A worker from the Malmstrom Child Development Center holds a child, Sept. 8, 2022, at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont. The CDC’s infant program is designed for children six weeks to 12 months. The CDC provides care to children of active-duty military and DoD/NAF civilian personnel families. (Mary Bowers/Air Force)
WASHINGTON – The Pentagon has increased fees for military-certified child care services, mainly to find qualified caregivers and keep them from going elsewhere, defense officials said Friday.
The Defense Department specified the fee policy changes for its Child Development Program, which offers full-time, accredited and installation-based child care for the children of service members.
“To find and retain skilled staff and continue providing quality child care for military families, changes to the policy that guide child care fees are necessary to enhance recruitment and retention efforts,” the department said in a statement.
The department said there are three main fee-related changes.
The rate for on-base child care is increasing from $7 to $8 per hour, the department said. There also will be an extra income category, which is used to determine what families will pay each month for military-provided child care.
The third main change is a raise in the subsidy gap to help pay for private-run care, from $1,500 to $1,700 per child. For example, if a family qualifies to pay $500 per month for on-base care, the military will see to it that they also pay $500 per month for private care -- as long as the off-base provider charges no more than $2,200 per month. Parents would be responsible for an amount that is more than $1,700.
“Most families will see a change in child care fees,” said Stacey Young, director of the Office of Military Family Readiness Policy. “But we also know our families understand the importance of ensuring the [Defense Department] is able to attract the best employees from local labor markets.”
“These child care fee changes will ensure military parents can continue to be mission-ready knowing their children are safe, nurtured and receiving quality child development services,” said Heidi Welch, child and family director at the Office of Military Family Readiness Programs.
Each year, government defense funding pays for at least 50% of the care provided by the Child Development Program. The fees paid by parents account for the other half of operating revenue. For many years, defense officials have said the availability of child care is important to the overall health of the all-volunteer U.S. military force, particularly since combat roles were opened to women six years ago.
“The Department of Defense views child care as a workforce enabler that directly impacts the readiness, efficiency, and retention of the total force,” the Pentagon wrote in the report, noting it’s always looking for ideas and programs to solve child care issues.
In September, the National Guard Bureau launched a pilot program to offer free child care to soldiers in six states during drill weekends in a move to better retain single parents in the service.
“We do think it's important that we can at least offer this,” said Maj. Gen. Eric Little, National Guard director of manpower and personnel. “Because families are a stressor if you don’t know your family’s good while you’re away.”
The Pentagon has the largest U.S. employer-sponsored child care program, which cared for more than 210,000 military children younger than 12 in 2019, according to a Pentagon report to Congress that year. But the report noted there were almost 9,000 children on waiting lists for on-base child care – nearly two-thirds of whom were younger than 2.
