Recommendation:
The Army Child Care Fee Assistance Program provides Army families with much needed financial assistance for childcare. The program provides the difference between what the Sponsor would pay for on-post child care and the community-based child care provider’s rate, up to a provider rate cap of $1500 per child per month. The other Uniformed Branches use a combination of the total family income and a predetermined provider cap based on the family's locality. They also identify high cost installation localities. This provides for funding beyond $1,500 when required by locality. Because there is a wide margin of different child care costs in different locations, many Army families are hurt by the flat cap that does not take into account the varying expenses. We recommend that the Army adopt the method of calculating childcare reimbursement that the other services use. The $1,500 cap that is currently imposed is not sufficient in areas where childcare costs are often double or even triple that amount for families with multiple children.