Introduction
The Back-Up Care Advantage Program®, provides care for anyone you have or feel a responsibility toward, when normal arrangements are disrupted and/or when you need to provide short-term care — your child cannot attend school, school is closed, the babysitter cancels, your parent who lives in another state becomes ill or temporarily incapacitated, your home health aide cannot come in — but you still need to get to work, teach your courses, attend to your lab, or write a paper.
For situations like these and more, Columbia University has contracted with Bright Horizons Family Solutions to provide access to 100 hours of back-up care per year.
When you have planned or unplanned changes to your usual care arrangements Back-Up Care Advantage Program®, can provide you with a professional caregiver in your home 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, or at a qualified facility.
To register, visit the Bright Horizons website or call 877-BH-CARES (242-2737).
If you have not previously established a username and password, you will need the following information to access the website: Username: columbia; Password: backupcare (case sensitive, all lower case).
You can take advantage of the Back-Up Care Advantage Program®, if you are:
- An Officer of Instruction
- An Officer of Research
- An Officer of the Library
- An Officer of Administration
- Non-Union Support Staff
- A Post-Doctoral fellow - including Post-Docs, Research Fellows, Research Scholars and Research Scientists, regardless of eligibility for other University benefits
- A PhD student, enrolled either full-time or part-time
- A Teaching Fellow not in a Ph.D. program
Services include:
- Regular child care at a licensed facility near your home or campus
- Home care for healthy or mildly ill children by qualified professionals
- Home care for healthy, impaired, or mildly ill adults by qualified professionals.
Back-up care is for anyone who relies on you for care. This includes infants through the elderly. The Back-Up Care Advantage Program®, covers care for healthy children in centers or at home, and care at home for people of all ages who need it.
Adults for whom you provide care do not have to reside with you; they may live down the hall or across the country. You may even arrange care so that your child or adult can accompany you when you travel for professional purposes.
There is no cost to register for the Back-Up Care Advantage Program®. Columbia University covers most of the costs for back-up care.
After care is received, you are billed for the copay as follows:
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$2 copay per hour per child for child care facilities
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$6 copay per hour for the first 50 hours used; $8 per hour for each hour in excess of 50 up to the 100 hour limit (for up to three dependents in the home).
It is also worth noting that your backup care co-pays may be a qualified expense if you have a dependent care flexible spending account.
While you may register at any time, Bright Horizons encourages you to register early, before you need to use back-up care. Early enrollment will make using the program in an emergency much easier for you.
Even if you have not pre-registered, you can still call to arrange care, and register at the same time.
To register and schedule care, or for additional information, you can visit the Bright Horizons website or call 877-BH-CARES (242-2737). .
If you have not previously established a username and password, you will need the following information to access the website: Username: columbia; Password: backupcare (case sensitive, all lower case).
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