Our policy work starts with case management. Every family we work with shows us where a program's rules and a family's life don't line up, and those cases add up to a record of what existing programs get wrong. We use that record to examine current programs and recommend specific changes that would let them work for the families they were built to serve. Where a program can't be fixed by adjustment, we say so.

A Basic Allowance for Child Care is our primary recommendation. Today's military child care system was built around installation centers and a set of approved providers, and it decides for families which care counts. A BACC works the way the Basic Allowance for Housing works. The allowance goes to the family, and the family chooses the care that fits their orders, their hours, and their children. We see it as the redesign the system needs to keep up with mission requirements, and we've modeled what it would cost and what it would change.

Families make the best choices when they have the full picture. Many military families don't know that Child Development Centers and Family Child Care homes are certified by the Department of Defense rather than licensed by a state, so the outside accountability that comes with a state license doesn't exist. Congress addressed part of this in the FY2026 NDAA by requiring that parents be notified within 24 hours when abuse or neglect is suspected. That notification reaches the family whose child was involved only when the center decides it meets the definition. A family deciding whether to enroll never sees it.

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On MilitaryChildCare.com, "View Inspection Report" shows what a program is inspected on and when. It doesn't show reported allegations, whether they were substantiated, or violations and how they were corrected, which is standard on most state licensing lookups. The Department's own regulation already calls for inspection results to be available to parents online. We're asking for that to mean the full record. The stories families have shared with us show what happens when it doesn't.

Cities, counties, and states are being asked to step up for military families, and many want to. When we work with them, what looks like a shortage of spaces usually turns out to be an access problem: no infant slots, hours or locations that don't work, communication barriers, or credentialing rules that keep a family's provider out of a program. Meanwhile, centers in those same communities are closing for low enrollment. Local partners can't design around a population they can't see.

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The data already exists. DMDC knows how many families are assigned to an area, how many are active duty or reserve, the ages of their children, and their marital status, down to the zip code. We recommend that Defense-State Liaison Offices make that information available to state, county, and city governments on request, updated at least annually, so they can plan programs and supports around the military families actually living there. Our Accessibility paper lays out what we've found.