The center – and two others like it in the pilot program under contract with the nonprofit Armed Services YMCA – are being opened with “lightning speed,” said Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Christopher J. Mahoney, at a ribbon cutting ceremony for the center, expected to open by the end of March. The power of the partnership between Armed Services YMCA and the Defense Department helps empower military families, increasing readiness and resilience, he said.

The Arlington center encompasses the third floor of the St. Athanasius Coptic Orthodox Church, located in a civilian area a few minutes from Fort Myer and the Pentagon. It was built out to meet the requirements of the Defense Department, including special ramps on either side of the building to facilitate the evacuation of mobile cribs and buggies.

The first center in the pilot program opened in Norfolk in May 2025 and is at 100% capacity.

The last of the three centers, opening in Virginia Beach this summer, will open just 28 months after the contract was signed. Military child development centers built in the military construction process can take upwards of five years before opening.

Between the National Capital Region and the Norfolk area, the waiting list has grown to about 2,000. The three centers will reduce that waiting list by more than 600, each with a capacity for 216 children. Families can request spots for their children in the centers at www.MilitaryChildCare.com, the portal for requesting all types of military child care. As of publication, 99 families had requested immediate spots at the Arlington center, with 260 requesting care in advance as they plan for the summer moving season.

More than 600 child care slots coming to these military families

Under the pilot program, parents pay the same fee they would at any DOD-run child development center. It’s based on total family income and the same for children of all ages. Armed Services YMCA bills DOD for the difference in what it costs them to provide the care.

DOD provides subsidies for child care in many settings, including their child development centers, where DOD typically covers about 50% of the cost of child care, with family fees covering the remainder.

Care is available for infants up to age 5, with 19 separate rooms featuring age-appropriate learning programs, toys and activities for each. Miniature stationary bikes for pre-schoolers and a sand table with colorful swimming fish and dinosaurs projected from above onto the sand are just two examples.

Among the many features are storage areas for car seats, as well as extra rooms that focus on gross motor skills that can also provide therapy for children.

Diapers, infant formula if requested, meals and snacks, and all other accoutrements, are provided at the child care centers.

The Arlington child development center will be licensed in Virginia and nationally accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Staff members undergo background checks and are trained with the same methods used in DOD child care centers. The center is inspected by local, state and DOD officials on a regular basis.

DOD runs the largest network of child development centers in the world, with 27,000 staff members caring for 172,000 military-connected children every year, said Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata. That includes 739 child development and school-age centers, 148 youth and teen centers, and more than 800 family child care homes, he said.

Yet, he said, “We know there’s a gap in child care ... It’s partners like Armed Services YMCA that help close that gap,” Tata said.

DOD is trying to get the persistent 20% rate of spouse unemployment down to the national average of about 4%, he said. “Undergirding all of that is affordable, accessible child care.”

Over the years, DOD and the services have embarked on a number of efforts to increase the availability of child care. Information was unavailable from DOD officials about any other new initiatives underway to address child care shortages, or the number of children on waiting lists overall. There was no timeline available for when DOD expects to decide whether to expand these pilots to other areas.

”There’s no more important time for us to worry about child care than now," said retired Navy Vice Admiral William French, president and CEO of Armed Services YMCA. That 165-year-old nonprofit has a number of different programs focusing on young enlisted families at its 12 branches and 29 YMCA affiliates serving more than 104 military bases.

“But the one program that has the biggest impact on families is child care,” he said.

Some schools operated by the Department of Defense Education Activity already prohibit the use of cellphones in schools, but the policies aren’t consistent across DODEA, according to a Military Times spot check of some schools’ handbook policies.

The legislative provision requires DODEA to update existing regulations to “prohibit disruption in the learning environment by minimizing the use of such mobile devices to the greatest extent practicable, and to standardize such regulations across all DODEA schools.”

DODEA operates 161 schools in 11 foreign countries, seven states and two territories.

The proposed NDAA has been approved by the House and now awaits the Senate’s vote.

A common policy statement viewed in several schools’ current student handbooks was “Cellphones may be brought to school but must be turned off and stored in the backpack or locker during the school day. In cases of emergency, students may contact their parents by using the phone in the school office.”

Policies about cellphone use are clearly outlined in each school’s student handbook, said DODEA spokeswoman Jessica Tackaberry. “With that guidance already in place, implementation is managed at the local school level based on community needs. Overall, cellphone use is not a systemic issue in DODEA,” she said. “Our focus remains on promoting responsible use through consistent citizenship and helping students make smart, informed choices in today’s connected world.”

States across the country are addressing students’ cellphone use. At least 32 states and the District of Columbia have required school districts to ban or restrict students’ use of cellphones, according to Education Week. There are ongoing concerns about distractions from learning.

When asked about students’ cellphone usage during a recent interview with Military Times, DODEA Director Beth Schiavino-Narvaez cited her recent visit to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, when she visited all six DODEA schools at that base.

“Honestly, I didn’t see a cellphone in any of the kids’ hands in any of the six schools. We have guidance and our students are great at following that guidance. We want kids engaged in their learning, and that’s what I saw,” she said.

Military school students' test scores lead the nation

Fort Campbell schools are part of the DODEA Americas region, where DODEA operates 50 schools in seven states, two countries and one territory. Their regional policy stated on the DODEA website is that cellphones must be turned off and stored in backpack or locker during the school day.

Others, like Edgren Middle High School at Misawa Air Base in Japan, have variations in their policies. Edgren allows students to use cellphones at their discretion during non-class time.

The new provision requires DODEA to update and standardize the regulation across all its schools no later than 180 days after the law is enacted.

“Cellphones don’t belong in the classroom, and students learn best when these distractions are removed,” said Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., in a statement about the inclusion of the provision in the negotiated agreement between House and Senate lawmakers. “This provision will ensure DODEA students are able to focus on what matters most: their education,” said Banks, who originally introduced the legislation in the Senate in June along with Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich.

“Last month, I said we should ban cellphones in all K-12 schools in America, and now we have started down that path by banning cellphones in DoDEA classrooms,” said Slotkin, in an announcement in July about the Senate Armed Services Committee’s approval of the measure.

“With over 65,000 military children attending DoDEA schools worldwide, it’s critical students in DoDEA schools have an environment where they can focus, learn, and build meaningful relationships without the distraction of cellphones.”

Defense Commissary Agency officials have awarded a contract for the delivery to OnPoint, a delivery service previously known as ChowCall, said Todd Waldemar, founder and CEO of the company. The 70 commissaries that are part of the contract include eight pilot locations that have been offering the delivery service since 2022. Waldemar said the remaining 62 stores will be offering the service by Jan. 11.

“These 70 include the largest military markets, so I estimate that they represent over half of the total [U.S.] military population,” Waldemar said.

A spokesman for commissary officials did not immediately confirm the award of the contract, and it had not been published on Sam.gov by the time this article was published.

The contract includes the flexibility to expand to the remaining 108 commissaries in the United States. That expansion to all 178 commissaries is optional and is up to the commissary agency, Waldemar said.

“But we hope to get delivery in all markets as soon as we can. I think it would be realistic to see all markets have delivery by the summer,” he said, emphasizing that he does not speak for the commissary agency.

Commissary officials are not considering doorstep delivery for overseas commissaries because of overseas regulatory constraints.

The initial contract award is for $14 million, Waldemar said. Delivery will be available within a 20-mile radius of the commissaries.

Commissary officials have provided an online, curbside pickup service for customers for a number of years, and have been working to find a way to provide the delivery service, too.

“We need this. Our customers want and need this contract,” John Hall, director of the Defense Commissary Agency, told a meeting in March.

“I’m really excited about this,” he said at the time.

Under the system, customers order groceries online, which are retrieved by store employees who pick the items and hand the orders over to OnPoint. OnPoint then delivers the groceries to the customer’s location. The delivery can occur as soon as three hours after the order is submitted, depending on the location, because commissaries need the time to pack the order.

The commissary agency will not subsidize the delivery costs for customers. The fee will be $17.75 for those within 10 miles and $31.25 for those within 11 to 20 miles. The commissary agency does not have the flexibility in pricing delivery fees that commercial retailers do, because of their limitations in marking up prices, for example.

Customers pay the delivery fee in addition to the cost of their groceries, the usual 5% commissary surcharge, and any tip for the driver.

Nationwide doorstep delivery getting closer for commissary customers

OnPoint has been gearing up for the expansion, and is also hiring delivery drivers in all 70 areas, Waldemar said. About 80% of their employees are affiliated with the military, as spouses or veterans, for example. They are paid according to the wage scale under the Service Contract Act, which varies from area to area, and also receive fringe benefits, he said.

ChowCall/OnPoint has delivered more than 40,000 loads of groceries since beginning commissary deliveries in June 2022, Waldemar said.

Customers using the current delivery pilot program range from active-duty families to troops living in barracks, retirees and disabled veterans and people who want to get a head start on shopping or a bite to eat while at work. The service can be especially helpful to young families of troops who are deployed, such as spouses with young children, Waldemar said.

More than 50% of customers using the delivery are within 5 miles of their commissary, he said.

Those eligible for the commissary shopping benefit include active-duty, Guard and Reserve members, military retirees, Medal of Honor recipients and their authorized family members. Veterans with any Veterans Affairs Department-documented, service-connected disability rating are now eligible for commissary shopping, as well as Purple Heart recipients, former prisoners of war and those who have been approved and designated as the primary caregivers of eligible veterans by the VA.

Waldemar said he has received positive feedback from customers about the delivery, including some disabled veterans who said they depend on the commissary delivery. One veteran who cannot drive called it a lifeline, Waldemar said.

“Our mission is to really solve this problem, and really make a big impact across the whole military for quality of life,” Waldemar said. His company has made over 2 million deliveries of food and merchandise to military bases for 15 years, he said.

“The problem as we see it, is that the delivery of goods and services is either nonexistent or minimal in most military markets,” he said. So those who live and work on military bases do not have as many options as everyone else does, he said, partially because access to military bases is harder.

“We want to solve that problem by giving more options to the military, more options to the dependents in family housing, more options to the young service member who doesn’t have a vehicle, stuck in the barracks.

“My son, for example, just enlisted in the Air Force. He’s living in barracks. He told me the other day, totally unsolicited, ‘Dad I finally understand what your company does,’ because he’s on a base where all he can get is pizza from the gas station down the road.

“That’s it. We want to totally change that. We want to have options, we want to have convenience for everybody that’s on bases.”

