Child and Youth Program Expanding by 7,000 Child Care Spaces

By Bruce Moody, Commander, Navy Installations Command, Fleet and Family Support Program

April 6, 2010 - WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The Navy is expanding its Child and Youth Program by more than 7,000 child care spaces fleetwide for children ages 12 and under.

The expansion will reduce a child's time spent on waiting lists to three months or less to meet 80 percent of the potential need across the Navy by the end of 2011.

"Reaching the OSD goal of providing access for 80 percent of the potential need has been elusive," John Baker, Commander, Navy Installation Command's Director of Fleet and Family Readiness, said this month during testimony to members of the House Armed Services Committee. "With strong financial support from the president, congress, OSD and Navy, we have been able to launch an aggressive expansion plan that will allow us to meet our space requirements."

Commander, Navy Installations Command's Child and Youth Program is achieving the expansion through a variety of measures to include the construction of 31 new child development centers. Classrooms are being converted to accommodate children under the age of three, the age group in highest demand. Also, the Navy has also partnered with the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) to subsidize high-quality civilian care for military families off-base through an effort called Military Child Care In Your Neighborhood and Operation Military Child Care, provides subsidies to deployed families using licensed child care.

During fiscal 2009, Navy programs cared for more than 49,000 children ages six weeks to 12 years of age in 128 child development centers, 86 school-aged care programs and 3,115 on- and off-base licensed child development homes.

Beyond merely providing child care spaces, the Navy's Child and Youth Program provides services that significantly enhance the ability of our families to cope with the many demands of military life. Navy Child and Youth Programs partnered with NACCRRA last April to launch a new program that provides these Navy families up to 40 hours of respite care a month.

To date, over 240 Navy families received respite care for their children with special needs enrolled in categories four and five of the Exceptional Family Members Program (EFMP).

"The respite care program allows the parent to leave their child, knowing that the provider is equipped to deal with their child's particular needs, and allows them some much needed time to take for themselves," Greg Young, Navy Child and Youth Program manager, said.