Childcare Help for Military Families
Affordable childcare is hard to find. For civilian families, the average cost of childcare tuition exceeds $3,300 per child and is over $5,000 per child in 20 states, according to a 2002 U.S. House Ways and Means committee report.
What's more, a Rand Corp. survey found that childcare in a military child development center (CDC) ranges from $12,133 for infants to $4,595 for school-age children.
However, military families do have options. Operation: Military Child Care (OMCC) and Military Child Care in Your Neighborhood (MCCIYN) are two prominent resources that provide access to affordable childcare.
OMCC provides financial assistance for eligible military families who don't have access to the Department of Defense's on-base childcare options. Additionally, OMCC assists families of all military personnel serving in the Global War on Terror.
MCCIYN - OMCC's sister program - also supports active duty servicemembers who don't live on military bases but still need access to childcare. The focus of MCCIYN is to locate and subsidize childcare comparable to what a servicemember would receive on a military installation.
These programs, both launched earlier this year, are the result of the DoD's effort to provide relief for military families who are already coping with the deployment of a parent, in addition to finding the monetary means to provide childcare.
"A childcare provider can play an integral part in any military family - particularly when one or even both parents are deployed, the strong need to find quality childcare can be an emotional and financial burden," says Linda Smith, Executive Director of the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, in a company-issued press release.
Finding affordable childcare doesn't have to be an inconvenience. If active servicemembers utilize either the OMCC or MCCIYN program, they can ease the weight of deployment on their families.
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