Dear King County employee,

We are excited to announce that, in response to the overwhelming impacts of COVID-19 on working parents, including the closure of many in-person schools and child care providers, labor and management have agreed upon a COVID-19 Child Care Reimbursement Program to help those in the Regular Employees Benefits Plan with child care expenses incurred during the 2020-2021 school year.

This groundbreaking agreement, first proposed by a King County Coalition of Unions, will cover approximately 10,400 union and non-represented employees who receive the Regular Employees Benefits Plan through the Joint Labor Management Insurance Committee (JLMIC). The program is funded with $9M from the JLMIC’s Protected Fund Reserve.

Beginning Jan. 11, 2021, those eligible for the Regular Employees Benefits Plan will be able to submit receipts for child care expenses incurred between Sept. 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021. The amount of reimbursement an employee may receive will vary by the employee’s King County income and the number of children the employee has. Employees who earn lower salaries or wages are eligible to receive higher payments, up to the program maximum of $5,000 per child.

Covered expenses include payments to both licensed and unlicensed child care providers, including pre-schools, school-age programs, nannies, au pairs, tutors, extended family (such as an aunt, uncle or grandparent), friend, or neighbor.

We are extremely proud that our strong partnership permitted us to create a program that will help our working parents during this tremendously challenging time.

We look forward to sharing more details in early January 2021.

Happy Holidays!

Megan Pederson, Director, Office of Labor Relations, JLMIC Management Chair
Denise Cobden, Professional and Technical Employees, Local 17, JLMIC Co-Chair
Michael Gonzales, Teamsters Local 174, JLMIC Co-Chair

Please note: More details on this process will be available in early January 2021. If you have questions in the meantime, please contact your HR Manager or union representative.