Alabama

• Fort Rucker (formerly Fort Novosel)

Arizona

• Davis-Monthan AFB
• Fort Huachuca
• Luke AFB

California

• Camp Pendleton MCB
• Miramar MCAS
• San Diego NB
• Ord Military Community
• Travis AFB

Colorado

• Fort Carson
• Peterson SFB

Connecticut

• New London NSB

Florida

• Eglin AFB
• Hurlburt Field
• Jacksonville NAS
• MacDill AFB
• Patrick SFB
• Pensacola NAS

Georgia

• Fort Benning (formerly Fort Moore)
• Fort Gordon (formerly Fort Eisenhower)
• Fort Stewart

Hawaii

• Hickam JBPHH
• Kaneohe Bay MCBH
• Pearl Harbor JBPHH
• Schofield Barracks

Illinois

• Scott AFB
• Great Lakes NS

Kansas

• Fort Leavenworth
• Fort Riley

Kentucky

• Fort Campbell
• Fort Knox

Louisiana

• Fort Polk (formerly Fort Johnson)
• Barksdale AFB

Maryland

• Andrews AFB
• Fort Meade

Mississippi

• Keesler AFB

Missouri

• Fort Leonard Wood
• Whiteman AFB

Nebraska

• Offutt AFB

Nevada

• Nellis AFB

New Jersey

• McGuire AFB

New York

• Fort Drum
• West Point Military Academy

North Carolina

• Camp Lejeune MCB
• New River MCAS
• Fort Bragg North & South locations (formerly Fort Liberty North & South locations)

North Dakota

• Minot AFB

Ohio

• Wright Patterson AFB

Oklahoma

• Fort Sill
• Tinker AFB

Puerto Rico

• Fort Buchanan

South Carolina

• Shaw AFB

Texas

• Fort Bliss
• Randolph AFB
• Fort Sam Houston
• Lackland AFB
• Fort Hood-Clear Creek location (formerly Fort Cavazos-Clear Creek location)

Virginia

• Fort Eustis
• Langley AFB
• Little Creek JBLCFS
• Norfolk Naval Station
• Oceana NAS
• Fort Belvoir
• Fort Myer
• Fort Lee (formerly Fort Gregg Adams)
• Quantico MCB

Washington

• Fort Lewis Main
• McChord AFB
• Whidbey Island NAS

If you’d like to share your thoughts, email kjowers@militarytimes.com. Include your service branch, rank, age, marital status, family size, the name of your installation and phone number if we can contact you for more information. Let us know if it’s okay to use your name; anonymity can be granted upon request.

Julia Bardsley felt a growing dread as she toured a day care just outside the gates of Fort Gordon, Georgia, with the nine-month-old son she had never even left with a babysitter on her mind.

Three infants cried from their cribs. One baby on the floor clutched a rattle, the only toy Bardsley could see in the room. Another had pulled herself up to a cabinet and was peeling off the laminate. In the corner, a television was tuned to Judge Judy.

Bardsley didn’t feel she had much of a choice when it came to child care; she was days away from starting her dream job, and wait lists for the child development center on post were two years long. But this was not the answer for her son, Carter. No way was a celebrity judge going to raise her child.

Instead, she shocked her Army specialist husband — and herself — by ditching her career in retail management and turning her home into a child care center for military families.

At bases around the country, military leaders are leaning on spouses like Bardsley to open their own family child care homes that will offload pressure from understaffed on-base centers with long waitlists.

Military moms are answering the call, lured by the triple promise of making good money, working from home, and being their own bosses.

But Bardsley and dozens of other moms have a warning for them. The rules and regulations, well-meaning though they are, are out of control.

You can’t store a box of fruit cups on the floor of your pantry: inspection violation.

Shovel snow immediately to ensure there’s always a clear path out of the house. But never leave children unattended to do so.

Take pictures of the children in your care only with a government-issued phone. Never mind that you won’t be issued a phone by the government.

Family child care centers can be a lifeline for military spouses who want careers and for parents of kids with special needs that make finding center-based care even more challenging.

‘Nobody to Watch My Twins.’ Military Spouses Quit Jobs, Families Bust Budgets in Scramble for Child Care

But when The War Horse spoke with seven current and former providers who had taken care of military kids in 13 states, they said reams of rules and a culture of retaliation make them feel less like independent contractors and more like peons in a chain of command they did not sign up for.

Be your own boss, but act like an employee

Family child care providers care for up to six kids at a time who can’t access on-base child care spots, need care during nontraditional hours that centers can’t provide, or whose parents want a more home-like environment. In 2021, the latest year for which data is available, around 2,700 children were enrolled in a family child care home.

Air Force spouse Lisa Slaba said her children, now in first grade and pre-K, have “thrived exponentially” thanks to loving family child care providers who, as fellow military spouses, she’s more inclined to trust.

Home-based care for DOD families started decades ago as an informal way for military moms to help out other families while earning a living. But as the program grew, so did its playbook.

The DOD says its requirements for certifying family child care providers are “typically more stringent than state standards,” and providers are inspected more often; while most states require annual inspections, supervisors visit military child care homes every month.

And with supervisors able to interpret inspection criteria as they see fit, many providers say the level of oversight is more intrusive and less standardized than they expected.

“It’s no longer just people wanting to just drop their children off into a safe space,” said April Dingle, a provider at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

Today, parents expect a miniature child development center in these women’s living rooms.

The DOD seems to share that expectation.

On a recent inspection, Kayla Calhoun says she was told she had to leave all the lights on during naptime at the family child care center she runs from her home at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey; the Air Force regulation states that lights stay on in Child and Youth Program facilities. “This is my home, and you’re telling me I can’t turn my lights off?” Calhoun said.

Guidance like that makes some providers feel they’re responsible for running an on-base child care center with a staff of one.

Dingle says she has to be not only an early childhood educator but also a janitor, a medic should an emergency arise, a chef, and an administrator.

“I have to be just all these other different labels instead of just caring for kids,” she said. “That’s not what I thought I signed up for. I signed up to provide a safe space, a routine for these children, and care and love, but it’s way too much.”

Many of the rules providers must follow make perfect sense, and Dingle said everyone wants there to be reasonable boundaries.

But some of those rules? “Just crazy,” she said. Like having to use chemical test strips to confirm her home was properly cleaned and sanitized.

Or being told she can only serve the children food from the commissary, despite the fact that she was finding expired milk and spoiled meat on the shelves.

Kayla Calhoun used to take her toddler and a child she watched through the family child care program to a local farm nearly every Monday, when it was free for military families. The kids loved throwing pellets of food to the barnyard animals, climbing on the tire tower, and running through the splash pad.

Then the Air Force changed a regulation and said children under the age of two were not permitted on field trips. The preschooler Calhoun takes care of was allowed to visit the farm. But Calhoun’s own son Lyle — 18 months old at the time — was now considered too young for his own mother to drive him there.

“It’s asinine,” Calhoun said. Fun wasn’t the only casualty; a program coordinator misinterpreted the new regulation and told providers they could no longer take young children along to drop older ones off at school. “It really screwed over a lot of people,” said Calhoun.

A spokesperson for the Department of the Air Force, which oversees more family child care providers than any other service, said specific guidelines for providers ensure high-quality care for kids. And every licensed child care operation, military or civilian, must adhere to safety guidelines.

But the DOD’s expectations for military moms have gone too far for some.

Kayla Corbitt, the founder and CEO of Operation Child Care Project, a military child care advocacy nonprofit, surveyed 59 family child care providers in 2023. Just over a third of the 45 who had quit the business said they did so because of all the red tape and regulations.

Corbitt says from what she can tell, family child care providers have zero autonomy and are treated like employees, not independent contractors, as the military claims.

“I honestly always thought the IRS would eventually take them down,” she said. “You can’t claim someone is a [contractor] when you tell them when to work and what to charge and how to do your work and who you’re allowed to watch and where you’re allowed to watch them.”

A house that’s not a home

When Dingle became a family child care provider almost two decades ago, she was lured in part by the promise of working from home while she took care of her own kids.

But soon it didn’t feel like her home at all. With demands including materials to have and how to set up the space, it felt like an institutional care center.

When her children were around they were required to be in the same space as Dingle and the other kids — even if their father was home, even if they were old enough to go do their homework or hang out in their own rooms.

They couldn’t have friends over, or go put dishes in the sink.

“In that aspect, I’m not even my child’s parent at that time any longer,” she said. “It’s like I’m 100% provider.”

These rules are in place to protect kids and uphold fire, health, and safety standards, said the Air Force spokesperson. “We truly appreciate providers’ flexibility as adjustments are required to adhere to regulations,” they said.

While Dingle feels a sense of purpose taking care of children who really need her, she wants her home back.

“By this time next year,” she said, “I want to be completely done.”

Too many standards, not enough standardization

Despite all the family child care program’s regulations, many providers complained that their jobs and treatment look wildly different from installation to installation.

“Everything from paperwork to policies to the systems that are in place. … The way that things are implemented are different at every single garrison,” said Bardsley.

It all comes down to the relationships between providers and the various authorities overseeing the family child care program, providers said.

Providers say some coordinators and directors are helpful, knowledgeable, respectful, and encouraging. Get someone who is not well-trained, not that invested, or just plain vindictive? You could be in for it, providers told The War Horse.

Bardsley said she faced retaliation from a coordinator at one post after taking a policy issue she disagreed with to the garrison leadership. Before the month was out, Bardsley — who said she’d never once been written up for any violation in her nine years of providing military child care — received three write-ups, including serving lunch 15 minutes early and allowing children to remove their shoes indoors. She was threatened with closure. After her next move, to Texas, Bardsley decided running a family child care center was no longer for her.

Denise Clark, a three-time “FCC provider of the year” in two states, said she was excluded from the list of available home day cares at Scott Air Force Base, just east of St. Louis, after she refused to provide 50 hours of care each week and accept families using the military’s child care subsidy program.

Clark submitted a DOD complaint and met with Nathan Whitesides, the director of Scott Air Force Base’s Inspector General Complaints Resolution Department. Afterward, Whitesides searched for guidance stating providers had to offer 50 hours of care. He couldn’t find any.

“My belief is that there is no official written guidance and that the AF [Air Force] childcare program is running the FCC [family child care] program in an ad hoc manner without proper oversight,” Whitesides determined in a memo dated Dec. 4, 2023.

Without being able to get a straight answer from program leaders, he added that “The potential for fraud and/or abuse in this program is high.”

But instead of getting relief, Clark learned this summer her certification was being suspended after someone made a child maltreatment allegation. Investigators determined the allegation was unfounded, but revoked her certification anyway for a transgression Clark believes would have ended with a slap on the wrist for other providers. She thinks it is retaliation for challenging the 50-hour rule and lodging complaints.

Public affairs officials at Scott Air Force Base did not respond to a request for comment on Clark’s case.

Clark said she will continue fighting to clear her name. But she’s offended and confused by everything that’s happened. She and other disgruntled providers say it’s time to remind the Department of Defense that they’re not servicemembers duty-bound to say, “Yes, sir.” They’re moms — trying to do their part. “It really hurts,” she said.

This War Horse story was edited by Mike Frankel, fact-checked by Jess Rohan, and copy-edited by Mitchell Hansen-Dewar. Hrisanthi Pickett wrote the headlines.

Jennifer Brookland is a regular contributor to The War Horse who served as a special agent in the Air Force before she received her master’s in journalism from Columbia University. She’s covered military and veterans’ issues for North Carolina Public Radio and child welfare for the Detroit Free Press. She was also a 2022 War Horse Fellow.

Parents, babies, toddlers and preschoolers joined in remotely from Camp Pendleton, California, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina, for a USO Military Virtual Programming session to experience Sesame Workshop’s latest resources for military families.

“Healthy, Happy, Ready” resources are designed to help military families build habits together around nutrition, movement and emotional wellness.

Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind “Sesame Street,” has partnered with the Defense Department’s Office of Military Family and Community Policy for 19 years on resources for military families with young children. Through the beloved Muppets Rosita, Elmo, Grover and others, they communicate directly with young children in ways they can understand, as well as their parents. Over the years, Sesame Workshop has conducted research and consulted with military families and other experts in various fields to develop its resources.

