Military Child Care in Your Neighborhood is a Department of Defense (DoD) program designed to meet the child care needs of Service Members living in areas where on-base military child care is not available. Eligible Service Members include Recruiting Specialists, Reserve Office Training Corps (ROTC) instructors, Military Entrance Processing (MEP) personnel and Service Members on independent duty assignments who cannot access the high quality care available on military installations. 

In the past, these families bore the full cost of their child care. Now with Military Child Care in Your Neighborhood, many of them will be eligible to pay reduced fees for the care of their children. To meet this need, the DoD has asked NACCRRA to partner with state and local Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (CCR&Rs) to locate or develop high quality child care spaces that meet DoD quality standards, and provide fee assistance to lower the child care cost to military families.

The civilian child care programs that provide Military Child Care in Your Neighborhood child care spaces are comparable in quality to Military operated on-base spaces and meet most DoD and Service standards.

The following are examples of programs that DoD considers quality care:

1. Nationally accredited child care centers or FCC homes
2. FCC homes with a CDA credentialed provider
3. FCC homes with an Early Childhood Education or Child Development degree
4. Federal or GSA accredited centers

Note: Military Child Care in Your Neighborhood services are not an entitlement and are subject to geographic availability of care and DoD and Military Service funding.

How exactly will Military Child Care in Your Neighborhood work?

The Service member, spouse, or legal guardian contacts Child Care Aware, a division of NACCRRA, toll-free at 1-800-424-2246 to determine eligibility.