DC FMLA: Eligibility, Notice Rules, and Job Protection

The District of Columbia Family and Medical Leave Act, known as DC FMLA, gives eligible employees up to 16 weeks of unpaid family leave and a separate 16 weeks of unpaid medical leave within any 24-month period. That is more generous than the federal FMLA’s 12 weeks per year, and DC FMLA reaches smaller employers and a broader set of family relationships. Your job and health insurance are protected while you are out.

Who Qualifies for DC FMLA

Coverage is wide on the employer side. The statute defines a covered employer as any individual, firm, association, or corporation that pays someone for work in the District, including the DC government.¹ There is no minimum workforce size, so employees at small businesses in the District are generally covered.

On the employee side, you need two things. First, at least 12 months of employment with the same employer. Those months do not have to run back-to-back: earlier stints count as long as they fall within the seven years immediately before your leave starts, and holiday, sick, or personal leave granted by your employer counts toward the 12 months. Second, at least 1,000 hours worked during the 12 months right before the leave begins.¹ That is roughly 20 hours a week, so many part-time workers qualify.

What Counts as Family Leave

You can take up to 16 workweeks of family leave in any 24-month period for any of these reasons:

The birth of your child
The placement of a child with you for adoption or foster care
Permanently assuming parental responsibility for a child who lives with you
Caring for a family member with a serious health condition

That third category, permanently taking on parental responsibility, is a DC-specific addition that protects people in informal caregiving arrangements.²

The definition of “family member” is broader than most people expect. It includes anyone related to you by blood, legal custody, or marriage. It also covers a child living with you for whom you permanently act as a parent, a person you share (or shared within the past year) a home and a committed relationship with, and any foster child in your care.¹ The committed-relationship provision means unmarried partners who live together generally qualify.

What Counts as Medical Leave

If your own serious health condition prevents you from doing your job, you can take up to 16 workweeks of medical leave in any 24-month period.³ This is a separate bucket from family leave. If you use all 16 weeks of family leave to care for a sick parent and then develop your own serious health condition in the same two-year window, you still have up to 16 weeks of medical leave available.⁴

A serious health condition is a physical or mental illness, injury, or impairment that involves either inpatient care at a medical facility or continuing treatment or supervision by a healthcare provider. Inpatient care generally means at least one overnight stay. Continuing treatment covers situations like a period of incapacity followed by in-person doctor’s visits, pregnancy-related incapacity, or a chronic condition requiring periodic treatment. In some cases, the risk of future incapacity without treatment can qualify even if you are not currently unable to work.⁴

Medical leave does not have to be taken all at once. When your condition makes it medically necessary, you can take leave intermittently rather than in one continuous block.³ For planned treatment, you are expected to make a reasonable effort to schedule it in a way that does not unnecessarily disrupt your employer’s operations, subject to your provider’s approval.

Notice and Medical Certification

When the need for leave is foreseeable, give your employer reasonable advance notice and try to schedule treatment to minimize disruption.³ DC FMLA does not impose a rigid 30-day notice rule the way federal FMLA does; the standard is what’s reasonable, which gives flexibility for emergencies. When the need is unforeseeable, provide notice as soon as you reasonably can.

Your employer can require a medical certification from a healthcare provider for leave to care for a family member or for your own medical leave. The certification must state when the condition began, its probable duration, the relevant medical facts, and either that you cannot perform your job (for medical leave) or an estimate of how long you are needed to provide care (for family leave).⁵ Your employer must keep the medical information confidential and can use it only to make leave decisions.

If your employer doubts the certification, they can require a second opinion at their own expense from a provider they approve, but not from one they regularly retain. If the second opinion conflicts with the first, a third provider you both agree on breaks the tie, again at the employer’s expense, and that result is binding.⁵ Employers can also require updated certifications on a reasonable basis as leave continues.

Job and Health Insurance Protection

You do not lose seniority or benefits that accrued before your leave started. When you return, your employer must restore you to the position you held before the leave, or to an equivalent role with the same pay, benefits, seniority, and other terms.⁶

Your employer must maintain your group health insurance during the entire leave at the same level and under the same conditions as if you had never left.⁶ You still owe your share of the premiums. If you stop paying, your employer can drop your coverage until you return to work and resume payments. If money is tight during unpaid leave, talk to HR about a payment arrangement rather than missing premiums.

