Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Parents need time off when there’s a new baby. And a bill which has passed the Illinois House would give them more time off if baby is in a NICU.

Sponsor State Rep Laura Faver Dias (D-Grayslake) says it would help a lot of families.

“In 2022 there were 13,564 pre-term births in Illinois,” said Faver Dias during the House debate. “67 percent of babies were in the NICU for less than ten days. But for those babies who are in a NICU longer, the twenty days are truly critical for the care and development of the baby  and the mental health of the parents.”

The extra time would be ten or twenty days, depending on the size of the employer.

And Faver Dias knows whereof she speaks. She said her children were in a NICU for 89 days.

HB 2978 has passed the House, 91-7.

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