# Understanding the Sarah Grace-Farley-Kluger Act

This bill adds a new type of leave that working parents can take when their child dies. Right now, the Family and Medical Leave Act allows employees to take unpaid time off for certain family situations like having a baby, caring for a sick family member, or dealing with a serious health condition. This bill expands that law to include bereavement leave specifically for parents who lose a son or daughter, regardless of the child's age.

Here's what this means in practical terms: if you work for a covered employer and your child passes away, you'd be entitled to take up to 12 months off work following the death. This leave would need to be taken as a continuous block of time rather than in scattered days, unless you and your employer agree otherwise. You could use paid vacation or sick time during this period if your employer allows it. The leave would expire 12 months after your child's death, so you'd need to use it within that timeframe. Your employer can ask you to provide certification of the death, similar to how they might verify other medical leave requests.

The bill applies to both private sector employees covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act and federal government employees. For school employees specifically, there are special rules that allow employers to limit how much notice they need if the death is foreseeable (like in cases of terminal illness), and the leave wouldn't count against other leave limits in the same way. The bill protects your job—employers can't fire you or punish you for taking this bereavement leave, and you'd maintain your health insurance benefits while you're away.

This legislation is named after Sarah Grace Farley Kluger, suggesting it was inspired by a specific family's experience with losing a child.