Harvard Financial Childcare Resources Summary
HMS Financial Aid for MD students:
Stephanie Hunt, Director: We do not have a scholarship through our office for child care - if we offer any child care assistance it would be through the Federal Loan Program based on a budget appeal, but generally MDPHD funding is much higher than our standard Cost of Attendance budget and the child care would not likely result in eligibility.
HMS Policy regarding Child-Care Expenses for MD students
https://meded.hms.harvard.edu/cost-attendance-determinations#child-care
In the case of a single parent or a student whose spouse works or attends school, the student may petition the Financial Aid Office to include reasonable child care expenses in the student budget. The student would be required to submit supporting expense documentation such as canceled checks or a letter from the child care provider. If the spouse is attending school, it is necessary to provide documentation showing the extent to which the child care expenses are being covered by the spouse's financial aid award. Any expenses that cannot be met by student/spouse income are then added to the standard student budget. This increase to the budget is ordinarily met with unsubsidized loans and/or outside scholarships.
https://www.hms.harvard.edu/dms/resources/parents.html
DMS Childcare Scholarship Eligibility criteria: You must be a Division of Medical Sciences student. Be a registered student in good academic standing. DMS cost shares the scholarship with the 5 departments that are associated with DMS, we average ~8 applications each year for our ~700 students, but the range has been 5-11, $2500 per semester, $5000 per year. The estimated cost is $40,000. Applications are due in October; students who currently have children or with fall due dates are awarded two semesters of support ($5,000 total or $2,500 per semester), and students expecting their first child in the spring semester are eligible for one semester of support for the academic year ($2,500). The eligibility standards are:
· You must be a Division of Medical Sciences student.
· Be a registered student in good academic standing.
· Have a total household income of less than $100,000.
· Have 1 or more children under the age of 16.
· Have children who must:
o Be your legal dependent verified by your tax return
o Live with you in the United States.
GSAS
This webpage pulls it all together nicely: https://gsas.harvard.edu/student-life/harvard-resources/family-resources
Parental Accommodation and Financial Support:
https://gsas.harvard.edu/student-life/harvard-resources/parental-accommodation-and-financial-support
Booklet on resources offered: https://gsas.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/atoms/files/StudentServices_Families_Summer_Web%20Ready.pdf
Childcare resources for faculty, staff and post-docs (i.e. those receiving salary from Harvard):
https://hr.harvard.edu/financial-assistance
Flexible Spending Account: If you’re a benefits-eligible employee, you can set up a Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account that allows you to set aside up to $5,000 each year on a pretax basis to pay for eligible child care expenses - saving you money in taxes while helping you pay costs.
Child Care Scholarships: Harvard offers child care scholarships, based on need, to eligible faculty, staff and postdocs that help defray the cost of child care. Scholarship awards vary from family to family and year to year, and payments are made on a reimbursement basis. Applications are accepted once per year and current recipients need to re-apply each year. To apply to any of these programs, you must be a benefits-eligible faculty, staff member, postdoctoral fellow or member of one of Harvard’s unions and on a Harvard payroll. Application procedures and schedules may vary by job type. For details, please consult the information below, based on your employee group (if you are unsure of your group, please contact your local human resources office to find out):
· Administrative/professional staff or non-union support staff
· Support staff in a union position (HUCTW)
· All other faculty (not eligible for ACCESS program)
· If you are any of the above and also an employee of Harvard Medical School, please also visit Work/Life at Harvard Longwood.
The SOURCE Program (Subsidy for Occasional, Unplanned, and Respite Care Expenses) helps eligible employees get to work when regular child or elder care falls through. If you are eligible, this service can help you cover some of your costs by reimbursing you up to $350 of back-up care expenses paid to an eligible provider - including care provided by a friend, neighbor, relative, other in-home provider, or licensed child/elder care center.
Health Insurance for dependents
Student insurance:
https://hushp.harvard.edu/rates-plan-dates
Student insurance is $4542 per year and covered by the PhD programs (or us for MD, too.)
Adding a spouse is an additional $7,178, a child another $3,802 and a 2nd child $1912.
Employee insurance:
https://hr.harvard.edu/files/humanresources/files/2018_rate_healthplancompchart_facultynonunion.pdf
Employees making less than $55,000 can purchase a family plan including the employee for $2,664 per year. It is significantly higher with higher incomes. There are also a lot of co-pays and deductibles that are not included here.