Child Care
Like all working parents,
service members and their spouses must find quality care for their
children during the work day and/or after school. Military families have
access to some great resources that aren’t available in the
civilian community, such as child development centers on military
installations. While military child care programs consistently receive
high marks for quality and affordability, access can often be a problem.
The Department of Defense (DoD) and other federal agencies are working
to assist military families.
DoD is working with the
National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies
(NACCRRA) on two programs designed to help find and pay for child care
in military communities. Operation Military Child Care is
specifically designed to meet the temporary child care needs of National
Guard and Reserve families who are activated or deployed, but it also
offers help to deployed active duty DoD families whose children are
enrolled in non-DoD-licensed child care programs. Military Child Care in Your
Neighborhood aims to assist military families
who can’t use military child care facilities due to wait-listing
or distance from the base, while a non-active duty spouse is working,
attending school or looking for work. For more
information, click here.
Additionally, active duty Coast
Guard families whose total income is less than $75,000 are authorized to
pay military base child-care rates when they use a federal child care
center or state-licensed child care facility in the continental U.S.
(including in-home providers). The non-taxable subsidy is available to
all qualified active duty USCG crew members as well as Reservists who
are called to active duty for 180 days or more. Click here for more information, then click the
“Coast Guard and GSA Childcare Partnership.”
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