For what reasons may an employee take leave under the California Family Rights Act (CFRA)?

Editor's Note: This content has been updated to reflect changes to the CFRA effective Jan. 1, 2023.

The California Family Rights Act (CFRA) was established to ensure leave rights for the following reasons:

• Birth of a child for purposes of bonding (including the child of a domestic partner).
• Placement of a child in the employee's family for adoption or foster care.
• To care for the employee's child (including adult children and children of a domestic partner), parent, parent-in-law, spouse, registered domestic partner, sibling, grandparent, grandchild or designated person with a serious health condition.
• The serious health condition of the employee (excluding pregnancy).
• A qualifying military exigency related to the covered active duty or call to covered active duty of an employee's spouse, domestic partner, child, or parent in the United States Armed Forces, as specified in Section 3302.2 of the Unemployment Insurance Code.

To be eligible for CFRA leave, an employee must be either a full-time or part-time employee working in California, have more than 12 months (52 weeks) of service with the employer, and have worked at least 1,250 hours in the 12-month period before the date when leave begins.

Eligible employees may take a job-protected leave for a total of up to 12 workweeks in a 12-month period, and leave may be taken all at once or on a reduced schedule or intermittent leave basis.

Employees disabled due to pregnancy and/or childbirth are covered under the pregnancy disability leave (PDL) provisions of the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) rather than CFRA. CFRA leave may be taken to bond with a newborn child after the mother's PDL leave. See What leave benefits are pregnant employees entitled to in the state of California?