SHARE CHILDCARE FUND GUIDELINES & APPLICATION FORM
Spring 2019
Deadline to Apply: May 1, 2019.
ELIGIBILITY
You must be a UMass Medical School SHARE member for at least 3 months.
Awards will be made on a sliding scale, based on family income, number of children in daycare, number of applications received, your expenses, and extenuating circumstances.
Your child must be in one of the following: a licensed child care center; a licensed family provider; an after-school or summer camp program that is licensed according to the requirements of the Office for Children; or have a person who cares for the child in your home and provides a Social Security or tax #.
Children from birth up to kindergarten are eligible for daycare or pre-school awards.
Older children (up to the child’s 13th birthday) are eligible for after-school, vacation, snow and summer camp awards.
If your employment at UMass Medical School ends, if you accept a position outside the bargaining unit, or if you transfer your child to a provider that does not meet the above criteria, your childcare award will end.
HOW TO APPLY
You need to complete two steps in order to apply for the Childcare Fund:
Fill out this printable version of the form that you can mail or fax.
Provide us with the first page of your most recent 1040 federal tax return form. Your child/children must be listed as a dependent on this form (unless your child is not yet born). Those who are married and file separately, please provide both tax return forms. Form submission methods are listed below. Example of a 1040 tax form. If your child is not currently in childcare, provide us with information about your expected costs.
AWARDS
The awards are determined based on your financial need and family situation, within the limitations of the fund. Childcare awards cover only a portion of the childcare costs for each applicant. This portion may vary somewhat from year to year depending on the number of applicants in any given year. All eligible applicants who apply on time will receive an award. Please note that awards are taxable and subject to withholding. An award letter will be emailed to you indicating the percentage of your award. Awards cover the period from April 1, 2019 to March 30, 2020 and only apply to childcare expenses incurred during that period.
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Deadline to apply for the Spring 2019 application is May 1, 2019. Current recipients of the Childcare Fund NEED to reapply with their updated provider and tax information.
APPLICATION SUBMISSION
Please use the this printable version of the form. Print out and send us your PDF application by email or fax.
Your application is not considered complete unless you provide us with your 2018 1040 tax form. You can submit your 2018 1040 tax form in one of the following ways:
Send it by email to share.childcare@theshareunion.org (if you don’t have an electronic copy, scans and cellphone photos of tax forms are fine. You can black out social security numbers.)
Or send it by mail to: SHARE office at 50 Lake Ave. Worcester, MA 01604.
Or send it by fax to 508-929-4040
If you and your partner/spouse file your taxes separately, we need his/her/their tax form as well.
VERIFYING YOUR COSTS
All recipients of the Childcare Fund must submit monthly verification forms to verify their child's enrollment with an eligible childcare provider. These can be emailed to share.childcare@theshareunion.org, faxed to 508-929-4040 or mailed to the SHARE office at 50 Lake Ave. Worcester, MA 01604.
Awards will be paid based upon verification of childcare services already provided.
QUESTION?
If you have any questions and need to talk to a SHARE organizer, please contact:
Dylan Goodman at dylan.goodman@theshareunion.org or 617-862-8516
Andrea Caceres at andrea.caceres@theshareunion.org or 617-455-7717