DoD has long recognized access to quality child care as a crucial need for military families. And while a myriad of programs have allowed the department to set an example for the rest of the nation with competitive pay, generous subsidies, and nontraditional care options, there’s always room for improvement.

As DoD continues to refine the military child care system, MOAA has worked with lawmakers on upgrades to existing programs, new approaches to care, and inroads to attack persistent wait lists in many areas, largely due to staffing shortages.

Citing these challenges, the House Armed Services Committee’s Quality of Life (QoL) Panel included child care among its five pillars of focus and provided a number of recommendations contained in the House version of the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

These include:

• Standardized Benefits for Child Care Staff Across the Services: Ensures other services follow the Air Force’s lead in providing a 100% discount on child care services for the first child of staff members. DoD has already implemented a 50% discount.
  
  
• Competitive Pay for DoD Child Care Personnel: Ensures pay for child care staff is competitive with market rates for child care workers within correlating metropolitan or non-metropolitan statistical areas.
  
  
• Elimination of Child Care Fee Assistance Wait Lists: Requires services to fully fund child care fee assistance programs and eliminate wait lists for eligible families who cannot get care in child development centers (CDCs) and have identified a qualifying provider.
  
  
• Oversight of Child Development Program Staffing Shortages and Facilities Requirements: Requires a quarterly briefing on how staffing shortages and facility issues are impacting child care wait lists.
  
  
• Oversight of Community Child Care Partnerships: Requires a report on partnerships and/or programs within local civilian communities outside the gates designed to increase child care availability for military families.
  
  
• Assessment of the “Come Grow with Us” Child Care Staff Recruitment Effort: Studies this recruitment strategy to determine efficacy – not only with hiring, but also regarding retention.
  
  
• Analysis of Hiring Authorities Available for DoD Child Care Staff: Studies the use and effectiveness of existing non-appropriated fund employee hiring and retention authorities.
  
  
• Analysis of Transferability of Benefits Between Child Care Centers: Requires a briefing on how child care providers can transfer to centers operated by different services and retain employment benefits.

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The collective efforts of military leadership, policymakers, and advocates like MOAA have yielded positive results. Increased attention and funding directed toward military child care have led to improvements in accessibility, quality, and support for families. Furthermore, partnerships between the military and community organizations have expanded available resources and support networks.

Looking Ahead

One area that wasn’t tackled by the QoL Panel was the significant decline in the number of Family Child Care (FCC) providers, which offer care within a home (either on or off an installation). There were more than 10,000 such providers in the 1990s, yet today, according to DoD, there are only about 700. This child care option is key for those who work nontraditional hours and require care outside the 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. window.

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The services are working on ways to incentivize military spouses and civilians to establish FCCs, including priority placement in military housing, providing holiday pay, and covering the initial costs of requirements such as fees for background checks and insurance.

While progress has been made, advocacy efforts must persist to ensure care options adapt to the evolving needs of military families. At the same time, it’s incumbent upon advocates to allow DoD and the individual services time to implement and assess new programs and policies. It is also vital to ensure advocacy efforts include appropriations requests to fund new requirements.

We all benefit when DoD, our lawmakers, and our fellow advocacy groups prioritize the well-being of military children and invest in improving quality of life for our military families. Doing so strengthens our armed forces for generations to come.