(This article originally appeared in the November 2026 issue of Military Officer magazine.)

For military families enrolled in the Exceptional Family Member Program (EFMP), challenges involving health care, education, duty assignments, and PCS moves rarely exist in isolation.

Finding solutions requires the same kind of coordination.

That was the goal of MOAA’s Strengthening Support for Exceptional Military Families policy roundtable Sept. 9 at MOAA headquarters in Alexandria, Va. Nearly 70 leaders from government, the military services, military and veterans service organizations; researchers; and industry members gathered for a day of candid discussion about what is working within EFMP, where families continue to encounter barriers, and how stakeholders can work together to improve outcomes.

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Discussions examined assignment coordination and the PCS experience; health care access and the Extended Care Health Option; education portability; and consistency in how EFMP policies are implemented across services.

Government practitioners and military family advocates met in separate morning sessions, allowing each group to examine challenges from its perspective. Participants came together in the afternoon to discuss opportunities for collaboration across government, nonprofit organizations, and industry, including approaches to health care delivery, digital services, education, care coordination, and technology.

Events like this are an important part of MOAA’s advocacy work because they create space for conversations that do not always happen through hearings, reports, or formal policy channels. Bringing policymakers together with program administrators and organizations that hear directly from families navigating these programs can help identify where policy and practice diverge and where change is needed.

The roundtable also represents MOAA’s year-round TotalForce+ effort to connect stakeholders across the military community. What MOAA learns through these conversations can help shape future programming and inform advocacy efforts aimed at improving support for servicemembers and their families.

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For exceptional military families, getting the right people around the same table is not the solution itself. But it can be an important step toward finding one.