The new digital resources, available online 24/7, focus on fun but easy ways to get the whole family involved in healthy habits.

Videos focus on preparing nutritious meals as a family, a guide for growing a kitchen garden and ideas for making physical activity a regular part of the day. In her discussion with military families Thursday, Rosita said dancing is her favorite way of moving because she can dance whether it’s sunny or stormy outside.

The resources offer healthy, easy, kid-pleasing recipes; articles featuring tips and strategies for meal planning; and turning regular activities into play and games, especially during transitions or other busy times in military life. Printable pages related to videos’ themes are also available, offering suggestions for getting started.

During a question-and-answer portion at Thursday’s session, mothers at Camp Pendleton and Fort Bragg learned, for example, that the new resources address picky eaters and provide suggestions on ways to connect with other military families around healthy habits.

Sesame Workshop encourages families to share ideas, but they’re seeing that not only are adults sharing ideas with other adults, but kids are sharing with other kids, too, said Jeanette Betancourt, Sesame Workshop’s senior vice president of U.S. social impact.

Whether the day is sunny or stormy, Elmo is there for children of the wounded

In the past, Muppets have been featured in segments for military children dealing with deployments, homecomings, relocations, grief and other realities of military life. In a segment on military caregiving, Rosita, as a Muppet daughter of a Muppet military veteran, shared her feelings about adjusting to the family’s new life after her father’s injuries and how it helps to talk to Elmo about it. Those resources remain available on Sesame Workshop’s newly redesigned website, Betancourt said.

But more recently, they’ve heard directly from military families that they want to find easy ways to keep their children healthy that they can incorporate into their busy daily lives, Betancourt said.

During Thursday’s session, Rosita offered a tip for both children and adults on what to do when things get a little busy or stressful at home. It helps her to stop, take a deep breath and then let go.

“Sometimes I need two deep breaths,” she said.

After that, she said, “We hug.”

The new myAuth system is replacing the legacy DS Logon system, which authenticates users onto more than 200 Defense Department and Veterans Affairs websites, defense officials announced July 17. Those who use the DS Logon system currently include military personnel, DOD civilians, military and civilian retirees, family member beneficiaries, contractors and vendors.

Among other things, myAuth offers enhanced security protections, such as multi-factor authentication, which requires two or more verification methods.

When the system is completely phased in, users will be able to access all of their regular DOD applications with the one sign-in through myAuth. DOD officials say the new system will simplify the login process.

Many users can already log in to MyAuth and set up an account using their DS Logon credentials.

Officials are launching the system in phases, starting with milConnect and ID Card Office Online in May. As of July 14, more than 740,000 DOD-affiliated personnel had created myAuth accounts, officials said. The success rate for people creating their accounts is more than 99%, they said, minimizing the need for people to contact the call center.

Those who wait until after the DS Logon is gone must reverify their identity if they don’t have a Common Access Card. Many Tricare secure online patient services, such as the MHS Genesis patient portal, require a DS Logon account.

Those who don’t have a CAC or a DS Logon must create a one-time DS Logon account over the next 18 months to establish their identity and benefits before creating a myAuth account, the DOD told Military Times.

Active-duty service members and DOD civilians with a CAC will likely have no problem making the transition to the new system, officials said in their announcement, because their daily use of programs that currently offer both DS Logon and myAuth for authentication will be a reminder for them to sign up for myAuth.

Officials are focusing on getting the word out to a large number of users who don’t use the DOD systems daily, such as retirees, family members and contractors.

For example, the Defense Manpower Data Center is working with the Defense Health Agency to let users who access Tricare-related systems know about the change, said Zachary R. Gill, the branch chief of DMDC’s identity credential access management and partner services, in the announcement.

The myAuth provides secure access for retirees and other beneficiaries who may not have a Common Access Card.

It also provides access options for people who do have a CAC but might not be able to use it in certain circumstances — for example, a soldier traveling on orders booked through the Defense Travel System who encounters problems with a flight at the airport.

Without access to a CAC-enabled computer, it’s a challenge to access the Defense Travel System to make changes in travel. But with myAuth, a soldier in that circumstance could use a different credential to access the Defense Travel System with a personal cell phone. The CAC will no longer be the only way to access these government systems.

The myAuth uses Okta Verify, which can be installed on a personal or government-issued cell phone. There are biometric capabilities for both face and fingerprint recognition; the DOD organization using the system sets the methods for access.

Some of the applications individuals need to access may not require the highest levels of authentication, and not everyone has a CAC or a smartphone, or access to technology. So the myAuth system will “flex” to meet different needs, Gill said.

As the new system is rolled out, individuals using applications such as milConnect are seeing a login screen for myAuth, which allows them to create a myAuth account.

Gill noted that legacy DS Logon system isn’t the only system being replaced by myAuth, but it is the largest.

“There are multiple authentication systems across the department that each department is paying for individually, which means each department is paying for sustainment costs or licensing costs,” Gill said in the announcement, noting that DOD will shutter those systems and replace them with myAuth.

More information about the change is available at myAuth Help.

They’ve asked for a report on DOD’s plans by March 31, 2026, as part of the House draft on the annual defense authorization bill today. Lawmakers want details on plans for maintaining the current benefits for service members and their families.

“The committee is concerned that privatization of retail programs could result in disruptions to benefits and productivity without providing substantial improvements,” stated the amendment adopted by the House Armed Services Committee. So they direct the Secretary of Defense to submit the report to the House and Senate armed services committees on the plans and processes being used for evaluating whether to privatize the retail programs.

The provision will have to survive negotiations over the next few months before the final compromise bill is settled.

Lawmakers are responding to an April 7 memo from Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg on restructuring the DOD civilian workforce, which stated, “All functions that are not inherently governmental (e.g. retail sales and recreation) should be prioritized for privatization.”

Other information lawmakers would require include the feasibility of privatizing retail programs at remote and overseas locations. Critics of privatization have said that while private entities might be willing to operate large stores in the U.S. such as those at Fort Belvoir, Va., and San Diego, it would be less financially viable to operate stores overseas and in remote areas.

Lawmakers want details on the anticipated benefits of privatization, to include savings and operational efficiencies; an analysis of key challenges associated with privatization; effects on current appropriated-fund employees of the programs; and effects on contractors supporting the retail programs, such as those supplying groceries sold in commissaries and the items sold in military exchanges.

They’re also asking for an assessment of the disruption to the benefits and workflow of retail programs during transition.

Various groups within and outside the Defense Department have proposed commissary privatization over the past several decades, eyeing the billion-plus dollars of taxpayer money used to operate the stores, but those proposals have been rejected as advocates defended the benefit.

Defense officials kept commissaries open during the COVID-19 pandemic, deeming them “mission essential.”

By law, commissaries must provide an average overall savings of 23.7% compared to civilian grocery stores. To provide the savings, the stores rely on the annual appropriation of more than $1.4 billion in taxpayer dollars for the costs of operations, including employee salaries. In 2022, then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin directed DOD to fully fund commissaries in order to cut costs at the register in an effort to help families with the rising costs of food.

On the other hand, military exchanges don’t use taxpayer dollars for their operations. They provide department-store goods at varying discounts. They also operate gas stations, convenience stores and liquor stores. Eateries ranging from Burger King to Panera Bread also have agreements with the exchanges to operate on many military bases. Military exchanges are also tasked with operating the school meal programs for school-age children at DOD schools on overseas military bases.

Deputy editor Leo Shane III contributed to this report.

Sergio Rodriguez, an Army veteran and military family advocate who was named 2022 Navy Spouse of the Year by Armed Forces Insurance, alleges his First Amendment rights were violated when officials banned him from the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay’s Facebook page and deleted all his comments in August 2024.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, names Capt. Christopher Bohner, commanding officer of the base, and Scott Bassett, a public affairs officer, as defendants.

“This case is about ensuring the government can’t silence voices it doesn’t like, especially those speaking up on behalf of others,” said Mike Petrino, senior litigation counsel for the Center for Individual Rights, a nonprofit public interest law firm representing Rodriguez. “The Navy may not like what Sergio had to say, but the First Amendment prohibits them from shutting him out of a public forum for saying it.”

Rodriguez, who lives in Chesapeake, Virginia, is an advocate for military families who encounter problems with military housing and other issues, and regularly follows official social media pages of various military bases worldwide, according to the lawsuit. He uses those social media pages to advise, mentor and assist families who live on base.

In August 2024, Rodriguez saw on the submarine base’s Facebook page that an electrical power outage had left many military families living on base without power for more than 12 hours, according to the lawsuit. Officials posted that Public Works was on the scene working to restore electricity as quickly as possible, according to a screenshot of the posting included in the lawsuit.

Rodriguez posted questions about whether the base had a plan to temporarily relocate residents if the power outage continued, and whether officials would provide information on how residents could be reimbursed for their spoiled perishables. Officials responded with a post that those with a claim should start with the Navy Legal Service Office.

Shortly after that, Bassett, at the direction of Bohner, banned Rodriguez from the Facebook page and deleted all of his previous comments, the lawsuit alleges. He had been posting to the base’s Facebook page for the previous four years without incident.

Rodriguez received a call from Bohner’s wife indicating he had been banned from the Facebook page, the lawsuit claims. A few days later, Rodriguez emailed Bassett requesting reinstatement to the Facebook page, but received no response.

“The Navy’s actions didn’t just block me — they tried to block the truth,” Rodriguez said in an announcement of the lawsuit. “I was giving families relevant guidance I wish I had when I first started navigating the system. Silencing that helps no one.”

Officials have not given Rodriguez any reason for banning him, according to Rodriguez’s attorneys.

The Navy doesn’t comment on pending litigation, said Destiny Sibert, a spokeswoman for Commander, Navy Installations Command headquarters.

She referred to the Navy’s social media policy, updated in October 2024, which states: “The Navy may not block individual social media accounts from official Navy social media sites. However, the Navy may delete comments that constitute a violation of law, regulation, or the Navy’s terms of service.”

The policy further states that public officials who use social media accounts for official business cannot exclude people from open online discussions simply because they express opposing views, as that would violate the First Amendment. It also notes that the First Amendment doesn’t protect all types of speech, including “obscenity, defamation, fraud, incitement and speech integral to criminal conduct.”

The Navy’s previous social media policy was more ambiguous and didn’t address First Amendment rights, according to a Military Times comparison of the two policies, but listed specific violations that would result in someone being blocked, such as graphic, obscene, explicit or racist comments or submissions, or comments that are abusive, hateful or intended to defame.

According to the lawsuit, Rodriguez received a commendation from then-President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden for his advocacy for military families. He served in the Army from 2000 to 2006, when he retired due to disability. As of 2010, when his wife joined the Navy, he became a Navy spouse.

'A victory for all military spouses' in court fight over job licenses

This is the second lawsuit the Center for Individual Rights has filed this year regarding allegations of First Amendment rights violations in the military community. In March, the organization filed a lawsuit on behalf of Timothy Stanhope, a retired National Guard member with 23 years of service in the North Carolina National Guard. He named the leadership of the North Carolina National Guard as defendants, alleging he was banned from their official Facebook page after posting critical comments about the Guard leadership, mismanagement, living conditions, food and water quality. The lawsuit alleges he was forced to retire, and after he retired, the leaders banned him from the official Facebook page.

Attorneys for Rodriguez and Stanhope contend that as more government officials and agencies use social media to communicate with the public, the cases could serve as critical reminders to government officials about the constitutional limits of digital censorship.

