The Family and Medical Leave Act allows eligible employees to take up to 12 work weeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period to attend to the serious health condition of themselves or their parent, spouse or child. In order to be eligible for FMLA leave, an employee must have been at the business at least 12 months, and worked at least 1,250 hours over the past 12 months, and work at a location where the company employs 50 or more employees within 75 miles.

Unfortunately, FMLA excluded siblings who provided care to a sibling.

Thanks to the advocacy of Sibling Leadership Network (SLN), the Department of Labor has clarified when siblings may be eligible to take job-protected leave under the FMLA. According to SLN:

If a sibling steps in to care for an adult sibling who is “incapable of self-care because of a mental or physical disability” (see Fact Sheet 28B), he or she may be performing caregiving duties like a parent would and may be able to claim in loco parentis eligibility FMLA protected leave.

For more information, see the SLN’s Fact Sheet on the FMLA and Siblings.