(a) If an employee has multiple children born or placed on the same day, the multiple-child birth/placement event is considered to be a single event that triggers a single entitlement of up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave under §630.1703(b).
(b) If an employee has one or more children born or placed during the 12-month period following the date of an earlier birth or placement of a child of the employee, the provisions of this subpart shall be independently administered for each birth or placement event. Any paid parental leave substituted for FMLA unpaid leave during the 12-month period beginning on the date of a child's birth or placement shall count towards the 12-week limit on paid parental leave described in §630.1703(b) applicable in connection with the birth or placement involved. The substitution of paid parental leave may count toward multiple 12-week limits to the extent that there are multiple ongoing 12-month periods beginning on the date of an applicable birth or placement, each of which encompasses the day on which the leave is used. Therefore, whenever paid parental leave is substituted during periods of time when separate 12-month periods (each beginning on a date of birth or placement) overlap, the paid parental leave will count toward each affected period's 12-week limit. For example, if an employee has a child born on June 1 and another child placed for adoption on October 1 of the same year, each event would generate entitlement to substitute up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave during the separate 12-month periods beginning on the date of the birth and on the date of the placement, respectively. Those two 12-month periods would be June 1-May 31 and October 1-September 30. The overlap period for these two 12-month periods would be October 1-May 31. If the employee substitutes paid parental leave during that overlap period, that amount of paid parental leave would count towards both the 12-week limit associated with the birth event and the 12-week limit associated with the placement event.