Defense News: Navy Updates Parental Leave Policy

Source: United States Navy

In most cases, Sailors who experience qualifying events, like birth, adoption or placement for long-term foster care, will be authorized 12 weeks of parental leave to care for their newborn, adopted or placed child or children.

This policy update applies to all active component (AC) members – active duty Sailors and Training and Administration of the Reserve (TAR) Sailors – and some reserve component (RC) members.

Qualifying events that make a Sailor eligible for parental leave include giving birth to one or more child, adopting a minor child, having a minor child placed with the service member for adoption or long-term foster care, or a combination of any of these events.

The new policy updates include:

• Birth parents are authorized 12 weeks of parental leave within one year after the birth of their child. Parental leave will be taken following any period of convalescent leave.
• Non-birth parents are authorized 12 weeks of parental leave within one year after the birth of their child.
• Navy service members, including dual-military couples, are authorized 12 weeks of parental leave for each service member within one year of placement of a minor child with the member for adoption, or the date of adoption of a minor child by the service member.
• Navy service members, including dual-military couples, are authorized 12 weeks of parental leave for each service member within one year of placement of a minor child for long-term foster care or permanent foster care with the service member.

Service members may take parental leave in one continuous period or in weekly increments and can be taken with ordinary leave, however, parental leave must be taken within one year after the qualifying event.

The Navy will normally require deployed Sailors or Sailors who are expected to deploy within three months to defer some or all parental leave until the deployment concludes. However, commanding officers are authorized to approve parental leave in these situations if they determine command readiness will not be adversely impacted.

If parental leave deferred due to deployment extends the member beyond the one-year parental leave period, commanding officers are authorized to extend the period.

Active component members and some Reserve members who experienced a qualifying event (birth, adoption, long-term foster placement) on or after Dec. 27, 2022 are eligible for expanded parental leave. This policy also applies to Sailors who had at least some unused caregiver leave (under the previous policy) on Dec. 27, 2022. In such cases, the Sailor is authorized a total of 12 weeks of parental leave as described in the NAVADMIN, which must be approved by the CO.

See NAVADMIN 008/23 for additional details.

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