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THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, October 9, 2020 Page 17 Child care crisis: hope for parents during pandemic A pilot program providing working-class families with affordable child care services – available during nonstandard hours when parents are most in need – was recently announced by the Care That Works Coalition. The Coalition “is a new campaign convened by Community Labor United that seeks to bring community-based organizations and labor unions together to confront the child care crisis in Massachusetts,” according to the Coalition’s website. “The pilot program marks an important step in creating solutions that ease the child care challenges that working families face, which are now more severe than ever,” said Community Labor United Deputy Director Lindsay McCluskey. “This program will be critical in ensuring that residents can get back to work or pursue good jobs with the support they need when it comes to child care. We hope that the pilot can model our vision of what the child care system should look like: one that truly supports working-class families and child care providers.” Parents spoke about their struggle to access child care services and the resulting challenges it causes. “Before we connected with a provider through this Program, I couldn’t find child care that matched with our work hours,” said Christina Morris, a parent of four and a member of the Carpenters Union. “The unfortunate reality is that my situation is not unique. It is a present challenge faced by parents everywhere as a result of our inaccessible and unaffordable child care system. This challenge has only multiplied since the pandemic hit. We need programs like the one that Care That Works launched. We need programs that build a system accessible for all working families, which supports the careers of working parents by providing them child care, when they need it.” Child care providers, including family child care providers, were already struggling before the pandemic and were dealt a devastating blow by COVID-19. Child care remains an economic necessity for working families, especially as more sectors of the economy begin to reopen. This pilot program uses an online platform, Carina Care, to connect families looking for high-quality child care in their area with providers. Details of the pilot were shared in a Facebook Live virtual press conference. A recording can be viewed at @CareThatWorksMA. “It can be challenging for parents to find child care right now,” said Maria Esteves, a child care provider in Roslindale. “As child care providers, we want to do everything we can to provide safe, quality care for families, and Carina is a tool that allows us to do that.” Massachusetts child care is among the most expensive in the country. Public subsidies cover only a small portion of the cost, and eligible families face long waiting lists. The Commonwealth has imposed increasingly high standards on child care providers, but these providers’ wages remain low. The CHILD | SEE PAGE 19 RESERVED SPECIAL POWERS OF APPOINTMENT principal upon the death of the lifetime beneficiary or the person who the real estate was deeded to) has a vested remainder interest subject to divestment. If the SPOA is never exercised, the remainder person will end up taking title as originally planned. The pure definition of a Often times, individuals decide to transfer assets in order to protect them against a possible nursing home stay. Due to the risk of losing assets, transfers often occur prior to when the transferor would prefer. An often-used technique used in drafting to create a bigger incentive for such transfers is the insertion of a provision in a deed or in an irrevocable Trust reserving a limited or special power of appointment (SPOA). A SPOA is a power which enables someone at a later date to change the original disposition of the real estate if a deed is the relevant document or the Trust principal if an irrevocable Trust is the relevant document. The SPOA is reserved by the individual transferring an interest in real estate or transferring any type of property to an irrevocable Trust. In 2017, the Massachusetts Appeals Court in the case of Skye v. Hession held that a deed containing such a reserved SPOA was a valid transfer. The remainder person (the person receiving the Trust SPOA is that it cannot be exercised in favor of the person creating the power, his creditors, his estate, or the creditors of his estate. This is important for MassHealth purposes in order to not have the underlying asset(s) countable for eligibility purposes. The MassHealth applicant’s spouse should also be excluded as a person who might benefit from the exercise of the SPOA. As long as the property in question is vested in persons other than the applicant or spouse, and as long as neither of them have any power to revest the property in themselves, the property should be deemed transferred for purposes of beginning the five year look back period. If nursing home level care is not needed within five years from the date of transfer, the property should be protected. Furthermore, any subsequent exercise of the SPOA itself after the five- year period has elapsed should in no way create any additional period of MassHealth ineligibility. Joseph D. Cataldo is an Estate Planning/Elder Law Attorney, Certified Public Accountant, Certified Financial Planner, AICPA Personal Financial Specialist and holds a Master’s Degree in Taxation. 1. On Oct. 9, 1604, Supernova 1604 (also called Kepler’s Supernova) was discovered – the only known supernova in what galaxy? 2. How many sides does a decagon have? 3. From 1958-1991 Bobby Fischer was the youngest international grand master in what game? 4. On Oct. 10, 1966, what “pocket symphony” song by The Beach Boys was released that used an electro-theremin? 5. What nursery rhyme ends with “The cheese stands alone”? 6. Which month has had the most presidential inaugurations? 7. What author of “Out of My League” and “Paper Lion” was called “The Professional Amateur”? 8. On Oct. 11, 1844, what Pennsylvania entrepreneur was born who started out selling bottled horseradish and once said, “Make all you can honestly; save all you can prudently; give all you can wisely”? 9. Which Native American tribe has the largest reservation? 10. “The Emerald City” is the original title of what children’s book? 11. What mining state has a state capital reception room nicknamed the Gold Room? 12. On Oct. 12, 1928, what Boston hospital became the first to use an iron lung – for an eight-year-old girl? 13. What is the Aurora Borealis also called? 14. On Oct. 13, 1908, Margaret Travers Symons became the first female to speak in the UK’s Houses of Parliament – on what topic? 15. What is the official state bird of Arkansas, Florida, Texas, Tennessee and Mississippi? 16. In what decade did the TV shows “The Dating Game,” “Password” and “Jeopardy!” start? 17. The Jacques Brel song “Ne me quitte pas” has had 1,545 cover songs; what is its most common English name? 18. On Oct. 14, 1947, the first U.S. air pollution control program was established where? 19. In what song is “a land called Honalee”? 20. On Oct. 15, 2003, what became the third country to send a human into space? ANSWERS 1. The Milky Way 2. 10 3. Chess 4. “Good Vibrations” 5. “The Farmer in the Dell” 6. March 7. George Plimpton 8. Henry J. Heinz 9. The Navajo 10. “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” 11. Utah 12. Boston Children’s Hospital 13. The Northern Lights 14. “Votes for Women” 15. Mockingbird 16. The 1960s 17. “If You Go Away” 18. Los Angeles – the L.A. County Air Pollution Control District 19. “Puff, the Magic Dragon” 20. China (Lieutenant Colonel Yang Liwei)

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