The announcement of CU’s forthcoming Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) plan has sparked inquiries regarding how this insurance will interact with CU’s existing paid leave benefits, with particular focus on the Paid Parental Leave (PPL) plan.

While FAMLI coverage can be requested for many eligible medical leave instances for employees or family members they need to care for, when FAMLI is taken for parental leave, including birth, foster placement or adoption, it will interact with CU’s existing Paid Parental Leave program.

When FAMLI leave becomes available on Jan. 1, these plans will roll together to provide non-temporary university staff and twelve-month faculty 240 hours (six weeks) of paid leave, an increase from the 160 hours (four weeks) offered in the current Administrative Policy Statement (APS). 

Employees will also be entitled to six additional weeks of FAMLI payments where an employee can use sick or vacation time to receive full pay. 

For nine-month faculty, the requirement to exhaust sick leave before PPL will be removed. This change will allow for 18 weeks of at least 50% pay, allowing the faculty member to use sick leave to receive full pay.

Eligibility for parental leave

The university has developed a draft APS outlining the proposed update to baseline requirements for PPL use and eligibility. Campuses can choose to offer more generous requirements than the minimum outlined in the APS, and the approval of the APS will not impact campuses that already have broader eligibility requirements.

Employees are encouraged to review the proposed APS. They can submit comments by clicking the "FEEDBACK" link in the top right corner of any page in the proposed APS between now and Dec. 1. Once approved, the APS will take effect on Jan. 1 when CU’s FAMLI plan is fully implemented.

Please visit campus PPL pages to learn more about the eligibility requirements on specific campuses.

• Anschutz Medical Campus
• Boulder
• Colorado Springs
• Denver
• System Administration