Illinois has passed a new leave law protecting leave for parents of newborns who are admitted into a hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care unit. The Family Neonatal Intensive Care Act provides unpaid time off for employees of certain IL employers who have experienced a traumatic incident to their newborn child.

This leave applies to employers with 16 or more employees. Employers with between 16-50 employees must provide up to 10 days of leave under this law to anyone eligible. Employers with 51+ employees must provide 20 days of such leave. Although leave is unpaid, employees may choose to substitute any entitled paid leave for unpaid leave.

Employees may use leave under the Family Neonatal Intensive Care Act continuously or intermittently, but the employer may set a minimum amount of hours that must be taken with each use (minimum of 2 hours).

Employees may not use leave under the Family Neonatal Intensive Care Act until they have exhausted their leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Employees will have job and health insurance protection while on Family Neonatal Intensive Care Act leave.

This leave is set to take effect June 1, 2026. Employers should prepare their Human Resources Departments to handle the processing of this new leave.