Deployments, trainings, frequent moves, new schools…our nation’s military families endure a high amount of stress and change. Finding child care is yet another challenge that military families face. Child Care Aware® of America (CCAoA) partners with the Armed Forces and other Department of Defense (DoD) Agencies to make life a little easier for these families and their children by administering child care fee assistance programs.

While many military installations offer on-installation care, it’s not always available or accessible to all service members. This means that many military families have to search for off-installation child care and pay rates much higher than offered on the installations. Finding high-quality, affordable child care is already difficult for the average family across the nation; for military families it can be even more difficult due to the uncertainty they experience as they move across the country.

The program’s purpose

The purpose of child care fee assistance is to lessen the financial and emotional burden of child care on our nation’s military families. When on-installation options aren’t available, military families can turn to CCAoA for help with locating child care and off-setting the cost of care. These fee assistance programs ensure that military and DoD children are enrolled in high-quality child care with a provider that is state licensed and has an approved inspection report, so that service members, DoD employees, and their families remain “mission-ready.” Many of our providers also have an approved national accreditation and have undergone an FBI Background Check. This takes the burden and worry off of families.

At CCAoA, we specifically assist members of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, as well as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and Defense Logistics Agency. Each branch of service and agency has different programs designed to meet the needs of participants. Over the past 20 years, we have served over 200,000 children through these programs and have created a network of more than 10,000 licensed child care providers.

Are you eligible?

So now that you know a little bit about the fee assistance programs, you might have some questions. Are you eligible to receive fee assistance? Do you need help finding child care? How can you apply to the program? Why is accredited care so important and how can it benefit your child? Answers to all these questions and more can be found on our fee assistance website. Just simply click on your branch of service or agency and find the details for your family and program. Plus, if you’re in the Army we also have Facebook and Twitter pages for you to connect with other Army families!

CCAoA’s vision is for everyone to have access to high-quality, affordable child care, and that certainly includes our military and DoD families too.

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