Because he was banned from the Facebook page, Rodriguez has “suffered irreparable and ongoing harm” because he’s prevented from receiving information from the page, and is prevented from offering advice and assistance to others on the page, the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit asks for an injunction to prohibit the officials from blocking Rodriguez from the Facebook page, or deleting his comments on the basis of his viewpoint. It also asks the court to award him costs, reasonable attorneys’ fees and other expenses and any additional relief.

The changes include adding administrative officers to nearly every school and increasing the number of school psychologists. It also includes eliminating some positions, but it’s not clear yet how many people will be moving to other positions or leaving the school system by the beginning of the next school year.

Classroom teaching positions remain unaffected, said Jessica Tackaberry, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense Education Activity.

“Core services and teacher-to-student ratios remain unchanged, ensuring continuity, stability, and high-quality learning environments” across Department of Defense Education Activity Schools, according to a DODEA announcement.

The changes are “in direct support of the Department of Defense’s Workforce Acceleration and Recapitalization Initiative,” according to officials. That initiative required agencies to submit proposals for potential ways to reduce or eliminate redundant or non-essential functions and include adjusted civilian manpower levels.

“This is not change for the sake of change. It’s targeted, strategic, and rooted in our mission to support military-connected students,” said DODEA Director Beth Schiavino-Narvaez, in the announcement. “We are transforming our workforce to meet the future head-on, while preserving the academic excellence that our families depend on.”

DODEA officials said they aim to strengthen school-level leadership structures, ensure smoother student transitions between schools and invest in professional development for educators.

The Federal Education Association, the union representing DODEA faculty and staff, has “big, big, big concerns about this,” said Richard Tarr, executive director of the FEA.

Tarr questioned the changes, citing the school system’s accomplishments. For example, military school students led the nation last year in 4th and 8th grade math and reading scores.

“In general, this reduces the number of people serving the students in the school, but those duties don’t go away,” he said. “They’re distributing the duties among other people who are already overworked and have their own full-time positions.

“Teachers’ working conditions are the students’ learning conditions.”

FEA has asked DODEA for more information and has made proposals “to alleviate the harm” but hasn’t gotten answers, Tarr said.

DODEA hasn’t included FEA in discussions around these changes, he said, following President Donald Trump’s executive order March 27 excluding certain federal workers from the right to collective bargaining. The union has filed a lawsuit challenging that order.

Last November, DODEA invited parents, students, educators and leaders to participate in a systemwide questionnaire on Future Ready Learners, and the results shaped many of these decisions, officials said.

DODEA operates 161 accredited schools in 11 foreign countries, seven states, Guam and Puerto Rico, including the DODEA Virtual School. There are nearly 900,000 military school-age children, and of those, about 65,000 attend DODEA schools.

DOD educator unions sue Trump over collective bargaining rights

The changes outlined include adding 21.5 psychologist positions across the school system, lowering the psychologist-to-students ratio from one for every 900 students to one for every 700.

The national ratio for the 2023-2024 school year was one school psychologist per 1,065 students, according to the National Association of School Psychologists, which recommends one psychologist per 500 children.

DODEA also plans to transition school education technologist positions to district-level instructional systems specialists. Tarr said this change is cause for concern because these technologists not only help keep students’ laptops running, but also work with educators to make sure they can use the technology embedded in the curriculum.

In response to this concern, DODEA spokeswoman Tackaberry said, “Schools also have IT personnel that support the school for any technology issues, and have other staff capable of handling school automation needs.”

The plan also calls for phasing out or significantly changing special education assessor positions and speech-language pathologist assessor positions.

Tarr said FEA is disappointed that these positions are being eliminated. However, Tackaberry said assessments will continue with speech-language pathologists, who will also participate in eligibility and Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings.

School psychologists will continue to administer cognitive and behavioral assessments and participate in eligibility and IEP meetings, Tackaberry said. This will allow school psychologists to serve as the primary coordinators for all special education evaluations.

“This change is aimed at improving early intervention and more individualized support for students,” Tackaberry said.

Another change will add administrative officers at nearly every school “to streamline operations and free principals to focus on instructional leadership,” according to officials.

Currently, DODEA has some administrative officers, but they serve multiple schools. They perform a wide range of tasks, Tackaberry said, including managing office operations, budgets, personnel and records and providing support to administrators and staff.

Universal pre-K launches for 4-year-olds at 80 DOD schools

Another step in the plan is to phase out or significantly change office automation assistant and office automation clerk positions, as well as numerous positions above the school level.

About 88% of DODEA’s workforce is at the school level, while 12% serve above the school level in districts, regions or headquarters offices. About one-third of the cuts in positions are happening at above-school levels. The numbers of those cuts, as well as the other two-thirds of the changes at the school level, have not yet been confirmed, Tackaberry said.

“While the transformation is not focused on broad workforce reductions, it does include the careful elimination or reallocation of certain roles to improve efficiency, reduce duplication and strengthen support systems at all levels within DODEA,” Tackaberry said.

The changes affect a number of instructional systems specialist positions and some operations-focused positions at the district and region levels, she said.

Nearly every headquarters department was affected, including logistics, procurement, equal employment opportunity programs, curriculum and instruction, professional learning, general counsel, security management, facilities and others, Tackaberry said.

“The exact number of eliminated positions is still being finalized, as efforts are ongoing to reassign impacted staff into roles that match their skills, experience, and certifications,” she said.

Without knowing which positions are being affected, it’s difficult to know what effects this might have on children’s education, said Eileen Huck, acting director of government relations for the National Military Family Association.

“Any time there are changes at the school level, parents are understandably concerned, especially in the current environment where we know so many federal civilian employees have lost their jobs,” she said.

The review, directed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier this month, calls for officials to evaluate “current support for homeschooling military-connected families, as well as best practices, including the feasibility of providing facilities or access to other resources for those students.”

In his memo, Hegseth said the move is needed because “ensuring that military-connected families receive strong educational support maintains morale and readiness, reinforcing the overall stability and effectiveness of our military communities.”

More military children will soon have access to DOD-operated schools

Homeschooling is more common among military families than in the civilian population, in part because of the frequent moves and remote assignments of service members.

A Johns Hopkins University study released in March found that in 2024, about 12% of military families homeschooled their children, compared to about 6% for the nonmilitary American population. That gap remained consistent even during the COVID-19 pandemic, which temporarily shuttered schools nationwide.

The Defense Department operates 161 schools with roughly 67,000 students worldwide to help offset the challenges of providing education to military minors. The department does not require students to be enrolled in those schools, and does not have an official stance supporting or opposing homeschooling.

However, some states or foreign countries may have eligibility requirements for homeschooling. Defense Department officials in the past have said parents are responsible for ensuring compliance with those rules.

In an executive order from January, President Donald Trump ordered military leaders to submit a report on ways to expand schooling options for military children, “including private, faith-based, or public charter schools.” Hegseth said his homeschooling order is an extension of that effort.

The Department of Defense Education Activity does make some classes and resources available to homeschooled students, but the latest review aims to see if that assistance is enough.

Officials did not specify when the homeschooling review is expected to be completed.

That includes increasing the reimbursement rate for troops and families who decide to move all or part of their household goods themselves to 130% of what the government would have paid under the GHC contract for personally procured moves made May 15 through Sept. 30. The rate is currently 100%.

“I take my responsibilities to our service members, civilians and their families seriously,” Hegseth wrote in a May 20 memo to senior Pentagon leaders, combatant commanders and defense agencies.

The new contract, worth potentially up to $17.9 billion over nine years, is aimed at fixing long-standing problems with missed pickup and delivery dates, broken and lost items and claims. However, amid the contract’s rocky rollout this year, families have reported delays in getting their household goods picked up and delivered.

“We know it’s not working and it’s only getting worse. We’ve heard your concerns about contractor performance quality and accountability. We hear you loud and clear. That’s why we’re taking decisive action immediately,” Hegseth said in a video posted on X. He described the process as “a mess,” and acknowledged “it’s never been a great system.”

The current GHC rates “fail to reflect market rates,” Hegseth said. He’s ordered a review of the rates being paid to movers under both the new GHC system, which consolidates management under a single contractor, HomeSafe Alliance, and the legacy system, in an effort to ensure enough companies participate in moving troops’ household goods. And since the rates for reimbursing service members for moving themselves are tied to those GHC rates, Hegseth ordered the increase to 130% of the GHC rate for personally procured moves.

HomeSafe Alliance “is grateful for Defense Secretary Hegseth’s attention to the Global Household Goods Contract and the directives he has issued, which will greatly improve moving experiences for military service members and their families,” company officials said in a statement to Military Times.

“DoD raising our rates to account for significant inflation from the last four years would substantially benefit our ability to facilitate world-class moving services for our nation’s heroes.”

TRANSCOM awarded the contract to HomeSafe Alliance in 2021. After delays with protests of the award, work began on the contract in 2023. Moves gradually began under GHC in April, 2024.

Hegseth has directed U.S. Transportation Command to hold both the GHC and the legacy moving program “accountable” and to provide weekly updates to the offices of the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness and undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment.

He’s also ordered both of those offices to form a PCS task force to “act decisively to improve, expand, terminate or transfer GHC or [legacy program] responsibilities as needed,” according to the memo.

“We’re going to fix it holistically after peak moving season, and we’re going to throw the kitchen sink at it to make sure your moves work this season as well,” Hegseth said.

“We look forward to working with the PCS task force to demonstrate how our program modernizes and digitizes the move process and resolves decades-long issues with military relocations,” HomeSafe Alliance officials stated.

TRANSCOM, which had been gradually ramping up the volume of the moves with HomeSafe Alliance since April 2024, had expected to move all domestic shipments under the new contract by this year’s peak moving season, but they scrapped that plan earlier this year as problems began to mount with HomeSafe Alliance’s ability to provide enough capacity to pack, load, truck and unload service members’ belongings.

Season of Uncertainty: Many questions remain as peak military moving time approaches

In the meantime, officials are continuing to use both the new GHC system and the legacy system to move people, in an effort to ensure there are enough movers.

Hegseth also said he fired Andy Dawson, the civilian head of the program, replacing him with a two-star general, Army Maj. Gen. Lance G. Curtis, commander of the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, who will report directly to Hegseth. Defense officials have had multiple meetings about the problem over the past few weeks, Hegseth said.

A number of moving companies have declined to participate in the new GHC system, citing lower rates than they’ve been traditionally paid. When GHC can’t find a mover for a service member’s belongings, it turns the shipment back to TRANSCOM, and the shipment goes to a mover in the legacy system. At least 5,700 shipments have had to be turned away from GHC, according to the most recent estimate. But movers have complained that legacy system rates released earlier this month are also lower than those of previous years, further contributing to a lack of capacity to move household goods.

“It’s a season of instability” for moving companies, said Dan Bradley, vice president of government and military relations for the International Association of Movers. It’s been difficult for moving companies to plan for the season and make important decisions such as buying more trucks and hiring personnel, especially since until recently they were under the impression that 100% of DOD moves would be made under GHC, he said.

“They want to support service members in those moves,” he said, but it’s difficult to turn around at the drop of a hat. “They’re doing the best they can. They want to stay in the program.”

