Childcare Subsidy

To help meet the cost of pre-first grade childcare, USF offers a subsidy to eligible full-time faculty and staff.

Subsidy Details

A new childcare subsidy form must be submitted online for each year that the benefit is requested. See "Eligibility".
Employees have the flexibility to choose a childcare provider at a location that suits their family’s needs and a subsidy amount to contribute to the cost of that childcare.
The subsidy amount is determined by an employee's monthly salary as noted in the table below. Employees receive the full subsidy amount for their first eligible child and an additional 75% of their initial amount for subsequent eligible children, if applicable, up to the Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account (FSA) maximum of $5,000 for the calendar year.
Childcare subsidy funds are added to employees’ Dependent Care FSAs through Benefit Resource (BRI). Total childcare subsidy and Dependent Care FSA contributions may not exceed $5,000 per household in 2022. Reimbursement requests must meet the IRS criteria for qualified dependent care expenses.
If both parents work at USF, only one parent can apply for the childcare subsidy.
If a child enters first grade in the fall of the upcoming year, employees are only eligible for eight months of the childcare subsidy (January through August).

New employees are eligible to apply for the subsidy within the first of the month following their date of hire.
Current employees are eligible to apply for the subsidy within the first 30 days of returning to work after experiencing a qualifying event, including childbirth, adoption, or foster placement of a child. Eligibility is contingent upon: 1) both parents returning to work; 2) one parent actively looking for work; 3) one parent in school. If you are currently receiving the childcare subsidy for one child and you give birth to or adopt a second child during the year, you must re-apply for the childcare subsidy in order to receive the subsidy for your second child.
If you do not meet the previous deadlines, open enrollment is your next opportunity to apply for the subsidy. Open enrollment occurs each Fall and allows you to make changes to your benefit elections effective January 1st the following year. During open enrollment, a separate childcare subsidy form will be available online (visit this web page again in Fall 2022).