Personnel Staff Fact Sheet Sick Leave to Care for A Family Member With A Serious Health Condition

Policy		Family Care. Federal employees may use a limited amount of sick leave to provide care for family member due to-- physical or mental illness, injury, pregnancy, childbirth, or medical, dental, or optical examination or treatment. Death. Federal employees may use a limited amount of sick leave to-- make arrangements necessitated by the death of a family member, or attend the funeral of a family member.
Family member		"Family member" means an employee's-- spouse (and parents thereof), natural or adopted son or daughter (and spouses thereof), parents, brothers and sisters (and spouses thereof), and any individual related by blood or affinity whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship.
Limits		Full-time employee. A full-time employee may use up to the maximum amount of sick leave available for family care and bereavement (up to 13 days or 104 hours for general medical care of a family member or bereavement or up to 12 weeks for a serious health condition of a family member). At the discretion of the agency, an employee may be advanced up to 30 days of sick leave for a serious disability or ailment of the employee or a family member or for purposes related to the adoption of a child. Part-time employee and employees with uncommon tours of duty. A part-time employee or an employee with an uncommon tour of duty may use a proportional amount of sick leave for these purposes. The amount of sick leave is pro-rated in proportion to the average number of hours of work in the employee's scheduled tour of duty each week. Example. A part-time employee who works 20 hours per week may use up to 20 hours of sick leave (including advance leave where appropriate) per leave year for these purposes.
Documentation		Supervisors may require a medical certificate or other evidence of the reason for an absence for these purposes. The employee has a time period of 15 calendar days within which the employee must provide administratively acceptable evidence as to the reason for his or her use of sick leave. For employees on the National Finance Center payroll system, sick leave used for these purposes should be tracked on an interim basis in the "Remarks" section of the Time and Attendance Report.
Relationship to leave sharing		Available sick leave for these purposes is considered available paid leave under the voluntary leave sharing program.
References		Law: 5 U.S.C. 6307 Regulation: 5 CFR part 630, subpart D

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