Katherine L. Fechte

The Illinois Family Neonatal Intensive Care Leave Act took effect June 1, 2026, and provides eligible employees with up to 20 days of unpaid, job-protected leave while a child of an employee is a patient in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

The available length of leave under the Act is based on employer size. For purposes of determining an employer’s size, all employees are counted regardless of whether they physically work in Illinois.

• Employers with fewer than 16 employees are not covered.
• Employers with 16–50 employees must provide up to 10 days of leave to eligible employees.
• Employers with 51 or more employees must provide up to 20 days of leave to eligible employees.

For example, an employer with 52 employees nationwide but only five employees working in Illinois must provide up to 20 days of NICU leave to eligible employees.

Additional important considerations under the Act include the following:

• To be eligible, an employee must primarily work in Illinois and work for an employer with 16 or more employees.
• For purposes of NICU leave, a "neonatal intensive care unit" is a special care unit that provides medical treatment to premature and critically ill infants.
• A “child” means an employee’s son or daughter who is a biological, adopted, or foster child; a stepchild; a legal ward; or a child of a person standing in loco parentis.
• An employee shall be entitled to NICU leave for the maximum number of days allowed under this Act (10 or 20) or the length of time the employee’s child was a patient in a NICU, whichever is less. In other words, NICU leave cannot be used to care for a child who has been discharged from the NICU and is recovering at home.
• An employer may require reasonable verification of the length of the employee’s child’s stay in the NICU but cannot request any confidential information protected by HIPAA, including the reason for the child’s admission to the NICU.
• NICU leave is in addition to any leave for which an employee may be eligible under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and can be taken even if an employee has exhausted available FMLA leave. An employee may still be eligible to take NICU leave even if the employee is not otherwise eligible to take FMLA leave.
• The amount of available NICU leave is per eligible employee, not per child in the NICU. For example, an employee with two children in the NICU is not eligible for additional days of leave.
• NICU leave can be taken continuously or intermittently in increments of at least two hours.
• An employer cannot require an employee to use available paid time off to cover unpaid NICU leave, nor must an employee find a replacement worker in order to take NICU leave.
• Eligible employees must be reinstated to their former position or a substantially equivalent position with no loss of benefits or coverage.

For questions regarding compliance with the Illinois NICU leave obligations, please contact a member of UB Greensfelder’s Employment & Labor Practice Group.

The information provided in this alert speaks only to the information and guidance we have available as of the date of publication and is subject to change. This legal update was prepared by UB Greensfelder LLP and is not intended as a substitute for professional legal advice. Receipt, by itself, does not create an attorney-client relationship. For any questions, or for further information, please contact your UB Greensfelder attorney.