Professional News

Child Care Resources Available for UK Employees

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 5, 2020) — A message from University of Kentucky Human Resources to UK employees:

With several area school districts opting to begin the school year with virtual learning, we know child care remains a concern for many of you, whether working remotely or returning to on-site work. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we understand you may have caregiving responsibilities you wouldn’t normally have during the workday.  

While we are continuing to encourage supervisors to adjust work schedules and offer remote work when possible, we know you may need additional support to continue to work and manage your child care responsibilities. 

We have heard from employees who have found success with shared child care networks in their neighborhoods or seeking help of family and friends to provide in-home care. Care sharing tools such as Lotsa Helping Hands can help with coordinating care among households. 

We also know HR’s Big Blue Family Care has been and remains a great resource to find a UK student who can help with child care or tutoring. You can request a student for just your household or join with other families and find a student who can support your collective child care needs. 

More information is available on our HR Resources for Parents web page. If you have questions or other suggestions for supporting parents, please email Azetta Beatty, HR Work-Life manager. 

Changing your flexible spending account 

If you have a dependent care flexible spending account to pay for child care, you can stop, start or change your current contributions to that account to accommodate your needs. This flexibility is available through Dec. 31, 2020.  

If you would like to stop your dependent care FSA contributions, you can update your allocation amount in myUK or fill out our form and allocate $0 for your dependent care FSA. 

As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.   

In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.