Parents are picking their dependent care FSA this month. The 30-day play for your center
Open enrollment is when working parents decide how much to set aside for child care next year. A 30-day plan to help them do it and fill your spring openings.
Right now, a lot of the parents you want to enroll are sitting in front of their employer's benefits portal, deciding how much to put into a dependent care FSA for next year. Most of them have no idea what child care will cost them in 2027, so they guess low or skip it.
That decision is happening between late October and early December for most employers. If your center helps them make it, you are the center they are already thinking about when it is time to enroll.
Why this matters to a daycare
A dependent care flexible spending account lets a working parent set aside pre-tax money from their paycheck to pay for child care. For a family paying tuition every month, it is real savings. But the election is usually locked in for the whole year, and parents have to estimate the cost up front.
That creates two openings for you:
- Parents who are not enrolled anywhere yet need a tuition number to plan around. If your website has one, you become their reference point.
- Current families need receipts and a provider tax ID to get reimbursed. If you make that easy, they tell other parents.
Check the current annual limit and rules on the IRS site or with a tax professional before you publish anything about amounts. Do not give tax advice. Your job is to give parents the information they need to ask their own HR department the right question.
Week 1: get your numbers where parents can see them
Post tuition, or at least a range, on your website. Parents planning an FSA election need a number. A page that says "Infant: from $X per week. Toddler: from $X per week" with your real figures, and a note that rates are reviewed each year, is enough. Our tuition and tours guide covers how to present it without scaring anyone off.
Add a short "Using an FSA or dependent care account" section. Three lines: you provide receipts, you will give your tax ID on request, and parents should confirm their own limit with their employer. That is it.
Update your Google profile. Add a post that says something like: "Planning your dependent care FSA for next year? Our current tuition is on our website, and we provide receipts for reimbursement. Call or text to ask about spring openings." Our Google profile guide covers how posts work.
Week 2: tell your current families
Send one email or text to every enrolled family:
"Open enrollment season is here. If your employer offers a dependent care FSA, here is what you will need from us: our tax ID [number] and a year-end statement, which we will send in January. If you know a family who is looking for care, our spring openings are listed on our website."
This does two things. It saves your parents a phone call later, and it reminds them to mention you. Referrals are where most centers get their best families.
Week 3: reach parents who are not enrolled yet
Run tours on two evenings. Working parents choosing benefits are working parents. A weekday 5:30 tour slot reaches the ones who cannot leave work at 10 a.m. Put the dates on your Google profile and website.
A small, local ad. If you run Facebook or Instagram ads, a short one aimed at parents within a few miles: "Choosing your dependent care FSA amount? See our current tuition and spring openings." Link to the tuition page, not your home page. Keep the budget small and local. Our Facebook and Instagram guide has the setup.
Answer every inquiry the same day. Parents in this window are comparing a few centers at once. A same-day reply with your tuition range and two tour times is often the difference.
Week 4: follow up and fill spring
Go back to every family who toured or asked in the last month. A short text:
"Hi [name], this is [your name] from [center]. Just checking in after your visit. We still have [age group] openings for [month]. Would you like to hold a spot?"
If you take a deposit to hold a spring start date, say so clearly and say whether it is refundable.
Where you stand
The median child care center in our benchmark report has 6 Google reviews, and 58.6% have fewer than ten. 33.2% have no website at all. A center with a clear tuition page and a handful of recent reviews from happy parents is already ahead of most of the field when a parent sits down to compare.
Ask the families who thank you for the FSA paperwork help for a review. That moment is a natural one, and our review guide has the words.
If you want help putting up the tuition page, the profile post and the tour reminders, the free 14-day trial covers any one service, no card. Text or call (385) 213-2802.
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, child care centers and daycares among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor