new baby, insurance & leave

February 21, 2007 4:02 PM

My wife and I are in the process of adopting a child and I have some questions about insurance and leave from work.

My employer - part of the state government - offers a special paid family leave program, plus I'll be using lots of saved vacation & sick time as bonding leave. After that, I'm covered by the state's own family leave law (we're in California). My wife works for a local jurisdiction that has opted-out of paying into SDI - which is unfortunately legal! - so she cannot take paid bonding leave, although technically she can't be fired by taking unpaid time off with the baby. Today, her employer met with folks from AFLAC to hear about their short-term disability insurance plans, and we found out they covered care / bonding leave for biological birth but not for adoptive parents, which is sad (but I assume, since "new adoptive parent" is not a protected class, perfectly legal). Does anyone have any knowledge of private disability plans that do cover adoption leave?

posted by luriete to law & government (3 answers total)

Try calling the Work and Family line at my office (The Employment Law Center in San Francisco). Toll-free in California 800-880-8047 or 415-593-0033 outside of California. Also, I'm checking with my colleague who specializes in the issue of paid family leave.
posted by ClaudiaCenter at 4:44 PM on February 21, 2007 [2 favorites]

Does she qualify for FMLA?
posted by padraigin at 4:50 PM on February 21, 2007

padraigin, the California law is stricter than FMLA and she does qualify, but that's unpaid leave, not paid.
posted by luriete at 5:03 PM on February 21, 2007