As of May 7, individuals must show a REAL ID, or acceptable alternative, to board domestic commercial flights, visit military installations and access certain federal facilities. REAL ID driver’s licenses are identified by a star in the upper right-hand corner. DOD ID cards, including those issued to dependents, are among the forms of identification listed on the TSA website as acceptable alternatives to the REAL ID.

Still, some travelers told Military Times their military IDs have been rejected at U.S. airports. The issue has come up with military retirees, particularly those with old-style ID cards featuring an “INDEF”, or indefinite expiration date.

One Air Force retiree said his retiree ID card wasn’t accepted when he tried it out while flying to Virginia on May 10. The card has an “INDEF” expiration date.

“Our officers are trained to accept military IDs at our security checkpoints,” TSA spokesman Dave Fitz told Military Times. “In the unlikely event that an officer would not accept a military ID, the passenger should ask to speak to a supervisor.”

Although the TSA page detailing the list of acceptable identification doesn’t specifically mention retired military IDs, Fitz said, “U.S. Department of Defense IDs, to include IDs for active and retired military, are acceptable forms of ID, even if they do not have an expiration date.”

Military-connected passengers may also use any of the other acceptable IDs listed, Fitz noted. Among other options listed on the TSA site are U.S. passports, Veteran Health Identification Cards (VHIC), state-issued Enhanced Driver’s Licenses (EDL) and Enhanced IDs (EID).

Replacing old-style military IDs

Meanwhile, policies for accessing military bases for those who already have military or DOD-issued credentials, such as military retirees, dependents and surviving spouses, have not changed.

But those with an old-style ID card should be aware that while they will still be able to access military bases with that ID, it’s uncertain for how long. These IDs are blue, pink or tan DD Form 2, DD Form 1173, DD Form 1173-1 or DD Form 2785.

More than 5 million military family members, retirees are getting new ID cards

The Defense Department is working to replace these IDs with the NextGen ID. Officials advise getting the NextGen ID now to avoid any problems with installation access. For more information about the NextGen ID and how to replace it, visit this Defense Finance and Accounting Service page.

DOD hasn’t yet announced the deadline for the replacements. DOD previously said the transition to NextGen ID is expected to be completed by January 2026 for the 5 million non-CAC holders, primarily retirees and military family members.

Defense officials awarded the contract for the pilot program in March 2024 to the nonprofit Armed Services YMCA. The first child care center was set to open Monday on Walmer Avenue in Norfolk, with 216 slots for children ages 0 to 5 years old.

The second is expected to open later this year in the Shirlington area of Arlington, Virginia, a few minutes away from the Pentagon. Then in spring 2026, a child care center is scheduled to open in Virginia Beach.

Each of the centers will enroll more than 200 children and are exclusively for children of eligible military personnel and DOD civilians.

The pilot was designed to work with a nonprofit partner who would commit to maintaining DOD standards and accepting parent fees using established DOD fee ranges, according to a defense official. This is one of a number of initiatives by the services and DOD to ease a shortage of child care for military families.

“The department launched multiple initiatives to help our families overcome nationwide child care shortages,” said Eryn Wagnon, chief of staff for DOD’s Military Community and Family Policy office, during the Norfolk center’s ribbon cutting May 16. “Paired with the department’s efforts to build and open more on-installation child development centers, these initiatives are helping to rebuild our military.

“Providing this critical resource safeguards our warfighters’ ability to focus on their global mission of reestablishing deterrence.”

Defense officials chose these geographic areas for the pilot program because of the high need. They are among the areas with the longest military child care waitlists. The shortage of child care for military families has long been an issue, in some areas more than others.

There’s a nationwide shortage of child care, but the problem is exacerbated for mobile military families, who very often don’t have alternatives, such as family nearby who can help.

“We’re really hopeful this can become a long-term solution to address the child care issue within the department of defense,” said Dorene Ocamb, chief marketing and development officer for Armed Services YMCA.

As they scouted out locations for the centers, Armed Services YMCA officials sought places convenient for those driving to installations along thoroughfares from concentrations of military housing, Ocamb said.

These centers will have more slots for infants than child development centers usually have, as infant care is more expensive and more difficult to find.

The new Norfolk center has five infant classrooms, four for pre-toddlers, four for toddlers and four for pre-kindergarteners.

Military child care centers see varying effects from personnel actions

Families will pay child care fees that are based on the same fee structure used in DOD child development centers, where fees are based on total family income, regardless of the age of the child. For example, the standard weekly fee per child is $54 for a family with an annual total family income of up to $45,000.99. A family with an income of $65,001 to $77,500.99 will pay $88 per week.

Just as DOD subsidizes the cost for parents in its child development centers, DOD also subsidizes the cost of child care in these centers. Officials anticipate that over the five-year contract award period, the operating costs for each facility, once opened, will be about $6 million to $8 million a year, which will be partially offset by those parent fees.

The contract also allows for one-time start-up costs for each program. For the first year, DOD’s costs for the Norfolk location were $6.6 million, a DOD official said.

The center is subject to the same regulations and standards as DOD-operated child development centers, including the priority list for military and DOD civilian families.

Since the centers are not located on federal land, they’re licensed by the state. All employees go through the same screening as any child care worker at a DOD child development center, Ocamb said.

Families follow the same DOD process to sign up for child care, through the MilitaryChildCare.com website.

Interest has been high in the Norfolk center, Ocamb said. When email notices about its 216 available slots went out to parents on the waiting list on the MilitaryChildCare.com site, 394 families expressed interest, she said.

As troops struggle to find child care, 24-hour centers offer help

In a little over 13 months since the contract was awarded, Armed Services YMCA officials have been able to move from contract signature to actual door opening, Ocamb said.

“In the world of DOD, that’s nothing short of a miracle in terms of the pace of which we were able to find a location, make this commercial property into a fully functioning CDC, hire all the staff that we need, and get families in the door,” she said.

It generally takes five years for child development centers to be built under the military construction process, given the government requirements.

Armed Services YMCA, established in 1861, now has 12 branches and 24 affiliate partners serving nearly 200,000 military members, spouses and children, primarily in the junior enlisted community. These branches have long provided various forms of child care, such as full day care or drop in care, depending on the needs of the military families.

This pilot program is a separate effort.

“We anticipate the total being approximately 30,000 beneficiaries” who will be disenrolled in the process that is currently under way, TriWest officials said in a statement to Military Times.

Those who want to reinstate their coverage must do so by June 30.

This applies to beneficiaries who pay for their Tricare coverage using a credit card, debit card or bank electronic funds transfer and haven’t set up those payments with TriWest.

That sensitive payment information couldn’t be transferred automatically from the previous West Region contractor, Health Net Federal Services, to TriWest Healthcare Alliance, which took over the West Region on Jan. 1.

Beneficiaries are receiving letters from Defense Manpower Data Center informing them of their disenrollment, according to Tricare officials. The program set up a way for beneficiaries to request reinstatement of their coverage, but it won’t be automatic, and beneficiaries must request reinstatement before June 30.

“This disenrollment is retroactive to your paid-through date,” Tricare officials stated in an announcement. Those who haven’t made any payments for coverage this year are finding their disenrollment dates back to Jan. 1. They are responsible for paying the full cost of any health care services received by anyone in their family back to Jan. 1.

Beneficiaries in the Tricare West Region who have been disenrolled can’t request reinstatement through the TriWest portal. Instead, they must call TriWest at 888-874-9378 and say they’ve been disenrolled and want to reinstate their enrollment, according to Tricare officials.

They’ll be required to provide the payment information to TriWest and pay all overdue enrollment fees or premiums back to Jan. 1, officials said.

Many beneficiaries were having trouble getting those payments set up because of glitches in the TriWest online portal and difficulties getting through to their call center.

TriWest officials have been working to fix the problems and have added staff to the call center. After several extensions of the deadline, disenrollment of beneficiaries from Tricare began May 1 for those who didn’t submit payment information to TriWest by April 30, according to Tricare officials.

This issue doesn’t apply to those who have Tricare for Life, the U.S. Family Health Plan or a Tricare health plan overseas. Those who had set up allotments through the Defense Financing and Accounting Service previously for their payments were told they didn’t have to take action for their allotments to be automatically transferred to TriWest.

It’s not clear how many of those 30,000 beneficiaries expected to be disenrolled have actively chosen not to continue their coverage. In early January, TriWest officials told Military Times that 59% of those who needed to provide payment information had done so.

Initially, West Region beneficiaries were required to provide their information to TriWest before the Jan. 1 start date of the TriWest West Region contract. But because many beneficiaries were having difficulty setting up those payments, Tricare extended the deadline several times.

In late April, Defense Health Agency officials extended their referral approval waiver through June 30 for the West Region, which allows military families enrolled in Tricare Prime in that region an extra two months to get specialty care without having to get approval from the contractor, TriWest.

They didn’t extend the deadline for setting up recurring payments.

New DOD rules requiring child development center personnel to notify parents within 24 hours after they learn of an allegation don‘t go far enough, the report states.

As a result, parents or guardians may not be aware of the specifics of allegations involving their children, limiting the potential actions they can take to address the allegations and help their child, according to DOD’s independent watchdog.

During the period of the Inspector General’s evaluation, which began in May 2024, defense officials updated their policy to require notification to these parents or legal guardians within 24 hours after Child and Youth Program officials learn of the allegations.

However, the updated December 2024 policy doesn’t specifically address how the child development center staff should communicate information about the allegation and follow up with parents, or what specific information should be shared.

The services also need to maintain files of all notification documentation, according to the report.

Military child development centers provide child care for children from birth to age 5, but may also offer school-age care.

This report is the first to be published from an Inspector General evaluation of DOD child development centers. An upcoming report will focus on the services’ implementation of policies to verify that child abuse allegations were appropriately addressed at certain child development centers.

In response to this report, defense personnel officials agreed that the policy will be revised by Sept. 30 to require the military services to follow a uniform procedure to identify, notify and report child abuse and neglect allegations to parents in all DOD-sanctioned activities, including child development centers.

Army, Navy and Marine Corps officials replied that they will update their policies once defense officials issue theirs. The Navy’s target completion date for their new policy is April 30, 2026, and the Marine Corps’ is April 1, 2026. Air Force officials hadn’t yet provided a response to the report’s recommendations.

Army officials told inspectors that parents are immediately notified within 24 hours of any alleged or suspected incident, and that their regulations are being revised to include parental notifications with written incident reports for child abuse or neglect allegations.

Navy officials said parents must be notified in person or verbally by telephone within 24 hours of an incident, and written parental notification is required within 48 hours. A specific form isn’t required.

Marine Corps officials require notification within 24 hours, but officials told inspectors they don’t tell installations how to provide the communication. Air Force officials are in the process of revising their regulations to require notification of parents within 24 hours.

It’s the second time Defense Health Agency officials have extended their referral approval waiver, which was first announced in late January. The waiver is a move to help ease the problems families have been experiencing since TriWest took over the contract for the West Region at the start of the year.

One issue was that Tricare Prime families haven’t been able to get referrals approved by TriWest, which is traditionally required before they can get specialty care.

“After assessing the current state of referrals, DHA has decided to extend the referral approval waiver for many beneficiaries,” Richard Hart, division chief of health plan design for Tricare, said in DHA’s announcement of the extension.

‘Families will still struggle’

Advocates question how much the extension of the referral approval waiver will help military families and medical providers. Some families aren’t able to get specialty care even with a referral from their Tricare Prime primary care manager because of the difficulty finding a specialist who will accept Tricare.

