Military Child Care Staffing Shortages Leave Families Struggling

October 28, 2026

This article by Natalie Oliverio originally appeared on Military Times, the nation's largest independent newsroom dedicated to covering the military and veteran community.

Low wages, lengthy hiring processes and limited availability are leaving some military parents unable to work and making it difficult for childcare centers to recruit and retain staff.

For Jessica Maloney, the inability to find childcare has meant giving up the chance to work while raising three children under 6. The Army spouse at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, said her family depends on her income, but without reliable childcare, she cannot earn one.

Her family has turned to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to help put food on the table. Even with that assistance, she said, it is not enough.

“Our family is a two-income household and with childcare not being regularly available, I am not able to work,” Maloney said. “We’ve been feeding our kids on SNAP, and I still struggle to have enough of what they need.”

Without dependable childcare, Maloney said, finding a way back into the workforce remains out of reach.

“It shouldn’t be this hard to go to work,” she said.

The Department of Defense operates the nation’s largest employer-sponsored childcare program. Yet staffing shortages and difficulties recruiting and retaining workers have contributed to long waitlists and delays in finding care.

In June, the Government Accountability Office reported that the military services employed about 19,000 childcare workers paid with nonappropriated funds who cared for nearly 172,000 children of service members and Defense Department civilian employees in fiscal 2024.

The department’s list of unmet childcare needs included nearly 9,000 children in 2025, according to the GAO. More than one-third of those needs were concentrated in five areas: Hawaii; the National Capital Region; Norfolk, Virginia; San Antonio, Texas; and San Diego, California.

Low Pay and Lengthy Hiring Processes Make Staffing Harder

At Camp Pendleton, California, Karen Cunningham, a youth services coordinator, said staffing and demand became overwhelming at the program where she worked last year.

“We aren’t supposed to have more than 20 children, but we had nearly twice that many,” Cunningham told Military Times. “We were over capacity, but understaffed and that caused all of us who worked there to pay a very heavy price, mentally, physically and emotionally.”

Cunningham said eventually it became too much for her, and she had to take a step back.

In a 2024 report based on visits to eight installations, the GAO identified lengthy onboarding processes and stressful work environments among the challenges facing military childcare programs. Officials at the installations reported that onboarding could take one to six months. Background checks and other screening requirements can add time before applicants are cleared to work, making it harder for programs to fill vacancies.

Pay presents another obstacle.

During a meeting of the President’s Military Spouse Commission, Andrea Ruiz, spouse of the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Carlos A. Ruiz, compared entry-level childcare wages at installations in Southern California. Ruiz said workers at Miramar and Camp Pendleton earned about $18 to $19 an hour, while workers at Navy facilities at Point Loma earned $21 an hour.

Kimberly Weimer, spouse of the Sergeant Major of the Army Michael R. Weimer, described locality pay differentials of roughly $3 to $5 an hour at some high-cost installations. The commission discussion focused on how military childcare programs compete with employers outside the gates for employees.

Weimer also noted that childcare providers can gain certifications and training through their jobs, making them eligible for other positions that may offer higher pay.

Tameeka Pethel, who worked as a childcare provider at Joint Base San Antonio, said she enjoyed working with the children and her colleagues, but said the wages were not enough to make the job financially sustainable.

“If I could afford to have kept that job, I would have never left,” Pethel said. “It’s pretty sad that I earn more money at Taco Bell than I could’ve as a childcare provider.”

In April, the Army launched a new pay model intended to bring staffing at its child development centers above 90%, Stars and Stripes reported. The initiative included higher pay for direct-care workers and childcare discounts for employees’ own children.

At the time, the Army said only 22 of its 68 installations had staffing levels at or above 90%, while nearly 3,000 children were waiting for space in Army centers.

The GAO has also documented the use of recruitment bonuses, retention incentives, childcare discounts and professional development to attract and retain workers.

When Military Childcare Doesn’t Fit the Mission

For military families, finding a provider is only part of the challenge. Care must also fit their schedules and remain available through moves and changes in duty requirements.

Tiffany Orner, an Air Force veteran and military spouse who serves on the board of Operation Childcare Project, told Military Times that she regularly sees requests for childcare help in spouse groups connected to installations along the coast.

“The posts never change,” Orner said. “I need a sitter for a shift that starts at 0500. We PCS in three weeks, who has an opening. The CDC hours changed and I have no Plan B.”

For dual-military couples, Orner said, the problem can be especially difficult when both parents have to report for duty and their planned childcare falls through.

“Childcare is mission-critical. End of story,” she said.

When military-run care is unavailable, the Defense Department’s Military Child Care in Your Neighborhood program provides fee assistance for eligible families using approved civilian providers. But the GAO has found that providers can face accreditation or state quality-rating requirements, administrative burdens and unclear communication about eligibility.

From fiscal 2019 through fiscal 2024, all four military services increased the number of community-based providers and children participating in fee assistance, according to the GAO. That growth does not establish whether a family can find an available provider nearby, afford the remaining cost or secure care that accommodates nontraditional work hours.

The most recent meeting of the President’s Military Spouse Commission described a five-location pilot, operating to allow eligible military families to use fee assistance for certain faith-based childcare providers that are legally exempt from state licensing requirements.

The locations being piloted are Arlington, Norfolk and Virginia Beach, Virginia; Naval Base Kitsap, Washington; and Naval Base Point Loma, California. The commission said it was looking into whether Coast Guard families could also participate. However, Stars and Stripes reported Oct. 21 that neither the Pentagon nor the White House had independently confirmed that the pilot was operational.

The pilot provides a pathway for certain legally license-exempt providers to participate under applicable requirements.

Commission members also discussed extending fee assistance to other license-exempt providers, including certain family, friend and neighbor care arrangements, public and private school programs, part-day and short-duration programs, and government or institutional sites.

Members also discussed ways to improve recruitment and retention, including more consistent pay across installations, faster hiring and screening and benefits that help workers afford childcare for their own children.

Orner said the initiatives need to reach families who are struggling to find care, rather than remain limited to pilots or best practices at selected installations.

“The spouse in survival mode deserves to hear that plainly,” she said.

She urged the commission to “measure who gets hired and who stays, not who pledged, and get the help to the spouse before the pilot ends.”

The Cost of Care That Never Comes

For Maloney, the question is not whether she wants to work, but whether she can find the care that would make it possible. Until that changes, her family will continue relying on food assistance to help make ends meet.

Her experience underscores what staffing targets and program expansions cannot measure on their own: whether a parent can secure dependable care, take a job and count on that arrangement to last. For families facing the same barriers, the consequences reach beyond a childcare waitlist. They shape household finances, employment decisions and the ability to plan for what comes next.

The military depends on service members being ready to meet the demands of their jobs. For parents, that readiness can also depend on knowing their children are cared for when duty calls. When reliable childcare remains out of reach, families are left to absorb the consequences.

“Military kids have to go through enough hard things,” Maloney said. “Going to bed hungry should not be one of them.”

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