Title 5 › Part III— EMPLOYEES › Subpart E— Attendance and Leave › Chapter 63— LEAVE › Subchapter I— ANNUAL AND SICK LEAVE › § 6307
Employees earn sick leave at the rate of one-half day for each full biweekly pay period. Members of the Firefighting Division of the D.C. Fire Department earn sick leave at two-fifths of a day per full biweekly pay period. Unused sick leave carries over to later years. Sick leave can be used for adoption-related purposes. In serious disability or adoption cases, up to 30 days of sick leave may be advanced, but firefighters may be advanced up to 24 days. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) will define who counts as a “family member,” and that definition must include anyone who met the leave-transfer program definition on January 1, 1993. Sick leave may be used to care for a sick family member or for death-related matters, including funeral arrangements. An employee may use up to 40 hours per year for those family reasons, plus up to 64 more hours if doing so does not reduce their sick leave balance below 80 hours. OPM will set proportional limits for part-time or unusual schedules. These family-care rules start two months after the law is enacted and last three years, and OPM must report to Congress six months before they are scheduled to end.
Full Legal Text
Government Organization and Employees — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
Legislative History
Reference
Citation
5 U.S.C. § 6307
Title 5 — Government Organization and Employees
Last Updated
Apr 3, 2026
Release point: 119-73not60