How do I submit my sick hours as an IHSS parent provider?

You will receive 40 hours of sick hours to use per year in addition to the regular hours. They do not subtract from the hours your child has available and do not count toward your weekly maximum. [Note that the law increased sick hours from 24 to 40 effective January 1, 2024.] If you have more than one IHSS recipient, you will still receive 40 hours of paid sick leave because they are assigned to you as a provider, not to your children.

The fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30, so you need to use your hours before June 30 each year or they will expire. You will get new hours on July 1, but you’ll miss out on the hours you didn’t use.

Many parent providers wait until January to use them as sometimes the hourly rate goes up in January.

When allotted, COVID hours are a specific benefit available if a provider has COVID and cannot provide services. These hours are NOT in addition to the regular hours and are to be used instead of the regular hours.

Some important tips:

• You cannot enter more sick hours in a week than your child has IHSS hours. For example, if your child has 40 hours in a whole month, you can't enter 24 sick hours in one week.
• You should enter them on a day when you didn't log any hours, or when you worked fewer hours than usual. It's helpful to spread them out.

For a walkthrough of submitting hours on the electronic timesheet portal, see Learn How to Submit Your Hours as an IHSS Parent Provider.