{"id":50886,"date":"2026-04-23T15:25:56","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:25:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/?post_type=insight&p=50886"},"modified":"2026-04-24T10:32:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T14:32:42","slug":"virginias-new-paid-leave-law-closes-the-loop-between-implementation-and-policy","status":"publish","type":"insight","link":"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/insights\/virginias-new-paid-leave-law-closes-the-loop-between-implementation-and-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia’s New Paid Leave Law Closes the Loop Between Implementation and Policy"},"author":50,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","issue_tax":[257],"topic_tax":[196,198,210],"program_tax":[138],"project_tax":[],"person_tax":[390,1779],"podcast_show_tax":[],"insight_type":[3765],"fellowship_tax":[],"award":[],"class_list":["post-50886","insight","type-insight","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","insight_type-in-short"],"acf":{"details":{"hero_type":"small-image","abstract":"With a new paid leave law, Virginia has hard-coded some critical implementation lessons learned from other paid leave programs across the country.","subheading":"The new paid leave program hard-codes lessons from other states. ","read_time":"","watch_time":"","podcast_player":"","apple_podcast_link":"","spotify_podcast_link":"","podcast_link":null,"listen_time":"","youtube_id":"","":null,"featured_image":53397,"add_image_caption":false,"caption":"","pdf_version":null,"helper_taxonomies":{"issue_tax":[257],"topic_tax":[196,198,210],"program_tax":[138],"project_tax":false,"person_tax":[390,1779],"fellowship_tax":false,"event_type":false,"location":false,"insight_type":[3765],"award":false,"podcast_show_tax":false,"person_type":false,"demographic_key":false,"survey_topic":false,"organization":false},"media_inquiry":false,"media_inquiry_title":"","media_inquiry_email":""},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"add_background_color":false,"content":"Virginia\u2019s <\/span>SB2<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>HB1207<\/span><\/a>, passed by the state legislature and approved by Governor Abigail Spanberger on April 22, 2026, establishes a new statewide paid family and medical leave program. Virginia is the 14th state, plus the District of Columbia, to create a new statewide paid family and medical leave program. <\/span>\r\n\r\nOnce the program is fully launched in December 2028, millions of workers in Virginia will be eligible to receive up to 12 weeks of paid leave to bond with a new child, recover from their own serious health condition, care for a sick family member, or respond to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. <\/span>\r\n\r\nPaid leave is associated with higher labor force participation rates, higher earnings over time, better health, worker retention and productivity, and economic growth. This program will provide critical economic support and job-protected time to care for Virginia\u2019s workers and their families.<\/span>\r\n

Lessons From Other States Can Help Virginia<\/h2>\r\nBeginning in <\/span>2016<\/span><\/a> and growing in earnest in the years following, state advocates and national paid leave experts have built an engaged coalition in the Commonwealth and have worked closely with the Virginia legislative bill sponsors to revise and reintroduce the state bill establishing a paid family and medical leave program within the Virginia Employment Commission. An important consideration for revising the Virginia bill has been learning from other existing state paid leave programs.<\/span>\r\n\r\nGetting public programs approved and funded takes enormous effort, but it's only half the battle. After the bill is signed and the money is appropriated, another challenge awaits: delivering a new service to people that is on time, on budget, and working as expected. <\/span>\r\n\r\nDespite the importance of implementation, few mechanisms exist to help legislators and public servants stand up new and innovative programs. In the last six years, eight states have launched new paid family and medical leave programs and started providing paid leave to eligible workers in their states\u2014and the New Practice Lab has partnered with several of these programs (including <\/span>Maryland<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Minnesota<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>New Jersey<\/span><\/a>) to help improve their implementation. <\/span>\r\n\r\nMany of the existing state programs were patterned to some extent on the legacy of older state programs, where pre-existing temporary disability insurance provided a backbone for the addition of paid family and medical leave. In the newer states, however, programs needed to be built from scratch, and this has offered both challenges and new opportunities for innovation in implementation.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nWe have learned valuable lessons about claims processing, medical certification, and navigator outreach and application support, among <\/span>other components<\/span><\/a> of paid leave administration.\u00a0 We have written about these lessons <\/span>From Law To Launch<\/span><\/a> and we collaborate and share best practices with <\/span>a cohort of paid leave administrators<\/span><\/a> and data leads.\u00a0 All of our work involves<\/span> listening to the front line program administrators<\/span><\/a> and families we serve to improve the effectiveness of reaching as many people as possible. These lessons have demonstrated it\u2019s possible, through well designed policy higher upstream, to improve workers\u2019 uptake and employers\u2019 interfaces and to ease administration of the program.<\/span>\r\n

Virginia\u2019s Law Includes Implementation Insights<\/h2>\r\nIn collaboration with <\/span>Vicki Shabo<\/span><\/a> and other paid leave experts and advocates, the New Practice Lab provided implementation-focused feedback to drafters as part of their preparations to reintroduce the bill in the 2026 state legislative session. Drawing on our team\u2019s expertise in implementation, our practices of listening to families on what they need from policy, and consistent with our overall strategy, we created a feedback loop between implementation lessons and policy development.<\/span>\r\n

New Practice Lab Strategy<\/h2>\r\n\"Improved\r\n\r\nIt is important not only that we provide more families with access to paid family and medical leave but that with each new program we improve the experience and reduce friction in delivering this policy. While not advocating for specific language, the New Practice Lab shared insights from other states about feasible implementation timelines for program start-up, and\u2014once benefits are available\u2014payment timelines, the mechanics of medical certifications, and data sharing needs for smoother processing. <\/span>\r\n\r\nWhen bill sponsors State Senator Jennifer Boysko and State Delegate Briana Sewell drafted final language, lessons learned from other states\u2019 implementation experience were reflected in bill language introduced in the General Assembly in 2026, and are present in the final version of the bill that was signed into law.<\/span>\r\n
\r\n

[tm_button url=\"https:\/\/lis.blob.core.windows.net\/files\/1210415.PDF<\/a>\" label=\"Read the Bill\" target=\"true\"]<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nAdditionally, during consideration of the Virginia paid family and medical leave bill in early 2026, NPL provided requested advice to departmental staff that will be responsible for paid leave implementation in Virginia on considerations for the implementation of a new program. We provided technical assistance and resources to their team on the following operational topics:<\/span>\r\n