Frequently Asked Questions

UMB regular faculty, regular staff, and postdoctoral fellows who work at least 50 percent FTE and who meet the household income requirements are eligible for the UMB Child Care Grant.

If you have a spouse they must be employed or enrolled in school at least 15 hours per week, be actively looking for work, or have documentation that a disabling condition prevents full-time caregiving, to qualify for this program.

Contractual faculty and staff employees, students, and graduate assistants are not eligible for the grant.

For Fiscal Year 2025, the enrollment period will be May 6 – May 24, 2024. Awardees will be notified no later than the end of June 2024, and UMB Child Care Grant payments will begin on the employee’s July 19, 2024, paycheck.

The UMB Child Care Grant is a need-based grant. Need is based on your household income, which is used to determine if you are eligible for the grant, and, if so, how much of a grant you may be eligible to receive. The application requires you to attach a copy of the first page of your most recent IRS Form 1040.

Household income means income from all sources for the employee as defined by the IRS Form 1040 Adjusted Gross line. If the employee is married, it also includes income from all sources for the spouse even if the spouse files a separate Form 1040.

There are no plans to update household income requirements in the future. However, should there be a need to change the requirements, it would be included in the communication and enrollment materials and reflected on the UMB Child Care Grant webpage.

No. The UMB Child Care Grant is not a reimbursement program. It provides the recipient with a flat amount of funds that the employee can use to help pay for their child care expenses.

The UMB Child Care Grant will be paid to you monthly and will appear in your second paycheck of the month.

No, the grant is based on household income and not on number of eligible dependents.

No. You must have bona fide child care expenses to qualify. 

Yes, you can still qualify, provided you meet the household income eligibility criteria and have a child under age 6 for whom you have bona fide unreimbursed child care expenses.

Yes, you will be taxed on the grant payments when they are received in your paycheck. This means that your tax withholdings increase as well as your annual taxable income.

No, the UMB Child Care Grant is based on household income, meaning only one grant per family.

Yes. Let’s say you have child care costs of $7,000 a year and you already receive $5,000 from another source for child care assistance. If your household income would allow you to receive $5,000 from the Child Care Grant, you could receive up to $2,000 a year; this is the amount not covered by your existing child care assistance ($7,000 a year in child care costs less $5,000 in child care assistance received from other sources equals $2,000 that will be paid to you by the UMB Child Care Grant to cover your remaining expenses for which you have not received assistance).

Yes, you are still eligible to participate in the UMB Child Care Grant. Since DCFSA funds are your own funds you put away on a pretax basis, they do not limit the amount of the UMB Child Care Grant you are eligible to receive.

No. You must apply each year that you wish to participate in the UMB Child Care Grant Program, provided it is funded.

Yes, you need to apply each fiscal year it is offered, and selection is not guaranteed from year to year.

The UMB Child Care Grant program is funded annually, and such funding may change from year to year and is not guaranteed.

First, you’ll need to locate your most recent IRS Form 1040 that you used when you filed your taxes for last year. If you have a paper copy of the form, simply take a picture on your smartphone and save it to your photos. You can complete the application on your smartphone, too. DocuSign will prompt you to upload your IRS Form 1040, and you will select it from your photos and upload it into your DocuSign UMB Child Care Grant application form. 

If you need assistance with completing the form, please contact ChildCareGrant@umaryland.edu with any questions you may have.

First, you’ll need to complete the UMB Child Care Grant Monthly Expense Filing form.  The form will prompt you to attach a file. If you have a paper copy of your receipts, simply take pictures of them on your smartphone and save them to your photos. You can complete the form on your smartphone, too. DocuSign will prompt you to upload your receipts, and you will select them from your photos and upload them into your DocuSign UMB Child Care Grant Monthly Expense Filing.

If you need assistance with completing the form, please contact Human Resources.  The receptionist at the front desk can show you what you will need to do and will ensure the information is handled as highly confidential. You can also contact ChildCareGrant@umaryland.edu with any questions you may have.

If you fail to submit your documentation on time, you may become ineligible to continue to participate in the program. In such a case, you would be notified if and when your monthly grant payments would cease. If you are unable to submit your documentation by the 5^th of the following month. Pease contact ChildCareGrant@umaryland.edu as soon as possible.

Please contact ChildCareGrant@umaryland.edu and someone will reach out to you.