“I don’t think [the extension] is going to make a significant difference, because it doesn’t address the root problem,” said Dr. Kristi Cabiao, CEO and president of Mission Alpha Advocacy, an organization that works to improve the quality of life for military families within the Exceptional Family Member Program. “Families are still going to struggle finding providers who will take Tricare.”

“Providers haven’t received payment. They don’t trust the system. They’re either going to minimize the number of Tricare patients they take, or drop Tricare,” she said. “Families are facing significant barriers.”

Many providers still don’t have contracts to work with TriWest, Cabiao said. And the lack of payment has caused such financial difficulties that some medical providers have had no choice but to permanently shut down.

“What is the projected timeline for resolution? Have we identified the root of the problem?” Cabiao asked.

During a conference March 31, a Defense Health Agency official said he expected the problems would be resolved in a couple of months.

In the meantime, Cabiao suggested, one solution would be to have an additional open enrollment period now.

“It’s the Tricare Prime people who are really struggling. If [DHA] opened up enrollment so they could switch to Tricare Select, at least they’d get away from this mess. They’d have co-pays, but would have access to specialists,” she said.

Tricare snafus cause medical shortfalls for military families

Normal referral processing returns to some MTFs

Certain military hospitals and clinics have returned to normal referral processing through TriWest, as the company works to improve its referral processing system, DHA officials said.

Beneficiaries whose primary care managers are located at these facilities will have their referrals processed by TriWest:

California: Naval Medical Center San Diego, Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton, Naval Hospital Twentynine Palms, Naval Health Clinic Lemoore and Army Health Clinic Presidio of Monterey

Colorado: Air Force Academy clinics, Peterson Air Force Base clinic, Buckley AFB clinic, Fort Carson’s Evans Army Community Hospital and Schriever Space Force Base clinic

Nebraska: Offutt AFB clinic

Nevada: Nellis AFB’s Mike O’Callaghan Military Medical Center

Texas: Brooke Army Medical Center

Washington: Madigan Army Medical Center, Naval Hospital Bremerton and Naval Health Clinic Oak Harbor

“We’re going to use everything that is happening to make [the Defense Commissary Agency] a better organization. This is a strategic opportunity for DeCA to transform itself,” said John Hall, director of the Defense Commissary Agency, at an American Logistics Association meeting in Richmond, Virginia, on April 22.

“We’re going to become more like a commercial grocery chain than ever before. We’ll be a commercial grocery chain that happens to work for the Department of Defense. … By that I mean we’ll offer all the products and services, all those good things you see in a good commercial grocery chain, and while doing that, we’re going to continue to deliver 25% savings,” Hall said.

Privatization of commissaries and exchanges has come to the forefront of discussions, in light of an April 7 memo from Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg on restructuring the DOD civilian workforce, which stated, “All functions that are not inherently governmental (e.g. retail sales and recreation) should be prioritized for privatization.”

But officials are contending with more than just the Feinberg memo, said Steve Rossetti, president of ALA. In addition to discussions in Congress about privatizing programs and services on military installations, the Trump administration has taken steps to reduce the federal workforce and implemented a hiring freeze. There’s also the tariff situation, and its looming effect on military stores, which sell many of the same products carried by civilian stores.

About 200 of DeCA’s 12,500 employees took the federal workforce early buyout offer, Hall said. While some of those were key people whom officials will need to figure out how to replace, he said, there hasn’t been much of an effect otherwise. The agency hasn’t been significantly impacted by the hiring freeze so far, Hall said, but officials are asking DOD for some exemptions to keep workers in the stores and in the central distribution centers.

“The longer it goes, the more likely it will start to have an effect,” he said.

Still, DOD and commissary officials are taking steps to improve commissaries for troops and families, and officials said they are seeing results. Officials are expected to soon award a contract for nationwide doorstep delivery and are continuing efforts to improve the supply chain to decrease costs for suppliers, customers and the commissary system.

Nationwide doorstep delivery getting closer for commissary customers

The agency has also taken steps to lower egg prices and stock more products on shelves, among other efforts, to improve customer experience.

As egg prices soared earlier this year, officials were able to use variable pricing to lower egg prices at commissaries. A relatively new pricing tool for the agency, variable pricing involves marking up the price of some products to pay for lowering the cost of others. Until 2017, all commissary products were priced at the cost from the supplier/manufacturer.

“We were spending up to $500,000 a week to lower the prices of eggs for our service members and their families. We were at about 24.2% savings overall in eggs compared to the market,” Hall said.

Overall, commissaries have made progress in improving the availability of products, called the “in-stock rate” in the retail industry. The in-stock rate for commissaries overall is 97%, up from 95% a year ago.

“That means that when a patron walks into the store, they’re going to get about 97% of the products that they’re looking for,” Hall said.

Officials are working to address stores with lower rates, and aim to increase the overall rate to 98%. He added that the in-stock rates for commercial grocery chains average about 93.5%.

Hall highlighted commissaries in Guam, which have had an in-stock rate in the mid-to-upper 80% range, he said. For the last two months, the in-stock rate has been at 95%, approaching 96%. Changes made at Guam commissaries — carrying more of what customers locally want to buy and simultaneously driving up the in-stock rates — resulted in a 20% increase in sales, he said, and officials want to apply those lessons across the system’s 235 stores.

Commissary sales have also increased over the last four years, reversing a decline over the previous 10 years, Hall said.

“That’s far beyond what commercial grocery chains have done in the last three and a half years or so,” he said.

In fiscal 2024, commissary sales were $4.7 billion, up more than 17% since 2020. In 2012, dollar sales were $6 billion.

Sales overall in commissaries are up by about 2.5% this fiscal year compared to the same period last year, he said.

About 77% of active duty members and families who live within 20 miles of a commissary shop at least once a month there, Hall said. Of the households with retirees and disabled veterans living within that radius, about 35% use the commissary.

“We need this. Our customers want and need this contract,” Hall said during a meeting of the American Logistics Association in Richmond, Virginia, on Tuesday. “I’m really excited about this.”

Hall did not provide a specific timeline for the broader rollout of the service, which is currently limited to select pilot locations.

“There are some hurdles left,” he said. “We’re going to work really hard to get over it.”

According to the contract solicitation documents, delivery service would be available to eligible customers living within a 20-mile radius of commissaries in the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. The solicitation requires the service to start initially at 70 locations, but gives the Defense Commissary Agency the ability to add any of the remaining 108 commissaries at any time.

Commissary officials aren’t considering doorstep delivery for overseas commissaries, due to overseas regulatory constraints.

There are about 3.4 million eligible households living within a 20-mile radius of those 178 commissaries, which sell discounted groceries as a benefit to active duty, Guard and Reserve members, military retirees, Medal of Honor recipients and their authorized family members. Veterans with any Department of Veterans Affairs-documented, service-connected disability rating also have commissary privileges.

Officials launched a pilot program in 2022 for deliveries at eight commissaries, including Scott Air Force Base, Illinois; Fort Bragg South, North Carolina; MacDill Air Force Base, Florida; Fort Belvoir and Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia; Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington; and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar and Naval Base San Diego in California.

Delivery costs has been an issue in the service rollout. Officials are trying to keep delivery costs for customers as low as possible, Hall said.

“We want it comparable to what they would pay at a local grocery chain [for delivery],” he said.

When the pilot first launched in 2022, most delivery fees hovered around $4 per order. Customers pay the fee in addition to the cost of groceries, the 5% commissary surcharge, and, if desired, a tip for the driver. But those low delivery fees made it financially difficult for the two companies handling the deliveries to cover operating costs like gas prices and drivers’ salaries.

One of the companies, ChowCall, took over all the deliveries at the eight commissaries in March 2023, and was allowed to set prices to cover its costs. The cost depends on the miles driven, ranging from about $16 to about $30. ChowCall has delivered more than 28,000 commissary orders from the eight pilot locations, according to Todd Waldemar, founder and CEO of ChowCall.

Information is not yet available about whether the delivery fee will be subsidized in some way by the commissary system under the new contract.

Customers using the delivery service at the eight pilot stores buy nearly three times as much per order as customers shopping in person at commissaries, according to Hall. The average shopping basket is about $185 for customers using the delivery service, compared to the average basket of about $65 per trip for those shopping inside the stores. For those using the curbside pickup service available at all commissaries, the average order is about $120, according to Hall.

“Think about how much more benefit we can deliver to our customers, how much more we can combat food insecurity when we get this delivery contract in place,” Hall said.

Kinderspot allows parents to sublet their child care spaces at Air Force child development centers when they’re away for vacation or other reasons, connecting them to other eligible Department of Defense families who need the child care.

The app, which was the brainchild of Air Force Maj. Jacque Vasta, was launched Air Force-wide in July, following testing at a number of bases. To date, 12,361 military families are using the platform, and 12,558 child care spot rentals have been facilitated, according to Air Force officials. Nearly 22,500 weeks of child care availability have been offered.

Generally, parents are required to pay for the weeks their children are away from military child care, such as when the family is on leave or when the service member is away on temporary duty. The app allows them to save those funds. When parents successfully sublet a child’s vacant spot, they receive a credit to their account.

For example, a family planning to take a vacation this summer might be able to offer their spot on the app, and it could be picked up by another military family who needs short-term child care as they make a permanent change of station move to or from the installation.

“Kinderspot has been a major win when it comes to supporting our members and their families with child care in the Air Force,” said Lt. Col. Tyler Hough, branch chief of the Air Force Business and Enterprise Systems Product Innovation, or BESPIN, in the announcement.

The rental fees are paid directly to the center at the renter’s rate. That rate is based on the family income of the renters, not the total family income of the family who has the permanent child care space.

The child subletting the spot must be in the same age group as the child with the permanent spot. Families without a child currently enrolled at a child development center must complete paperwork to become a verified renter at their center before booking available weeks through the app.

Military families testing new app for ‘subletting’ child care slots

The Kinderspot app is available for download on Apple and Android devices. The Air Force child care centers validate all users of the app to make sure they are eligible to either offer a spot or rent a spot.

None of the other service branches are currently considering adopting the app, officials told Military Times.

The Navy allows families with children enrolled full-time in child care to take 10 vacation days each year per child without having to pay for those days, said Destiny Sibert, a spokeswoman for Commander, Navy Installations Command. Their child care center may use that open space to accommodate hourly care during the child’s absence. In addition, the Navy child and youth program will hold a space for a military member who is temporarily detailed to another location at no cost if child care isn’t needed during that time, she said.

The Defense Department and service branches have been taking various steps and implementing programs to alleviate the shortage of child care for military parents.

And advocates say there are other ongoing efforts at the state level and in Congress that could also undermine the ability of service members and families, as well as overseas citizens, to vote absentee.

The executive order shortens absentee ballot receipt deadlines and requires documentary proof of citizenship, which military families say would disproportionately affect their ability to vote. It’s already logistically difficult to vote for some troops and families, especially given the frequency of military moves and deployments to remote locations.

The biggest effect on military voter participation is likely the new ballot return deadline, said Sarah Streyder, a military wife living overseas who serves as the executive director of the Secure Families Initiative. The executive order, issued March 25, requires absentee ballots to be received by Election Day.

