The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides job-protected leave from work for family, medical, and military family leave reasons. This fact sheet explains when workers may use FMLA leave to care for someone who is not their biological or legal parent, but who was in the role of a parent to them when they were a child.
Covered employers: Covered employers under the FMLA include
The FMLA protects leave for:
For more information about the FMLA generally, see Fact Sheet #28.
The FMLA provides eligible employees with the ability to use job-protected leave to care for a parent with a serious health condition, including providing psychological comfort. Under the FMLA, a parent is an employee’s biological, adoptive, step, or foster parent, or someone who stood in loco parentis to the employee when the employee was a child. Standing in loco parentis means a person is in the role of a parent.
To have been in the role of a parent to an employee when the employee was a child, an individual will need to have been in this role when the employee was either under 18 or was 18- years-old or older and incapable of self-care because of a mental or physical disability. For more information about FMLA leave to care for an adult child with a disability, see Fact Sheet 28K.
Standing in the role of a parent includes having day-to-day responsibilities to care for or financially support a child. A person does not have to have a biological or legal relationship to a child to stand in loco parentis to the child, but in some circumstances grandparents or other relatives, such as siblings, may be in this role.
Factors that relate to whether a person is in loco parentis to a child include the:
Additionally, the fact that a child has a biological parent at home, or both a mother and a father, does not prevent an employee from standing in the role of a parent to the child. The FMLA does not restrict the number of parents a child may have. The specific facts of each situation will determine whether an individual stood in loco parentis to an employee when the employee was a child.
She uses FMLA leave to care for him when he is hospitalized for a week.
For more information about the legal meaning of in loco parentis as it applies to the FMLA, see Administrator’s Interpretation No. 2010-3. For information about taking FMLA leave for the care of a child when you are not their biological or legal parent, but are in the role of a parent, see FMLA Fact Sheet #28B.
Employers may, but are not required to, request that employees provide reasonable documentation of a family relationship when they need to use FMLA leave to care for a family member. Employees may satisfy an employer’s request for documentation of a family relationship by providing a simple statement asserting that the required family relationship exists. It is the employee’s choice whether to provide a simple statement or other documentation. For example, an employee might provide the name of the person who stood in loco parentis to the employee when the employee was a child, along with enough information for the employer to be aware that the person acted in the role of a parent to the employee.
Some States have their own family and medical leave laws. Nothing in the FMLA prevents employees from receiving protections under other laws. Workers have the right to benefit from all the laws that apply.
The FMLA is a federal worker protection law. Employers are prohibited from interfering with, restraining, or denying the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any FMLA right. Any violations of the FMLA or the FMLA regulations constitute interfering with, restraining, or denying the exercise of rights provided by the FMLA. For more information about prohibited employer retaliation under the FMLA, see Fact Sheet #77B and Field Assistance Bulletin 2022-2.
The Wage and Hour Division is responsible for administering and enforcing the FMLA for most employees. If you believe that your rights under the FMLA have been violated, you may file a complaint with the Wage and Hour Division or file a private lawsuit against your employer in court. State employees may be subject to certain limitations in pursuit of direct lawsuits regarding leave for their own serious health conditions. Most Federal and certain congressional employees are also covered by the law but are subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management or Congress.
For additional information, visit our Wage and Hour Division Website: http://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd and/or call our toll-free information and helpline, available 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in your time zone, 1-866-4USWAGE (1-866-487-9243).
This publication is for general information and is not to be considered in the same light as official statements of position contained in the regulations.
The contents of this document do not have the force and effect of law and are not meant to bind the public in any way. This document is intended only to provide clarity to the public regarding existing requirements under the law or agency policies.
