit Settings.

📝 Configuration Note: The State Weekly Max is $1,150.00, effective 07/01/2026 (previously $1,103.00, effective 07/01/2025 through 06/30/2026).

Rhode Island Base Wage Calculation Method Logic

  1. Retrieve Pay History:

    1. Retrieve the last five full quarters of pay history prior to the Leave Start Date. Remove the most recent quarter, leaving the oldest four.

  2. Calculate the employee's Average Weekly Wage (AWW):

    1. Sum the four quarters and verify the total is more than $1000.

      1. If more than $1000, identify the quarter with the highest total earnings among the four.

      2. If less than $1000, return $0 as the Base Weekly Wage.

  3. Calculate the Base Weekly Wage:

    1. Apply the state benefit percent (4.62%) to the highest quarterly earnings, then divide by 13 to determine the AWW.

    2. Retrieve the state max from Benefit Settings within the Policy Configuration.

    3. If the AWW is less than the state min ($130), use $130 as the Base Weekly Wage.

    4. If the AWW exceeds the state max, cap the result at the state max.

    5. Return this as the Base Weekly Wage.

📝 Configuration Note: The value returned is an AbsenceSoft estimate based on the state's published formula. This estimate should be used for planning purposes only and confirmed against the official state determination before being treated as final.

💡 Best Practice: Confirm any policy customizations have the correct rates before relying on them.

Need Help?

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