The Secure Families Initiative is a plaintiff — along with United Latin American Citizens and Arizona Students’ Association — in the lawsuit filed March 31 against a number of administration officials. Related cases have been filed by the League of Women Voters Education Fund, the Democratic National Committee and others.

Trump’s executive order instructs the Attorney General to take action against states that count “validly cast absentee or mail-in ballots lawfully cast by Election Day but received after Election Day,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court for the District of Columbia.

States and Congress determine election rules. A number of states allow their local election officials to count absentee ballots from military and overseas citizen voters for a certain amount of days after Election Day. But 33 states do require absentee and mail-in ballots to be returned on or before Election Day, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Absentee voters often have to deal with mail delays, and the requirement that ballots be received by Election Day “is going in the opposite direction of where we want it to go,” Streyder said. “We want a uniform, across-the board expansion of that timeline.”

The president’s order, she said, “erases a state’s ability to have ballots continue to arrive and be counted.”

“We consider it a gold standard across all 50 states for absentee ballots to continue to arrive up to seven days after Election Day and be counted, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day,” Streyder added.

She noted that the late arrival was the top reason military ballots were rejected by local election officials in the 2020 election.

Military absentee ballots could have substantial impact on election, report says

The Secure Families Initiative decided to join the lawsuit out of concern for military voters.

“We want to make very clear we’re not doing this because of partisan reasons,” Streyder said, noting that the effort is an extension of their ongoing work to advocate for military voters. “We are a highly mobile voter, affected by delays and changing requirements, all of which are out of our control.”

Trump’s order, titled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,” notes that federal law establishes a uniform Election Day for federal elections.

“It is the policy of my Administration to enforce those statutes and require that votes be cast and received by the election date established in law,” the order states.

Among other things, the lawsuit challenging the order asks the court for a preliminary injunction and other action to prevent the Justice Department from taking any steps that would prohibit the counting of mail-in and absentee ballots that are “validly cast under state law.”

There is confusion about some of the provisions of the executive order as they apply to military voters and U.S. citizens overseas, Streyder said. While it appears to provide an exemption in one section related to military and overseas citizen voters, it’s not clear in other sections, the lawsuit alleges.

Military absentee voters, whether they’re voting from overseas or another location within the U.S. when they’re away from their voting residence, have certain protections under existing federal law.

The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, commonly referred to as UOCAVA, applies to military members and their family members who are away from their voting residence, as well as U.S. citizens living overseas. Among other things, UOCAVA requires states to transmit absentee ballots to UOCAVA voters who have requested them no later than 45 days before a federal election.

The executive order’s narrow protection for UOCAVA ballots — to the extent that it exists — wouldn’t apply to all military and overseas citizen voters because many don’t use the UOCAVA processes to cast absentee ballots and wouldn’t be protected by any carveout, the lawsuit alleges.

Some military voters use the Federal Post Card Application to request absentee ballots, which makes apparent their UOCAVA status. However, a number of troops and families don’t use the FPCA to request their ballots from their local elections offices and wouldn’t be protected.

Trump claims Dems will cheat using military, overseas ballot system

In addition, the new requirement for “documentary proof of United States citizenship” can create unnecessary barriers for military voters, Streyder said. The executive order imposes narrow documentation parameters. Those living overseas may not have the necessary documentation readily available, even though they are clearly eligible to vote.

“States already have secure eligibility and verification processes,” and the executive order simply adds barriers, she said.

One of the documents the executive order cites as proof of eligibility is “an official military identification card that indicates the applicant is a citizen of the United States.” But current military IDs don’t include that information.

It’s also unclear whether birth certificates would be sufficient documentation, whether the documentation would have to be presented in person, and whether proof of eligibility would need to be produced each time a voter asks for a Federal Post Card Application. The executive order mandates the Defense Department to update the FPCA to require proof of citizenship.

If the documentation requirement is put into effect, it would “seriously undermine the ease of use of the FPCA, which many of these voters use to register or request ballots, and already includes a citizenship attestation,” said Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, president and CEO of the U.S. Vote Foundation. For example, she said, voters living abroad would have to find a way to make a copy of their passport and attach it to the FPCA.

“Sending personal ID documents around in post or online also carries with it a serious risk of identity theft,” Dzieduszycka-Suinat said. “To our knowledge, to this date, there is not one single known case of actual UOCAVA voter fraud by a UOCAVA voter.”

The government responded to the preliminary injunction this week, saying “it is telling” that none of the plaintiffs in these cases are individually named voters who claim they would be affected if the court doesn’t intervene. They also argued the organizations involved in the lawsuit haven’t identified by name any voters they say they represent.

In addition, the government states, the plaintiffs couldn’t point to any actions to implement the executive order that have caused harm.

The plaintiffs, including the military family organization, filed a response Wednesday, noting they had learned the executive director of the Election Assistance Commission had written to the states to begin implementing the executive order.

Forty-four of the 56 families in the complaint are military families. The remaining plaintiffs, civilian families, have been permitted to live in the community when space was available. Many children are among the 192 current and former residents named in the lawsuit, which was filed in state court in Monroe County, Florida, on March 27.

Families reported issues such as collapsing ceilings because of water damage, mold, insect infestation, structural defects, HVAC and plumbing issues, electrical problems and the presence of lead paint and asbestos, according to the lawsuit. Balfour Beatty leases and manages more than 43,000 homes across 55 Army, Navy and Air Force installations, including 700 housing units at NAS Key West.

“Balfour concealed the horrific conditions from unsuspecting service men and women and their families,” the 175-page complaint alleges. “When these conditions were discovered and reported, Balfour systematically failed to properly repair and remediate significant problems in the homes,” the plaintiffs claim, and “Balfour misled the families into believing that repairs were made, knowing that families living in the homes would likely suffer serious health problems as a result of the conditions.”

The lawsuit alleges the families suffered from severe physical, emotional and financial harm because of the condition of the houses and Balfour’s actions.

“We are aware of the complaint and intend to defend ourselves vigorously,” Balfour Beatty Communities officials said in an email statement to Military Times.

The families allege they’ve experienced exposure-related medical problems as a result of the housing conditions, such as asthma and other respiratory issues, sinusitis, migraines, memory loss, brain fog, blurred vision, compromised immune systems and rashes. Some of the families stated that when they would leave the house for a time, their symptoms would disappear, but would start again when they returned to the house.

The families accuse Balfour Beatty of gross negligence, fraud, breach of contract, negligent infliction of emotional distress and breach of warranty of habitability. They ask for an unspecified amount of compensatory damages and punitive damages.

Plaintiff Virginia Guess said her children developed persistent respiratory issues and other health problems within months of moving into their home at NAS Key West in June 2022. They developed the “Sigsbee cough,” a label used by neighbors and teachers to describe a cough in children who lived in Key West’s military housing. The Sigsbee Park housing includes more than 500 townhouse units, many of which were built between 1962 and 1965, according to the complaint.

Guess, a construction manager who started working for Balfour Beatty in August 2023 as a service center coordinator, “quickly recognized alarming patterns of negligence in housing maintenance,” according to the lawsuit. It hit home when the Guess’s ceiling started to crack in February 2024. But Balfour Beatty delayed needed repairs, the complaint alleges, and by June of that year, there was water intrusion and mold growth. An independent moisture reading inspection found severe mold contamination.

“Yet Balfour management attempted to shift blame, attributing the mold to ‘dog hair’ and excessive ‘pasta boiling,’” the lawsuit states.

Other family members who worked for Balfour Beatty alleged they witnessed company employees engaging in “fraudulent and deceptive practices.” Plaintiff Lyric Seaton alleges employees were “instructed to lie to Navy housing inspectors, block visible damage, and select only ‘perfect’ files for audits.”

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., asked Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy James Honea about some of the allegations against Balfour Beatty during a congressional hearing on service members’ quality-of-life challenges on April 8.

“This lawsuit even claims that Balfour Beatty officials blocked Navy personnel from inspecting houses in some cases,” Wasserman Shultz said.

Honea said he didn’t have information about specific allegations.

“I do know that both the installation commander and their teams did go through all the housing down there at Key West,” Honea said, noting that Naval Installations Command officials inspected some of the homes. “We did a full inventory of all those homes and determined a certain portion of them to be uninhabitable. Balfour Beatty paid for those members to be moved and placed in other homes or temporary housing as necessary.”

Gaps in military housing improvements lead to frustration, confusion

Mold infestation was a common complaint among the families. Sections of the McCarthy family’s garage ceiling collapsed on two occasions in 2023 and 2024, revealing mold, water damage, decaying trusses and extensive termite tunnels. When the military family moved to temporary housing in May 2024, they woke up in the middle of their first night covered in bugs, according to the complaint. So they returned to their original house, where five months later, water began pouring from their kitchen’s light fixtures, saturating the ceiling, dripping down walls and seeping through cabinets.

When Balfour maintenance looked at the kitchen’s condition, they claimed everything looked normal, the suit alleges.

“The Balfour report notes that, ‘The mold looks good,’” the lawsuit states.

Many of the families in the lawsuit said they had no choice but to stay in dangerous conditions. The Moody family moved out in October 2024 after two years, paying for more than $5,000 in moving expenses. The active duty family said they experienced water leaks in the roof, ceiling, walls and electrical outlets and persistent mold infestation. They say their infant son suffered persistent health problems. His mother fears exposure to mold and other hazards during his early development might lead to lung problems or other complications later in life, according to the complaint.

“The guilt that she had no choice but to bring her newborn home to a dangerous and hazardous house is overwhelming,” the lawsuit states.

Balfour Beatty has previously come under scrutiny for subpar living conditions in military housing. The company pleaded guilty in 2021 to committing fraud against the U.S. and was ordered to pay $65 million in fines and restitution for misconduct relating to its military housing practices in federal contracts. The company also agreed to pay $35 million to resolve a False Claims Act civil suit brought by the government.

“As you can imagine, it’s quite uncomfortable,” said Seals, mother of three young children ages 5, 3 and 14 months, on March 12. While the movers who packed and loaded their household goods at Fort Cavazos, Texas, on Feb. 19-20 were great, she said, “now the issue is waiting for our HHG to show up — we have no idea when that is going to be.”

The required delivery date was Feb. 28, and their mover, HomeSafe Alliance, told them they hadn’t found a driver to deliver their belongings, she said. Ten days later, on March 22, their household goods were finally delivered.

And this is early in the season. The busiest season for military moves is generally mid-May to mid-September.

With the military moving season bearing down on service members and their families, the prognosis for pickup and delivery of household goods is unclear. Much of it depends on the volume of military shipments and the capacity of movers to handle the load.

“The volume of shipments in the coming peak season ultimately depends on how many people the services are moving,” said Scott Ross, spokesman for U.S. Transportation Command, the Defense Department command in charge of the physical movement of service members’ belongings during a permanent change of station.

Following recent reports of issues with military moves, TRANSCOM officials no longer plan to fully transition all domestic shipments into the new Global Household Goods Contract, or GHC, by the April/May timeframe, as previously planned. The GHC contractor, HomeSafe Alliance, is handling the Seals family’s move.

TRANSCOM officials said they are adjusting their plan, but declined to specify how much they are reducing the number of moves that will be handled by HomeSafe.

The command will operate both programs — the legacy system and the GHC during the 2025 peak season, “and hold industry accountable in both,” Ross said. “This dual approach allows TRANSCOM to leverage capacity from both programs while also allowing HomeSafe the opportunity to improve their services.”

