(1) A "claim year" is the period beginning Sunday of the week of the date an eligible employee files a complete initial application for benefits and ending the Saturday fifty-two weeks later.

(2) The entitlement to family leave benefits for the birth or placement of a child expires at the end of the twelve-month period beginning on the date the child was first placed in the home.

(3) For applications that are backdated, the claim year is the fifty-two week period beginning Sunday of the week to which the application was backdated.

(4) An employee may only have one valid claim year at a time.

(5) A new claim year will not be established for an employee who:

(a) Is determined to have less than eight hundred twenty hours in their qualifying period; or

(b) Fails to sufficiently prove their identity to the department.

Example 1: An employee experiences an injury that qualifies as a serious health condition. Three days later, on Thursday, March 4, 2021, the employee files a complete initial application for medical leave benefits. The employee's claim year will run from Sunday, February 28, 2021, to Saturday, February 26, 2022.

Example 2: An employee filed an application for medical leave in March 2021. The employee took four weeks of medical leave and returned to work. The employee's spouse gives birth to a child in September 2021. The employee elects not to take family leave until April 2022. Because the employee's first claim year has already expired, the employee must file a new application and begin a new claim year in order to take family leave beginning in April 2022.

Example 3: An employee gives birth on Thursday, March 4, 2021. The employee elects not to submit an application for paid family leave until Monday, April 5, 2021. Though the employee's claim year will run from Sunday, April 4, 2021, to Saturday, April 2, 2022, the employee will not be able to claim family leave after March 3, 2022, for the birth of the child. The employee can claim leave for other qualifying reasons for the period March 4, 2022, through April 2, 2022, subject to the maximum duration limits.