For working parents, the accessibility of child care can be a vital issue. The government won't watch your kids for free, but a number of agencies and military bases offer on-site day care for employees.
Civilian agencies are authorized to provide rent-free space for on-site child care facilities. The requirement is that the agency has the extra space, at least 50 percent of the kids have parents in government, and the federal kids get priority.
Federal employees have a benefit available to help them pay for the care, too. Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts allow government employees to set aside up to $5,000 a year tax-free to cover expenses such as child care. Like health insurance, the flexible spending account has an annual open season, which starts Nov. 13 this year.
Agencies even have the authority to help lift some of the child-care cost burden for low-earning employees. At the National Institutes of Health, for example, half of child-care costs are subsidized for federal families with a total annual income of less than $30,000.
The Office of Personnel Management reports that there are about 200 child-care centers sponsored by federal agencies right now. The General Services Administration oversees about 100 of those, and provides advice for staff for operating quality centers. To find a federally supported child care center near you, contact the GSA regional offices listed here.
But the granddaddy of government-run child care is the Defense Department. More than 200,000 children participate in about 800 defense-run centers, which the Pentagon subsidizes. According to a new report published by the RAND National Defense Research Institute, the subsidized centers are making military parents happy, but not necessarily making them want to stay.
RAND surveyed 1,137 active-duty military families on the topic of child care. Researchers wanted to make sure that military retention wasn't being hurt by lack of child care options.
Less than 10 percent of parents surveyed said they had a need for child care that was not met. A slightly larger portion -- still just 22 percent -- said they had a preference that was not met, meaning they were not using their top choice for child care.
Still, nearly a third of parents surveyed said it is likely or very likely that they will leave the military because of child care issues. What's more, parents who use the child development centers that the military runs displayed a weaker attachment to the military than those who use private centers.
RAND researchers were surprised, too.
"The conventional wisdom is that DoD CDC care is the most sought-after and convenient type of child care among military families," the report said. "Certainly, waiting lists are long … it is therefore surprising that our analysis reveals" a lower military attachment.
What's the explanation?
RAND researchers didn't have a full answer. They said there could be a difference between respondents who said they might leave the military because of child care frustrations and those who actually do.
"Given that the DoD heavily subsidizes care provided in the CDCs, and provides little or no subsidy for other options, DoD may be interested in more fully understanding the attitudes of CDC families," the report stated.
Civilian counterparts without such a subsidy may be interested, too.
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