Members of the moving industry reported that more than 1,000 shipments were picked up by movers in the legacy system after the shipments were turned down by HomeSafe when it was unable to schedule movers, according to information provided March 13 by Movers for America, a coalition of moving professionals and independent owner-operators who move military families. The coalition has asked members of Congress for a pause in the implementation of the GHC.

The new GHC system, which began rolling out in April 2024, aims to fix long-standing problems with missed pickup and delivery dates, broken and lost items and issues with claims. It consolidates management under a single contractor, HomeSafe Alliance, which is responsible for overseeing all aspects of military families’ moves. TRANSCOM retains oversight of the program and holds HomeSafe accountable.

Under the legacy system, TRANSCOM works directly with more than 900 individual moving companies, making it difficult for the government to track and resolve issues. Those problems culminated in the summer of 2018, when moving companies didn’t have the capacity to handle the number of moves.

HomeSafe officials have acknowledged there have been some delays in moving families, related to the capacity of their network of moving companies. Some companies have been reluctant to do business with HomeSafe because its rates are lower than those under the legacy system.

Some families are feeling the effects of the delays both at the beginning of their move and at the end, when they are awaiting delivery.

An Air Force lieutenant colonel and his wife at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, are among the military families who have felt the direct impact. More than a month after his move was awarded to HomeSafe, the company was still telling him “we are diligently working to find you a service provider,” said the officer, who asked to remain anonymous. He was in communication with his local transportation office at Ellsworth the entire time, which he describes as “awesome.”

At the beginning of March, about two weeks from his requested move date, his transportation office on base transferred the move back to the legacy system.

The Air Force and Army have issued notices to their transportation offices that any service members’ shipments that have no mover assigned with less than a 21-day lead time before the move must be pulled back into the legacy system.

The legacy system found a mover for the officer’s family. A moving company drove from Great Falls, Montana, to their home in Rapid City. “They’re loading today, so big win there — no thanks to HomeSafe or GHC,” the officer said on March 18.

Moving industry forecast

HomeSafe Alliance has made “significant progress” in strengthening its network of movers, and is pursuing “every available option for growing our capacity” for the next months of military moves, officials told Military Times.

It’s working with TRANSCOM to resolve issues and closely coordinating on a careful phase-in of the new program “to ensure a smooth peak moving season,” they said.

As for the broader universe of moving companies, some of which are doing business with both HomeSafe and the legacy system, there is uncertainty.

In general, moving companies are struggling a bit, because business across the board has been slow during the winter, said Dan Bradley, vice president of government and military relations for the International Association of Movers. But if the number of people moving in the DOD system is similar to what it’s been over the past two years, there shouldn’t be a capacity concern, certainly not in the legacy system, he said.

But there is uncertainty. TRANSCOM had previously touted its plan to move 100% of all domestic shipments under the GHC by the start of this year’s moving season, he said. Movers have been unsure how many people to hire for the summer or whether to buy more trucks, because they don’t know how business will be split between the legacy system and GHC, he said. There’s also uncertainty about whether TRANSCOM will reduce competitive rate ranges that affect what movers are paid under the legacy system. Those new rate ranges go into effect May 15.

“Movers are asking, ‘How far do I go right now to prepare for the summer, when I don’t have real good visibility of the landscape for the summer?’ ” Bradley said.

All this boils down to whether there will be enough movers to move military families this spring ans summer.

What military families can do

As soon as service members get orders to make a PCS move, they should visit Military OneSource, where they’ll find a variety of tips and instructions, and a link to start setting up their move. At that point, they will be put into either the HomeSafe Alliance system or the legacy system. They’ll either deal directly with HomeSafe, or with a moving company assigned by the legacy system.

A number of military families who described their experience said they’ve had trouble communicating with HomeSafe about the status of their shipment.

One soldier said he went through the system as soon as he received his orders in October 2024. HomeSafe completed his pre-move survey Feb. 7, but as of late March had yet to assign a moving company to pack and load his belongings ahead of his May 10 report date to Fort Irwin, California.

Communication with HomeSafe has been “horrible,” he said. “This will be my fifth PCS move, and I’ve never had to wait this long to find out who was moving my stuff.”

HomeSafe officials said they have addressed issues with communication to ensure service members get the timely updates they need. They’ve standardized communication between departments, improved their training program, and added more “proactive communication to customers throughout their moves.”

When service members are having any type of problem — regardless of who is moving them — they should contact their local transportation offices, Ross said.

HomeSafe advises service members to set up their HomeSafe Connect accounts as soon as possible after receiving an email with instructions for using the Okta user authentication system and HomeSafe Connect.

They also advise to:

* Update the destination address in HomeSafe Connect as soon as possible; when the shipment is ready for delivery, it will notify the service member.

* Have someone available at the residence — the service member or someone standing in — from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on all scheduled moving dates.

* Separate items such as medications, important documents, uniforms and other essential items, as well as jewelry and other valuables, to carry yourself. Place them in a separate, marked part of the house, or in a locked car, so they aren’t packed with the household goods shipment.

Those who experience delays should contact HomeSafe or their moving company to file an inconvenience claim. “When a claim is approved, we compensate the service member and each of their family members on the PCS order for every day that their move is delayed,” HomeSafe officials said.

While the services’ transportation offices are being watchful of these HomeSafe shipments, and pulling them back if HomeSafe can’t find a moving company within 21 days of a move, service members should be mindful and keep in touch with their transportation office if they haven’t been contacted by a company.

Cover your six

Regardless of who is moving you, take photos and videos of your household goods beforehand so that if something is lost or damaged, you have proof of their prior condition.

Before disposing of broken up or damaged belongings, check with your moving company or transportation office to see what evidence is needed for the claim to be substantiated.

One military wife who just began the moving process in March expressed the hopes of many for the busy moving season to come: “I am trying to stay positive with our PCS move this year as changes occur within the military system,” she wrote.

“As of now we are skeptical, but hopeful, things will turn out for the better with our move come this summer.”

The child development center at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, has closed. No other centers have closed at Air Force, Army, Navy or Marine Corps bases, officials said, in response to Military Times’ questions.

Child development centers “traditionally face high turnover, and several recent departures in conjunction with the hiring freeze reduced the number of supervisors and trainers” at Hill AFB, Air Force officials stated. Air Force child development centers are staffed with employees paid by appropriated funds, which are taxpayer dollars, as well as non-appropriated funds.

Although military child and youth programs were exempted from the hiring freeze in mid-March, there was uncertainty when the freeze was first implemented. As a result, some child care centers have struggled to recover from those initial pauses in hiring. The country has long faced a shortage of child care workers.

The Air Force now has an exemption for its child care centers from the Defense Department hiring freeze, but the hiring, on-boarding and training process takes time, officials said.

The Air Force’s appropriated-fund employees weren’t exempt from the Deferred Resignation Program, which allowed some Defense Department civilians to resign while receiving full pay and benefits through September.

The impact on child care centers, if any, varies from installation to installation, Air Force officials said. It also depends on how quickly the centers can hire new personnel.

At Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado, officials will close one of their infant rooms on Friday because of the staffing issues, said a Space Base Delta 1 spokesperson. The closure is necessary to maintain an appropriate ratio of caregivers for children, to ensure the children’s safety and well being, the spokesperson said.

“We are working through hiring freeze exemptions as quickly as possible,” he said, adding that the base would work with affected families to return to the main CDC as quickly as possible.

Peterson officials asked eight families to voluntarily transfer their infants to an off-base, licensed, accredited child care center at no additional cost, through their Community Contracted Child Care program. Peterson launched the program in 2023 to address the high demand for child care at the base, and through March of this year, had reduced the waitlist by 150 children.

This is what the pandemic taught us about military child care

That’s one example of initiatives the services have implemented over the past several years to increase the availability of child care for military families.

Their efforts to recruit and retain more child care workers have had a positive impact on staffing levels, Air Force officials said.

“This has enabled us to better navigate staffing challenges this year and maintain consistent care for the children of our airmen and guardians,” officials said.

Among other things, those initiatives include bonuses for employees based on their longevity and other factors, and a 100% child-care fee discount for the first enrolled child of direct-care staff. They also receive a 25% discount for additional enrolled children. Since these initiatives were implemented, the Air Force increased the staff of those providing direct care to children by more than 20%, officials said.

Navy child care hasn’t been significantly affected by the personnel moves, service officials said. Most employees of Navy child and youth programs are paid by non-appropriated funds and were exempted from participating in the Deferred Resignation Program.

There was “a bit of a hiccup” at the beginning of the hiring freeze, however, when it wasn’t clear whether it applied to non-appropriated fund workers, said Destiny Sibert, spokesperson for Commander, Navy Installations Command headquarters. Some programs had to adjust their hours, but operations should be back soon to full staffs, she said.

Navy officials have also been working to increase the amount of child care over the last several years, reducing the wait list for child development centers and school age care by half since fiscal 2023, from 5,000 to 2,500. By implementing salary increases, recruitment incentives and child care discounts for employees, they increased the staffing levels to 88%.

Funding shortages in the Military Health System and Defense Health Agency continue to affect the care available to beneficiaries and provider recruitment, said Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy James Honea during testimony before the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday.

“I ask for your continued support for the Military Health System and finding innovative ways to ensure that DHA funding doesn’t compete with our warfighting priorities,” Honea told lawmakers.

When care isn’t available in the military treatment facilities, beneficiaries rely on civilian networks. However, limited resources have affected care delivery, provider recruitment and Tricare’s ability to compete in the civilian insurance market, Honea said, adding that Tricare’s reimbursement rates are tied to Medicare rates and are often too low for providers.

Honea also noted complications with the new Tricare contracts have delayed claims processing and damaged civilian medical providers’ trust in their timely payment.

Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla., said the continued payment problem could result in some providers leaving the Tricare network. He cited one provider who is owed about $100,000 from Tricare.

“Our family members in Jacksonville deserve to have these outside providers available,” he said.

Tricare snafus cause medical shortfalls for military families

Military families have reported extensive issues with health care access since the new Tricare contracts began in January, which have caused medical shortfalls for some families and some providers dropping Tricare patients because of the difficulties, Military Times previously reported.

West Region beneficiaries and health care providers have reported a number of problems with the contract transition from Health Net Federal Services to TriWest Healthcare Alliance. Meanwhile, Humana Military has remained the East Region contractor, but a number of providers have reported difficulty getting paid since Jan. 1.

“I’ve taken a number of complaints from those providers,” said Honea. “They’re not being reimbursed on time. Defense Health Agency has worked with me to have those bills paid as quickly as possible.”

Medical provider shortages in the military health care system isn’t unique, as it is affecting communities across the country. However, with little to limited control over their assignment locations and providers, service members and their families are dependent on the Military Health System and local care.

When that access to health care doesn’t happen, Honea said, “It’s going to have detrimental effects to our family readiness and possibly to our military readiness, especially if we end up having to spend military readiness dollars toward making that account whole.”

Health care access is a pressing issue across all of the service branches, leaders said Tuesday. For instance, some Marines are having to seek out mental health care from civilian providers because there aren’t enough mental health providers in military treatment facilities, Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Carlos Ruiz told lawmakers. Because there are few providers and appointments available in the civilian community, they may have to wait 45 to 60 days to get the help they need, Ruiz said.

“I can’t solve that problem, so I’m looking for you to help us bring attention to it,” he said.