Oregon program
Unpaid job protection for days at home (Oregon Family Leave Act)
Oregon's unpaid sick-child leave can protect your job when your child needs care at home [OFLA].
What it is
Oregon's unpaid sick-child leave can protect your job when your child needs care at home [OFLA].
Some days caring for a sick child at home can qualify for OFLA. It offers job protection rather than a state payment. Its employer and work-history rules differ from Paid Leave Oregon and federal FMLA.
Eligibility rules
- The employer must have at least 25 employees.
- For sick-child OFLA, the ordinary test is 180 days of employment averaging at least 25 hours a week. Existing eligibility, a qualifying return to employment and certain special-worker rules can change how this is assessed.
- During an applicable declared public health emergency, eligibility can begin after 30 days averaging 25 hours a week. BOLI currently describes an emergency declaration lasting through the end of 2026 unless canceled; HR or BOLI should confirm its effect on your leave dates.
What you get
- Up to 12 weeks a year of unpaid sick-child and bereavement leave combined.
- Job protection for qualifying care at home, whether the illness is serious or not.
What the help includes
- The sick-child category requires care at home. Other treatment-related absences need a separate leave-category review.
If you decide to apply
- Ask HR to review which days could be recorded as OFLA sick-child leave.
- Have the dates and a care-team note describing the need for care at home ready.
Employer HR; Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries OFLA information. · Official page ↗
After you ask
- There is no state benefits application for OFLA. HR records whether your requested days are protected.
Good to know
OFLA and Paid Leave Oregon do not run at the same time. Payroll can identify which leave bank covers each absence.
Other details
- Your own available paid leave can cover pay during an otherwise unpaid absence, subject to the applicable leave rules.
Official sources
“Which days caring for our child at home could qualify for OFLA? How would using it help or limit our other leave, and could you help request it if it fits?”
Why I’m asking: I want to understand the separate job protection for care days at home.
More background and detailed requirements
Additional program information and published rules
Who does what
The three parts, side by side. The agency decides; nobody on this page does.
You
Ask in writing and keep the reply.
Your social worker
Human resources records the leave and holds the job.
The care team
Records and letters when the application asks for them.
- Who decides
- The employer; the Bureau of Labor and Industries handles complaints.
- Ask HR
- “Please record these days as Oregon Family Leave Act sick child leave, and tell me whether they are being counted against my Paid Leave Oregon weeks.”
How to apply
First step: Ask your employer in writing to record the days as Oregon Family Leave Act sick child leave.
- Ask the employer in writing to record the days as Oregon Family Leave Act leave.
- Ask which bank each block of days comes from: the paid programme or this one.
Official application / program page ↗
Where it starts: Ask the employer in writing to record the days as Oregon Family Leave Act sick child leave.
What to gather
- The dates you need
- A note from the care team that your child needs care at home
How long: There is no application to the state; the employer records it.
What a yes looks like
Written confirmation from human resources that the days are protected.
What a no looks like, and the next move
Usually the employee count or the 180-day test. Ask which, in writing.
Watch out
- This and the paid programme do not run at the same time. Ask which bank each block of days comes from.
- It only holds the job; it does not pay.
The numbers and the rules
The arcane layer, kept on purpose. Checked September 11, 2026.
What it is worth
Up to 12 weeks a year of unpaid, job-protected sick child leave at employers with 25 or more people.
- $12/year — Weeks of sick child leave and bereavement each leave year
- $25 — Employee-count floor
- $180 — Days of employment normally needed
Legal protection: Your job is protected while you take the leave · Covers a child's illness that requires care at home, serious or not
What it costs the family: Unpaid unless you apply your own paid leave to it.
The eligibility facts, as published
- Employer
- 25 or more employees
- Tenure
- Ordinarily 180 days averaging 25 hours per week. The public-health-emergency alternative is 30 days averaging 25 hours; BOLI’s September 21, 2026 notice describes the emergency as continuing through 2026 unless canceled.
- Purpose
- sick child leave requires care at home
The trap: Oregon Family Leave Act leave and Paid Leave Oregon do not run at the same time, so ask which one a given block of days is being counted against.
Where I read this
- BOLI — Oregon Family Leave Act — Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, read September 10, 2026