Leave to Care for Your Family
As an employer in the District of Columbia, American University faculty and staff are eligible to apply for DC Paid Family Leave benefits for up to 12 weeks to care for a family member with a serious health condition.
DC Paid Family Leave runs concurrently with DC and Federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which provides job protection up to 16 weeks of unpaid time off for eligible faculty and staff, which can be requested on an intermittent or continuous basis to care for a family member or to manage the faculty or staff member’s own medical condition.
Leave Process
-
Complete the American University Leave Request form 30 days before the start of the requested leave, if known, or as soon as possible for emergency situations.
-
Contact Prudential Insurance to start a claim 30 days before the start of the requested leave, if known, or as soon as possible for emergency situations. See the Prudential Reporting an FMLA Absence or Disability brochure.
- Apply for DC Paid Family Leave benefits on the DC Department of Employment Services website as soon as possible AFTER the qualifying event occurs.
The AU leave plans that coordinate with the DC Paid Family Leave (PFL) require that you apply for leave under PFL in order to receive the university-provided benefits. Employees who qualify to receive a PFL benefit will have their university-provided leave benefit payments offset in an amount equal to the payment received from the District of Columbia. The DC PFL benefit will run concurrently with other applicable FMLA benefits. Additional details can be found below.
Full-Time Staff & Library Faculty
Sick Leave
Sick leave allows you to care for yourself or a family member in case illness, preventive care, or to obtain assistance or guidance in stalking, sexual abuse, or domestic violence. Please advise your supervisor that you'll be out.
Full-time staff and library faculty accrue 12 days per year with no cap. If you’re out more than 3 days, documentation may be required.
Family Leave
DC Paid Family Leave runs concurrently with DC and Federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which provides job protection up to 16 weeks of unpaid time off for eligible faculty and staff, which can be requested on an intermittent or continuous basis to care for a family member or to manage the faculty or staff member’s own medical condition.
DC Paid Family Leave pays a percentage of your salary up to $1009 a week. Use the DC Paid Family Leave Weekly Benefit Calculator to estimate your weekly benefit. DC will pay up to 12 weeks for family leave.
Full-time staff and library faculty may supplement the DC Paid Family Leave by using accrued sick or annual leave to bring their pay up to 100%.
After the 12 weeks of DC Paid Family Leave (running concurrently with FMLA) has been exhausted, staff and library faculty may take up to another 4 weeks of unpaid FMLA and use accrued leave to receive pay.
See the Leave Process on this page.
BEREAVEMENT LEAVE
In the event of the death of a spouse, domestic partner, child, or parent, staff and library faculty may use up to 10 days of bereavement leave without having to draw upon accrued sick or annual leave.
In the event of the death of a grandparent, sibling, parent, or sibling of the staff member’s spouse or domestic partner, staff and library faculty may use up to 3 days of bereavement leave without having to draw upon accrued sick or annual leave.
Advise your supervisor that you will be out on bereavement leave and record your time out of the office as "Bereavement Leave" on your time sheet or leave report.
Resources
Full-Time Faculty
Family Leave
DC Paid Family Leave runs concurrently with DC and Federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which provides job protection up to 16 weeks of unpaid time off for eligible faculty and staff, which can be requested on an intermittent or continuous basis to care for a family member or to manage the faculty or staff member’s own medical condition.
DC Paid Family Leave pays a percentage of your salary up to $1009 a week. Use the DC Paid Family Leave Weekly Benefit Calculator to estimate your weekly benefit. DC will pay up to 12 weeks for family leave.
Full-time faculty do not accrue sick or annual leave, so the university will supplement the DC Paid Family Leave to provide faculty with 100% of their pay for 12 weeks.
After the 12 weeks of DC Paid Family Leave (running concurrently with FMLA) has been exhausted, faculty may take up to another 4 weeks of unpaid FMLA.
See the Leave Process on this page.
Resources
Part-Time Staff
Sick Leave
Sick leave allows you to care for yourself or a family member in case illness, preventive care, or to obtain assistance or guidance in stalking, sexual abuse, or domestic violence.
Eligible part-time staff accrue up to seven days per year with no cap. If you’re out more than 3 days, documentation may be required.
Family Leave
DC Paid Family Leave runs concurrently with DC and Federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which provides job protection up to 16 weeks of unpaid time off for eligible faculty and staff, which can be requested on an intermittent or continuous basis to care for a family member or to manage the faculty or staff member’s own medical condition.
DC Paid Family Leave pays a percentage of your salary up to $1009 a week. Use the DC Paid Family Leave Weekly Benefit Calculator to estimate your weekly benefit. DC will pay up to 12 weeks for family leave.
Part-time staff may use accrued sick leave in addition to receiving the DC Paid Family Leave.
After the 12 weeks of DC Paid Family Leave (running concurrently with FMLA) has been exhausted, part-time staff may take up to another 4 weeks of unpaid FMLA.
See the Leave Process on this page.
Resources
Adjunct Faculty
Family Leave
DC Paid Family Leave runs concurrently with DC and Federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which provides job protection up to 16 weeks of unpaid time off for eligible faculty and staff, which can be requested on an intermittent or continuous basis to care for a family member or to manage the faculty or staff member’s own medical condition.
DC Paid Family Leave pays a percentage of your salary up to $1009 a week. Use the DC Paid Family Leave Weekly Benefit Calculator to estimate your weekly benefit. DC will pay up to 12 weeks for family leave.
After the 12 weeks of DC Paid Family Leave (running concurrently with FMLA) has been exhausted, adjunct faculty may take up to another 4 weeks of unpaid FMLA.
See the Leave Process on this page.
Resources
Prudential
To report an FMLA absence or disability, call 877-367-7781, 24/7 or visit www.prudential.com/mybenefits. Click on "Report Time out of Work" and follow the instructions. There you can input your information and download any forms you may need.
DC Paid Family Leave
Department of Employment Services
As with all benefits, you should refer to the appropriate sections of the Faculty Staff Benefits Manual or the official plan documents for more extensive information concerning your benefits plans. In the event of any conflict between the information on this website or the appropriate descriptive sections of the Faculty/Staff Benefits Manual and the official plan documents, the plan documents will govern.