Twelve years after her twin boys spent nearly three months in the neonatal intensive care unit, State Rep. Laura Faver Dias is spearheading a new effort to guarantee time off for families who experience what she did.
“I gave birth at 27 weeks,” said Faver Dias, who represents the state’s 62nd district. “We were in the NICU for 89 days. So, we had a long, hard stay in the NICU, and I would go every day.”
At the time, Faver Dias worked as a teacher and was on summer vacation. Her husband didn’t get the time off work.
“I saw how many parents were not able to be in the NICU,” she said. “It’s really critical that moms and dads can be there during that time, but you also have to save time for when you bring your babies home from the NICU.”
Beginning June 1, parents will no longer have to make that incredibly difficult choice.
HB2978, the Family Neonatal Intensive Care Leave Act, guarantees parents with babies in the NICU up to 20 days of unpaid leave.
“That time that you spend in the NICU is really critical for the baby’s development in all ways, from cognitive to social emotional to self-regulation to body temperature to helping the mom produce milk,” said Faver Dias.
According to the bill, “an employee of an employer with 16 or more employees and no more than 50 employees shall be entitled to use a maximum of 10 days of unpaid neonatal intensive care leave while any child of the employee is a patient in a neonatal intensive care unit. An employee of an employer with 51 or more employees shall be entitled to use 20 days of unpaid neonatal intensive care leave.”
The time off can be used in addition to the twelve weeks of unpaid, federally mandated leave through the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
The U.S. has no federal law mandating paid family or parental leave, and in addition to covering that gap, the state bill also covers employers with fewer than 50 workers.
“It’s critical because FMLA only applies to organizations that have 50 or more employees, so this bill captures some who can’t use or who aren’t entitled to FMLA,” said Faver Dias.
Illinois is only the second state in the U.S. to require job-protected NICU leave. In January, Colorado became the first to adopt paid NICU leave, offering up to 12 weeks for parents with newborns in intensive care.
Illinois’ bill passed with bipartisan support in August 2025, and will officially take effect on June 1.