There is one narrow exception to reinstatement. At employers with fewer than 50 employees, a salaried worker who is among the five highest-paid on staff can be denied reinstatement if restoring them would cause substantial and grievous economic harm to the business. The employer must notify you of that status when you request leave, and the burden is on the employer to prove the harm.

DC FMLA Leave Is Unpaid, but Paid Benefits Exist Separately

DC FMLA does not provide a paycheck. The 16 weeks of family leave and 16 weeks of medical leave are job-protected but unpaid.⁴

The District runs a separate program, DC Paid Family Leave, funded by employer payroll taxes. If you work in the District, you can receive paid benefits for up to:

12 weeks to bond with a new child
12 weeks to care for a family member with a serious health condition
12 weeks for your own serious health condition
2 weeks for prenatal care

The maximum weekly benefit is $1,190.⁷ Paid Family Leave has its own eligibility rules and application process through the DC Department of Employment Services, separate from any DC FMLA request to your employer.⁸ The two can run at the same time: DC FMLA protects your job, and Paid Family Leave replaces part of your income.

You can also substitute accrued paid time off, such as vacation, personal leave, or compensatory time, during DC FMLA leave. Check with your employer about how substitution interacts with Paid Family Leave benefits, since the details depend on company policy.

How DC FMLA Compares to Federal FMLA

Most employees working in the District are covered by both laws at once. When both apply, you get whichever provision is more generous for a given issue. The main differences:

Employer coverage: Federal FMLA covers private employers with 50 or more employees. DC FMLA covers any employer that pays someone for work in the District, regardless of size.
Leave duration: Federal FMLA provides 12 weeks total in a 12-month period. DC FMLA provides 16 weeks of family leave plus a separate 16 weeks of medical leave in a 24-month period.
Hours worked: Federal FMLA requires 1,250 hours in the past 12 months. DC FMLA requires 1,000.
Family member definition: Federal FMLA covers spouses, children, and parents. DC FMLA adds committed partners who share a home, people related by blood or legal custody, children for whom you assume permanent parental responsibility, and foster children.¹
Worksite rule: Federal FMLA only applies if your employer has 50 or more employees within 75 miles of your worksite. DC FMLA has no worksite provision.

If you work for a smaller employer in the District that isn’t large enough for federal FMLA, DC FMLA likely still covers you. If you need more than 12 weeks, DC FMLA’s 16-week entitlement gives you additional time.

If Your Employer Violates Your Rights

An employer that interferes with your DC FMLA rights or retaliates against you for requesting or taking leave is violating the law. Retaliation includes firing, demoting, disciplining, or reducing your hours because you exercised your right to leave.

If your rights are violated, you can recover lost wages, salary, and employment benefits, plus interest. The employer can also be ordered to pay your reasonable attorney fees and costs.⁹

Complaints go to the DC Office of Human Rights. You can submit an intake questionnaire by emailing OHR.Intake@DC.Gov, by mail or in person at 441 4th Street NW, Suite 570N, Washington, DC 20001, or by fax at (202) 727-9589. You must file within one year of the alleged violation.¹⁰ That one-year deadline is firm, so don’t wait to see if the situation resolves on its own before starting the process.

1
D.C. Law Library. DC Code 32-501 – Definitions
2
D.C. Law Library. DC Code 32-502 – Family Leave Requirement
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D.C. Law Library. DC Code 32-503 – Medical Leave Requirement
4
D.C. Office of Human Rights. About the DC Family and Medical Leave Act
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D.C. Law Library. DC Code 32-504 – Certification
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D.C. Law Library. DC Code 32-505 – Employment and Benefits Protection
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DC.gov Office of Paid Family Leave. Benefits Calculator
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DC.gov Office of Paid Family Leave. DOES Office of Paid Family Leave
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D.C. Law Library. DC Code 32-509 – Administrative Enforcement Procedure and Relief
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DC Office of Human Rights. File a Discrimination Complaint