FMLA2019-2-A — Whether attending a Committee on Special Education meeting to discuss a child’s Individualized Education Program qualifies as FMLA leave

U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division
Washington, DC 20210

1

FMLA2019-2- A
August 8, 2019
Dear Name*:
This letter responds to your request for an opinion on whether an employee may take leave under
the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to attend a Committee on Special Education (CSE)
meeting to discuss the Individualized Education Program (IEP) of the employee’s son or
daughter.
1
This opinion is based exclusively on the facts you have presented. You represent that
you do not seek this opinion for any party that the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) is currently
investigating or for use in any litigation that commenced prior to your request.
BACKGROUND
You represent that your two children have qualifying serious health conditions under the
FMLA.
2
You state that your wife has received a certification from your children’s doctors
supporting your wife’s need to take intermittent leave to care for your children and that her
employer has approved her taking FMLA leave intermittently to bring the children to medical
appointments. You state that your wife’s employer has not, however, approved her request to
take FMLA leave intermittently to attend CSE/IEP meetings.
You explain that your children receive pediatrician-prescribed occupational, speech, and physical
therapy provided by their school district, and that four times a year their school holds CSE/IEP
meetings to review their educational and medical needs, well-being, and progress.
3
You explain
that these meetings include participation by “a speech pathologist, school psychologist,
occupational therapist and/or physical therapist employed or contracted by the school district to
provide services to the ... child under the child’s IEP,” as well as teachers and school
administrators. These participants provide updates regarding your children’s progress and areas
of concern; review recommendations made by your children’s doctors; review any new test

1
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires public schools to develop an IEP for a
son or daughter who receives special education and related services with input from the child and the
child’s parents, teachers, school administrators, and related services personnel. Under the IDEA, “related
services” include such services as audiology services, counseling services, medical services, physical
therapy, psychological services, speech-language pathology services, rehabilitation counseling services,
among others. See A Guide to the Individualized Education Program, U.S. Department of Education (July
2000), available at https://www2.ed.gov/parents/needs/speced/iepguide/index.html
; see also 34 C.F.R.
§ 300.320 (defining an IEP).
2
See 29 U.S.C. § 2611(11) (defining serious health condition).
3
Your letter refers to these meetings as “Committee on Special Education (CSE)” meetings, but the
analysis and conclusion in this opinion letter apply to any meetings held pursuant to the IDEA, and any
applicable state or local law, regardless of the term used for such meetings.

2

results; and may make recommendations for additional therapy. You ask if your wife may use
intermittent FMLA leave for the care of a child to attend these meetings.
GENERAL LEGAL PRINCIPLES
The FMLA defines a “serious health condition” as an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or
mental condition that involves inpatient care or continuing treatment by a healthcare provider
and provides, in relevant part, that an eligible employee of a covered employer may take up to
twelve weeks of job-protected, unpaid FMLA leave per year “to care for the spouse, or a son,
daughter, or parent, of the employee, if such spouse, son, daughter, or parent has a serious health
condition.” 29 U.S.C. § 2612(a)(1)(C); see also 29 U.S.C. § 2611(11) (defining serious health
condition); 29 C.F.R. § 825.112–.115. Care for a family member includes “both physical and
psychological care” and “mak[ing] arrangements for changes in care ....” 29 C.F.R.
§ 825.124(a)–(b).
An employee may use FMLA leave intermittently or on a reduced leave schedule when
medically necessary because of a family member’s serious health condition. See 29 U.S.C.
§ 2612(b)(1); 29 C.F.R. § 825.202. However, an employer may require an employee to timely
provide a copy of a certification—issued by a health care provider and meeting certain criteria—
supporting his or her request to take such leave. See 29 U.S.C. § 2613(a)–(b); 29 C.F.R.
§ 825.305–.306.
OPINION
Based on the facts you provided, your wife’s need to attend CSE/IEP meetings addressing the
educational and special medical needs of your children—who have serious health conditions as
certified by a health care provider—is a qualifying reason for taking intermittent FMLA leave.
Your wife’s attendance at these CSE/IEP meetings is “care for a family member ... with a
serious health condition.” 29 C.F.R. § 825.100(a); see also 29 U.S.C. § 2612(a)(1)(C); 29 C.F.R.
§ 825.112(a)(3). As noted above, “to care for” a family member with a serious health condition
includes “to make arrangements for changes in care.” 29 C.F.R. § 825.124(b). This includes
taking leave to help make medical decisions on behalf of a hospitalized parent or to make
arrangements to find suitable childcare for a child with a disability. See Romans v. Michigan
Dep’t of Human Servs., 668 F.3d 826, 840–41 (6th Cir. 2012) ( holding that an employee was
entitled to take FMLA leave to join his sister at a hospital to make decision regarding whether to
keep their mother on life support); Wegelin v. Reading Hosp. & Med. Ctr., 909 F. Supp. 2d 421,
429–30 (E.D. Pa. 2012) (holding that an employee was entitled to take FMLA leave to find a
daycare to care for her daughter with an autism spectrum disorder and a visual impairment); see
also Ballard v. Chicago Park Dist., 741 F.3d 838, 840 (7th Cir. 2014) (noting that the FMLA
“speaks in terms of ‘care,’ not ‘treatment’”). Additionally, an employee may “make
arrangements for changes in care,” even if that care does not involve a facility that provides
medical treatment. Wegelin, 909 F. Supp. 2d at 430 (quoting 29 C.F.R. § 825.124).
This conclusion is consistent with existing WHD policy. In a previous opinion letter, WHD
stated that an employee was entitled to take FMLA leave to attend “[c]are [c]onferences related
to her mother’s health condition,” because her attendance at these conferences was “clearly

3

essential to the employee’s ability to provide appropriate physical or psychological care” to her
mother. WHD Opinion Letter FMLA-94, 1998 WL 1147751, at *1 (Feb. 27, 1998). Similarly
here, it appears that your wife’s attendance at IEP meetings is “essential to [her] ability to
provide appropriate physical or psychological care” to your children. Id. Your wife attends
these meetings to help participants make medical decisions concerning your children’s
medically-prescribed speech, physical, and occupational therapy; to discuss your children’s well-
being and progress with the providers of such services; and to ensure that your children’s school
environment is suitable to their medical, social, and academic needs. Your child’s doctor need
not be present at CSE/IEP meetings in order for your spouse’s leave to qualify for intermittent
FMLA leave.
We trust that this letter is responsive to your inquiry.
Sincerely,

Cheryl M. Stanton
Administrator
*Note: The actual name(s) was removed to protect privacy in accordance with 5 U.S.C.
§ 552(b)(6).