The Department of Labor recently issued guidance on when an employee may take leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) to care for a child whose summer camp, summer enrichment program, or other summer program has been cancelled for COVID-19 related reasons. The DOL’s guidance is here.
As we have posted in earlier blogs: Families First Coronavirus Response Act: What Does It Mean For Workers?, More Families First Coronavirus Response Act Guidance for Workers, and More Updates on Paid Leave for Workers under the Family First Coronavirus Response Act and Limits on Paid Leave under the Act, the FFCRA requires public employers and private employers with less than 500 employees to provide eligible workers with up to 80 hours of paid sick leave and up to 12 weeks of expanded family and medical leave, under certain circumstances, including if an employee is unable to work or telework due to a need to care for his or her child whose school, daycare, or other place of care is closed for COVID-19 related reasons.
Because many camps were cancelled before children were enrolled, there has been confusion about whether a summer camp or summer program qualifies as a “place of care” under the FFCRA. The DOL guidance tries to clarify what a worker must show to be eligible for leave under the FFCRA based on the closure or cancellation of their child’s summer camp or program.
Under the DOL guidance, summer camps and programs may qualify as places of care for the purposes of FFCRA leave. If a worker wants to request FFCRA leave based on the closure of their child’s summer camp, under DOL guidance the following circumstances are examples of what would qualify:
- The child was enrolled in the camp or program before it closed;
- The employee took other action steps short of actual enrollment, like submitting an application or deposit before the camp was closed or canceled; or
- The child had previously attended the camp or program, for example, if the child attended during the summers of 2018 or 2019, showing that the camp or program would have been the child’s place of care during summer 2020, as long as the child would have been otherwise eligible to attend.
But these are only some examples. A child who, for example, only recently met the age requirement for a summer camp could not have attended the camp in prior years. The same would be true of a child who recently moved from an area not serviced by the summer camp that the child planned to attend this summer or of a child whose parents had not yet made summer arrangements at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic and delayed doing so due to uncertainty surrounding summer camps’ and programs’ operations. In those cases there may be other ways to show that a particular camp or program would have been the child’s place of care this summer.
Generally, a worker requesting FFCRA leave needs to give their employer information in support of the need for leave either orally or in writing, including the reason for leave and a statement that the employee is unable to work because of that reason. In the case of leave, because a child’s summer camp or summer care program is closed or canceled, the employee must provide: (1) the name of the child, (2) the name of the specific summer camp or program that would have been the place of care for the child had it not closed, and (3) a statement that no other suitable person is available to care for the child.
We are working hard to stay up to date on the latest changes to the law and regulations related to the Coronavirus Pandemic. The rapid changes can be confusing. As always, we are here to help with your employment questions and issues.
