FORT SILL, Okla. (Oct. 6, 2016) -- There are many options for military and DA civilian families who seek child care through Fort Sill Child, Youth and School Services (CYSS).
There are the Cooper and Tincher Child Development centers (CDC), the School Age Center, the Youth Center, and hourly care at Grierson CDC.
And, for working parents who want their child to be in a home environment there is the Family Child Care (FCC) program. The FCC allows military families to provide child care in their homes, on and off post. The child care providers must be certified after completing a rigorous two-week course, and the homes are inspected regularly for safety and health standards.
Army higher headquarters inspected three of Fort Sill's five FCC homes recently and the homes received 100 percent on their evaluations, said Ivory Marshall, CYSS Division chief.
"It is the most exciting, humbling experience for me," said Marshall, whose first director position was in FCC. "It shows that we are passionate about Family Child Care."
About 25 children are enrolled in the FCC homes, said Brooke Wilson, CYSS Outreach director. Two of the homes are off post, and two of them can provide care for children at any hour.
"Parents say they really like the Family Child Care homes," Wilson said. "It's a home environment, there is a small ratio (of providers to children), they like that they are inspected, and their hours are flexible."
For providers it is a way to supplement their family income. "We find that many spouses have new babies or toddlers, so this is a way for them to stay at home and also have a career," Wilson said.
FCC TRAINING
To become an FMWR child care provider, workers must pass a background check and complete an 80-hour course that covers everything from first aid to nutrition to child development to sanitation to paperwork management to child abuse identification, Wilson said. The certification must be renewed annually.
An FCC home can have up to six children in the house, but only two of them can be under 2-years-old, Wilson said. If the provider has children of their own age 8 and under in the household, then they count as part of the six total. The provider's spouse and any of their own children 12 and older who live in the house must pass a background check, too.
FCC fees are set by the Army, not the provider, Wilson said. The fee is based on total family income.
INSPECTIONS
Before an FCC house is certified it is inspected by FMWR staff, post safety and health officials and Directorate of Emergency Services personnel, Wilson said. The FCC off-post homes must also be certified by the Oklahoma Department of Human Services and City of Lawton. After the provider completes the training and the home passes the inspection, then it is FCC certified.
An Army regulation prohibits anyone to provide home child care on the installation for more than 10 hours per week on a recurring basis unless they are FCC certified, Wilson said. Two more FCC homes are expected to be certified in the next couple months.
An FCC home undergoes three unannounced inspections a year by Fort Sill officials and one unannounced inspection by Army higher headquarters, Marshall said. All the inspections are to the same standards of Army compliance.
The three Army higher headquarters inspectors did not find any discrepancies in the three random FCC houses that they selected Aug. 22-26.
They evaluated 34 areas, inspecting such things as fire and tornado drills; interaction between the provider and the children; sanitation of the play, eating and sleeping areas; and paperwork documentation on the children, i.e., shot records.
One of the FCC homes they inspected was of Army wife Geraldine Owens. She has been an FCC provider for about 15 months in her Buffalo Soldier Acres house.
Owens provides care for three children. She and her husband, Staff Sgt. John Owens Jr., also have two children of their own who attend preschool at Freedom Elementary School. She said one of the advantages of an FCC home is that the child can bond with the same provider every day, where as at a center they may have many providers.
Owens said she is grateful that parents trust her with their children.
"Trust is something that can't be earned fast, it has to be developed ," she said.
Owens added that she loves having children in her home.
"I'm having fun, actually," said Owens, who has been a military spouse for eight years. "I love helping kids, I love teaching kids."
After the headquarters inspection, the evaluators recommended that Fort Sill CYSS use the Owens house as a model home for any FCC observations, Wilson said. "She has a wonderful set up and it is very organized."
Marshall said the FCC team really pulled together to make it a successful inspection and program.
"It was one of the best inspections I've ever experienced in my entire career," Marshall said.
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