Military Childcare Subsidy - In 1989, the Child Care Act (MCCA) consolidated the military childcare system that exists today. This law is a direct response to the widespread failure of the entire military system that led to unsafe child care facilities. MCCA established $157 million in child care funding (equivalent to $356 million today), minimum safety standards and accreditation for military childcare facilities, employee background checks, and a standardized priority and fee structure. Three decades later, the military's child care program is considered the gold standard. It's safer, more regulated and affordable - but only if you can afford it. Child care in the military is touted as a benefit to service members, but at most installations, limited capacity and staffing shortages mean this benefit is quite limited. A military officer, whose spouse is a doctor, said, "It's not much use if there's no opportunity to take care of my child."
Since the passage of the MCCA, the demographics of the military have changed dramatically. Since 1985, the number of single parents has increased by 67 percent and the number of two-military families has doubled. In 2018, 37 percent of military families had at least one dependent child under the age of eighteen. Of those children, about 405,000 are under the age of five. The proportion of female service members has doubled since 1980, and 33 percent of female service members report childcare as their top concern. Middle-class people are more likely to have children under the age of five than thirty years ago. About one-third of military spouses who want to work report not having access to childcare. Evidence from National Employment Trends and Blue Star Families shows that 60 percent of married couples work or intend to work outside the home. All together, the demand for childcare has increased.
Military Childcare Subsidy
In 2019, approximately two hundred thousand children were enrolled in some form of military child care, including full-time child care and after-school programs for children ages six to twelve. But there were more than eighteen thousand children on the waiting list, and about 75 percent of them were under the age of four. To measure child care success, the DoD uses a metric called the accommodation of need rate, which "represents the percentage of child care needs met through military child care programs ... and partnerships with local providers." Consistently, this number hovers around 78 percent—meaning that 22 percent of military families who need child care cannot afford it. This figure is consistent with Blue Star Families' 2020 Military Family Lifestyle Comprehensive Report, which showed that 23 percent of active-duty families in need of child care are unable to find child care.
How To Apply For Military Child Care Fee Assistance
In announcing reforms to the Army's parenting, pregnancy and postpartum-focused policies in April 2022, Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville made it clear: "We hire soldiers, but we keep families." At the same time, one in five service members report that they would consider leaving active duty because of employment issues with co-workers. Investing in the military's child care system is perhaps one of the fastest and most impactful things the Department of Defense can do to improve retention.
Military child care is a real position and affordability issue heard throughout the military. At Fort Myer, Virginia, a military couple was recently told that there were forty-one soldiers on the waiting list for a couple of babysitting spots and one soldier ahead of them. At Fort Wainwright, Alaska, the director of child and youth services estimates that two military families and one soldier wait about twelve months from the date they need care before placing their children in a child development center (CDC). At Fort Bliss, Texas, a military family of two was placed at the CDC only after the mother had to bring her infant twins to work with her. Her team leader defended the CDC's care for children. Her experience mirrors that of many others: When CDCs are inaccessible, there are often no viable or affordable options.
For military families, this is a significant source of stress. The mental and emotional workload of finding childcare at a new duty station is already high. Thanks to COVID-19, nearly 9 percent of the nation's facility-based child care and 10 percent of the nation's home care capacity have been lost due to permanent closures. As a result, the waiting list for live-in sites has increased. In addition, many child care providers have significantly increased fees to cover lost revenue and increased costs.
Military families typically receive permanent change of station orders for one to six months before moving. By the time they figure out their new career, it's too late to find childcare. Military families are coming to extraordinary measures to circumvent the system and protect child care. In the fall of 2021, a military spouse placed her child on a waiting list at the CDC, where she could receive orders — her move in the summer of 2023. Higher income households can afford higher costs by using higher priced facilities. , Montessori schools and au pair or nanny services. Low-income families—often low-income families—are placed in even more difficult situations because those options are not financially viable. This is even more alarming, as 29 percent of registered households report food insecurity. These families often need a second income to achieve financial stability but face an uphill battle to protect their children.
How Congress Can Combat Child Care Inflation
Recent reforms to childcare policy, including the revised 2020 childcare levels, have failed to address energy issues. Instead, these types of policies shift the burden from one family to another. Current plans as outlined by the Executive Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment J.E. "Jack" Suresh, to Congress in May 2021, proposed an ambitious ten-year construction plan that would bring CDC capacity to near capacity. Needed today. Although improving physical fitness is important, building on today's figures over the next ten years will not succeed in solving existing problems.
The population sector has seen significant changes in the labor market due to COVID-19, including the migration of women employees. To attract and retain quality talent, the military wants to ensure that the military's child care system meets the goal of "minimizing conflict between mission needs and parental responsibilities" as opposed to creating conflict and stress in families.
First, we need to provide a clear, predictable process that gives military families reasonable expectations. The current system, and arguably the current market, does not provide military families with accurate and useful estimates of child care availability. The waiting list is a black box algorithm. Inputs include factors such as family status and preference, time on the waiting list, child's age, and date of requested care—but no one can tell families how they prioritize and are assigned child care spots. The official DoD Child Care website provides an estimated employment date. However, those fixed dates are imprecise (eg, "May to June 2022," as opposed to a specific date), and have been known to be incredibly inaccurate. Families often show up at the duty station waiting for child care, only to find out they've been "hit" on the waiting list and now have an endless wait.
DoD should adopt a more transparent approach to waitlist management. Families do not know where they fall on the waiting list unless Child and Youth Services (CYS) placement staff choose to disclose that information. Furthermore, CYS staff are not required to care for expectant families for six weeks
Military Child Care: 8 Great Options For Military Families [updated 2022]
Date of concern requested. Families are left in the dark, or at the mercy of the CYS administration.
Using historical data and family information, a more reliable model can be created that predicts the likelihood that an individual will receive childcare at a given work station. It gives families the information they need to make informed decisions about housing, spousal employment, schooling, and finding alternative childcare. A family with a 95 percent chance of receiving care by the requested date may make a different choice than a family with a 20 percent chance. Providing a possibility and accurate location on the waiting list and making the information visible to families would be more useful than the current list. Families will be able to get real-time, accurate information to make informed decisions about work and childcare.
Second, we need to pay our babysitters well. These changes have the potential to have an immediate impact on child care capabilities across DoD. Many establishments, including those identified for construction of new childcare facilities, do not use all available classrooms due to staff shortages. Although staffing data is not publicly available, anecdotal evidence from military families across the country indicates that many CDCs are understaffed. An increase in staff can quickly lead to an increase in capacity and possibly remove a significant number of children from the waiting list. Adequate staffing will not only increase CDC's capacity, but also improve the quality of life for current staff. Better working conditions, including higher pay, can contribute to greater job satisfaction and retention. More retention reduces stress on our military children
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