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Family Eligibility & Priority Guidelines

A child holding a hand of a soldier

Introduction

DoD funds child care services to support military-connected families while they serve. When you request child care for a military-operated child care program, MCC uses the following factors to determine if your family is eligible to receive child care as well as determine your child's priority to access care.

Note: The Military Child Care in Your Neighborhood (MCCYN) and Child Care in Your Home (CCYH) fee assistance programs use more restrictive prioritization and eligibility guidelines. To learn more about these programs, visit the MCCYN and CCYH information pages and select your Branch of Service.

DoD-Approved Sponsor Types

To participate in military child care, your family must have one of the following DoD-approved sponsor types.

  • Child Development Program Staff
  • Active Duty Combat-Related Wounded Warrior
    • You must be in Active Duty status and require hospitalization, extensive rehabilitation, or significant care from a spouse or care provider, and require full-time child care. Visit the FAQ page for more information.
  • Active Duty Military
  • Guard and Reserve Members on Active Duty
  • DoD Civilian
  • Coast Guard Civilian
  • Gold Star Spouse (Combat-Related)
  • DoD Contractor
  • Other Federal Employee
  • Deactivated Guard/Reserve Personnel or Inactive Guard/Reserve in a Training Status
  • Military Retiree
  • Other Sponsor Type

Qualifying Child

An eligible sponsor may only enroll a qualifying dependent in military child care. A qualifying child must meet the following criteria: 

Age Requirement

A qualifying child must be between 6 weeks to 13 years of age. 

Relationship to DoD Sponsor

The child must have one of the following relationships with the eligible DoD sponsor:

  • A dependent or secondary dependent child who lives with the sponsor
  • Any other child for whom the sponsor has legal guardianship and resides with the sponsor
  • A foster child who lives with the sponsor
  • A child who is living with a person acting “in loco parentis” on behalf of the child’s eligible sponsor, who must leave the area temporarily to fulfill a military obligation.

Residency Requirements

In the case of legally separated or divorced parents with joint custody, a child is eligible for DoD child care only when they reside with the eligible sponsor for at least 25% of the time in a month that the child receives care. Geographically separated couples are not required to meet residency requirements.

Young child walking into preschool with Marine parent

Spouse Status

MCC uses a combination of your family’s DOD-approved sponsor type and spouse status to determine your family’s priority for care.

For instance, in addition to your sponsor type, MCC considers if you are a single sponsor, or, if you are married, your spouse's status. If you are married, you must provide information about your spouse that helps determine your family’s priority for care.

We will consider if your spouse is:

  • Active Duty Military or Guard and Reserve on Active Duty
  • Working (Non-military)
    DOD uses the following definitions to determine if your spouse is employed full time or part time.
    • Full time: working 30 hours per week or 100 hours per month or working less than 30 hours per week or 100 hours per month and enrolled in a post-secondary educational institution.
    • Part time: working less than 30 hours per week or 100 hours per month.
  • A student enrolled in a post-secondary institution either full or part time.
  • Seeking employment
    • If your spouse is currently seeking employment and your child is enrolled in child care, your spouse must get a job within 180 days, or your child could be removed from care.
  • Not working

Priority for Care

Since the demand for military child care is higher than the number of slots available, DoD has developed a prioritization for care system based on your family’s approved sponsor type and spouse status. Military programs must serve families with the highest priority first.

The DoD’s priorities for care are listed below in priority order:

Priority 1A: Child Development Program Staff

All families where the sponsor is a Child Development Program Staff member will have the same priority regardless of spouse status.

Priority 1B: Single/Dual Military and Military with a Full-Time Working Spouse

  1. Active Duty Combat-Related Wounded Warrior
  2. Single/Dual Active Duty Military/Coast Guard
  3. Single/Dual Guard/Reserve on Active Duty
  4. Active Duty Military/Coast Guard with Full-Time Working Spouse
  5. Guard/Reserve on Active Duty with Full-Time Working Spouse

Priority 1C: Military with a Part-Time Working Spouse or Spouse Seeking Employment

  1. Active Duty Military/Coast Guard with Part-Time Working Spouse or Spouse Seeking Employment
  2. Guard/Reserve on Active Duty with Part-Time Working Spouse or Spouse Seeking Employment

Priority 1D: Military with a Spouse Enrolled Full-Time Student Spouse

  1. Active Duty Military/Coast Guard with Full-Time Student Spouse
  2. Guard/Reserve on Active Duty with Full-Time Student Spouse

Priority 2: Single/Dual DOD Civilians or DoD Civilian with a Full-Time Working Spouse

  1. Single/Dual DoD or Coast Guard Civilian
  2. DoD or Coast Guard Civilian with Full-Time Working Spouse

Priority 3: Space Available

  1. Active Duty Military/Coast Guard or Guard/Reserve on Active Duty with Non-Working Spouse
  2. DoD or Coast Guard Civilian with Spouse Seeking Employment
  3. DoD or Coast Guard Civilian with Full-Time Student Spouse
  4. Gold Star Spouse
  5. Single/Dual DoD Contractor or DoD Contractor with a spouse who is Full-Time Working, Seeking Employment, or a Full-Time Student
  6. In no order of precedence:
    • DoD or Coast Guard Civilian with Part-Time or Non-Working Spouse
    • DoD Contractor with Part-Time or Non-Working Spouse
    • Deactivated Guard/Reserve Personnel or Inactive Guard/Reserve in a Training Status
    • Other Federal Employees
    • Military Retirees

Note: In order to improve military members' access to child care, DoD policy allows lower priority families enrolled at a facility-based program to be disenrolled to accommodate higher priority families. Visit the FAQ page for more information.

Eligibility & Priority Resources

Refer to these resources to learn more about the DOD priority structure.