What Expenses Can a Dependent Care FSA Be Used For?

A dependent care FSA covers work-related care costs for a child under 13 or a spouse or other dependent who can’t care for themselves. Eligible expenses include licensed daycare, preschool and pre-K, before- and after-school programs, summer day camps, nannies and babysitters, and adult day care or in-home custodial care for a disabled adult dependent.¹ The account will not pay for kindergarten tuition, overnight camps, tutoring, enrichment activities, or anything unrelated to care that lets you work.

Eligible Child Care Expenses

Most families use a dependent care FSA for everyday child care. The following categories qualify as long as the care lets you (and your spouse, if married) work or look for work:

Licensed daycare centers. Full-time or part-time care at a licensed facility, including infant and toddler programs.
Preschool and pre-kindergarten. Programs for children below kindergarten age count as care rather than education under IRS rules.²
Before-school and after-school programs. Supervision outside classroom hours qualifies when the purpose is care while you work.
Summer day camps. Day camps are eligible even when they focus on a single activity like soccer or computers. The child has to come home each night.²
In-home caregivers. Nannies, au pairs, and babysitters all qualify. You can reimburse their gross wages for time spent caring for your child, but not time spent on household chores unrelated to the child’s care.

Registration fees and application deposits trip families up. Even if the fee is required to hold your child’s spot, the account won’t reimburse it. Only the actual cost of care services counts. Employer payroll taxes you pay on a household employee’s wages, including Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment taxes, are also not reimbursable through the account.³

Meals bundled into a flat daycare rate that can’t be separated from the cost of care are fully eligible. If the provider bills food separately, that separate charge is not reimbursable.

Eligible Adult and Elder Care Expenses

If you have an elderly parent or a disabled spouse who lives with you and can’t be left alone during the workday, adult day care and in-home custodial care both qualify.¹ Adult day care centers that provide supervision, activities, and basic assistance during working hours are the most straightforward expense to reimburse. In-home aides who help with eating, dressing, and mobility during the day also qualify.

The line that matters is custodial care versus medical care. A home health aide who provides companionship and daily living assistance is a dependent care FSA expense. A nurse who administers medications, manages wound care, or performs medical procedures is providing medical care, which belongs on a health care FSA or as a medical deduction. When one person does both, only the custodial portion is reimbursable from the dependent care account.

For an adult dependent receiving care outside your home, the IRS adds a residency threshold. The dependent must regularly spend at least eight hours a day in your household.² That draws a clear line between someone who lives with you and needs daytime supervision and someone in a long-term residential facility.

Expenses That Don’t Qualify

Certain categories are flatly excluded, and they catch families off guard every year:

Kindergarten and above. Once your child enters kindergarten, tuition is education, not care. Before- and after-school programs at the same school can still qualify, but the classroom hours cannot.²
Overnight camps. Sleepaway camp is never eligible, even when the purpose is clearly to provide care while you work.²
Tutoring and summer school. Academic instruction doesn’t count as care.
Enrichment activities. Piano lessons, dance classes, and similar extracurriculars are treated as education or entertainment.
Food, clothing, and transportation. General living expenses are excluded unless they’re a small, inseparable part of the overall care cost.²
Late fees and interest. Penalties assessed by a care provider aren’t reimbursable.
Payments to a spouse or your child’s other parent. You also can’t pay your own dependent under age 19 for caregiving and claim reimbursement.

The Work-Related Test Every Expense Must Pass

Every expense you submit has to pass a single test. The care must be necessary so that you (and your spouse, if married) can work or look for work.⁴ If you’re married, both spouses generally need earned income while the care is being provided. Two narrow exceptions apply: a spouse who is a full-time student for at least five months of the year, or a spouse who is physically or mentally unable to provide self-care.

Actively looking for work counts as employment for these purposes, but if you search all year and never find a job, you’ll have no earned income and won’t be able to exclude the benefits on your return. If you work or search for only part of the year, eligible expenses are prorated accordingly.²

Short absences from work matter too. The IRS treats a break of two weeks or less as a temporary absence, so care expenses during that time still qualify. A longer leave of absence knocks out eligibility because you’re no longer gainfully employed during that period. This catches parents on parental leave who keep paying daycare to hold their child’s spot. Those payments generally aren’t reimbursable unless the other spouse is still working.²

One more constraint on the amount you can actually use: your reimbursement for the year can’t exceed the earned income of the lower-earning spouse. If one spouse earns $4,000, the household can only use $4,000 from the account, whatever the balance says.⁴

Who Counts as a Qualifying Dependent

The account can only reimburse care for someone who meets the IRS definition of a qualifying individual. Two categories qualify:

Children under 13. The child must be under 13 and share your home for more than half the year. Once a child turns 13, only care expenses incurred before the birthday can be reimbursed.⁵
Disabled dependents of any age. A spouse or other dependent who is physically or mentally unable to care for themselves qualifies regardless of age. The standard is that the person can’t handle basic daily needs like eating, dressing, or personal hygiene alone.²

The “more than half the year” test works out to at least 183 days. The dependent’s Social Security number is required on your tax return so the IRS can verify their status.⁵

2026 Contribution Limits

The maximum you can put into a dependent care FSA in 2026 is $7,500 per household if you’re married filing jointly. Married filing separately drops the cap to $3,750.¹ Your employer withholds your elected amount in equal portions from each paycheck before calculating federal income tax and payroll taxes, so the money never shows up as taxable income on your W-2.⁶

Infant daycare and full-time nanny care in higher-cost areas often run past the $7,500 ceiling, and families max the account out by midyear and pay the rest out of pocket. Sizing the election to real, predictable expenses is what matters, because whatever you don’t spend, you lose.

Deadlines and the Use-It-or-Lose-It Rule

A dependent care FSA is not a savings account. Money left unspent at the end of the plan year is forfeited unless your employer offers a grace period. Unlike a health care FSA, this account does not allow unused balances to roll over.

Many employers offer an optional grace period of up to two and a half months after the plan year ends. For a calendar-year plan, that extends the deadline to incur eligible expenses through March 15 of the following year. After the grace period closes, any remaining balance is gone. A separate run-out period, typically through March 31, gives you time to submit claims for expenses already incurred before the deadline, though you can’t incur new ones.

Forfeiture is the real practical risk. Overestimating your care costs at open enrollment means losing money. If your situation might change midyear, whether a parent leaving the workforce, a child aging out at 13, or a move to a cheaper provider, err on the conservative side. Certain qualifying life events, like a change in employment status or the birth of a child, allow you to adjust your contribution midyear through your employer’s plan.

1
FSAFEDS. Dependent Care FSA
2
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 503, Child and Dependent Care Expenses
3
FSAFEDS. Eligible Dependent Care FSA (DCFSA) Expenses
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 21 – Expenses for Household and Dependent Care Services Necessary for Gainful Employment
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 152 – Dependent Defined
6
Internal Revenue Service. Child and Dependent Care Credit and Flexible Benefit Plans