Town hall answers questions about new child care initiative

Current and potential patrons of Cody Child Development Center on the Fort Myer portion of Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall gathered Feb. 24 at Spates Community Club to learn more about how a Department of Defense initiative that seeks to streamline child care wait lists will impact their families.

Militarychildcare.com provides eligible Department of Defense families with a single gateway to access military child care programs around the world for children up to 12 years of age, explained JBM-HH Child, Youth and School Services Director Sunny Smith. The new requirement is in a DoD document titled DoD Instruction 6062.02 -- Child Development Programs.

"The National Capital Region is going to align with the Department of Defense instruction on March 16," Smith said.

The DoD instruction can be found on the JBM-HH Family, Morale, Welfare and Recreation website at www.jbmhhmwr.com/child-youth-and-school-services.

The meeting began with a 3-minute video and concluded with a question and answer session. The website is easy to navigate, according to the video. Authorized users of military child care centers should simply follow screen prompts to access care options that are available across all service branches. Users can also manage child care requests and update important information via the website.

Cody is already full

Smith said Cody Child Development Center is the largest child care facility in the DoD. The CDC currently has 438 spaces for children 6 weeks to 5 years old and 85 school age spaces. She said the center is currently at full capacity for children ages 6 weeks to 5 years old.

"Our wait list currently does not move very quickly because we don't have a traditional PCS [permanent change of station] season," she continued. "We have a lot of parents who enroll their children as infants and they stay for five years."

Smith said the biggest transition period for the center is from June to August, when 5-year-olds age out of the Strong Beginnings program and move on to Kindergarten.

"We have a big push out of children who leave the CDC," she said. "We have 60 children who will leave the CDC."

Those spaces are then filled internally by children who are "aging up," continued Smith.

Whatever spaces are left are then made available to those on the CDC's wait list.

"That's how spaces are given to the wait list," she said. "Once those spaces go to the wait list, that's where militarychildcare.com kicks in."

Setting priorities

Under the new initiative, those children of combat-related wounded warriors, CDC staff, single military service members on active duty or dual active duty service members have the highest priority for child care. Those with the next-highest priority are active duty service members with a working spouse, followed by single DoD civilian employees or a dual DoD civilian couple.

"Next is DoD civilians with a working spouse who is not Department of Defense," continued Smith. "And the final order of precedence category is surviving spouses of military members who died from a combat related incident. This is a change to our current practice, and this is what we are going to fall into line with."

Smith said anticipated wait times at Cody are "at least a year, and that's because we are currently full. We are going to enter the militarychildcare.com phase of our wait list full."

Patrons who were on Cody's wait list by last December were sent a form asking them to identify their family type.

"If you've already done that and returned your form, we already know your family type," she said. "If you came in after December and got on our wait list, we got that information from you face-to-face."

All that information has been sent to militarychildcare.com and will be available for patrons to view when the system goes live March 16.

Benefits of new initiative

Ana Maria White, acting director of Parent Outreach Services, said the new initiative not only streamlines the process of signing up for child care wait lists, but streamlines communication by being a "one stop shop" where families can have questions answered.

"On this website you will be able to go in with the needs you have, with the date of care you need and adjust that as things change," she said.

Patron concerns

Nearly 50 people attended the town hall session, including JBM-HH Commander Col. Mike Henderson and Command Sgt. Maj. Randall Woods.

Attendees' questions centered around the order of precedence that will be used to establish wait lists, as well as whether would-be patrons' pre-Military Childcare.com wait times will be taken into consideration when the website goes into effect later this month.

"Unfortunately, your time on the wait list now won't be taken into consideration when we go live March 16," Smith said. "I do understand, as much as I can while not being you, the impact that has on your family. We do have to see that every day."

Army Lt. Col. Tim Schiffer has a nearly 3-year-old child who he hopes to get into Cody.

"I now understand how this computer system is going to work," he said. "I feel much better about that."

Smith told patrons to use the wait list as a good estimator of how long it might be before a child care space might come available at Cody. She urged families to have a good child care plan in place while they are waiting to come to Cody.

"My promise is we will work our spaces as efficiently as possible to give them to the wait list," she said. "That is the one thing we can control."