HERO Child Care for Military Families Act

Section 1798(b) of title 10, United States Code, is amended—

(1) in paragraph (1), by striking the semicolon and inserting; and;

(2) by striking paragraph (2); and

(3) by redesignating paragraph (3) as paragraph (2).

Subchapter II of chapter 88 of title 10, United States Code, is amended by inserting after section 1792 the following new section:

(1) The Secretary of Defense may seek to enter into an interagency partnership with a Federal agency with the ability to place individuals described in paragraph (2) in military child development centers in accordance with national service laws and with all the benefits accorded to such individuals under those laws.

(2) An individual described in this paragraph is a participant, including a volunteer or national senior volunteer, under the national service laws who is trained in education services and is in compliance with hiring requirements for military child development centers.

(3) In this subsection, the terms participant and national service laws have the meanings given those terms in section 101 of the National and Community Service Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12511).

(1) Not later than June 1, 2027, the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness shall prescribe regulations, including by revising Department of Defense Instruction 1402.05, relating to background checks on individuals in Department of Defense child care services programs, or any successor instruction, to provide for preclearance of individuals applying to be child care employees at military child development centers.

(2) In prescribing regulations under paragraph (1), the Under Secretary shall—

(A) specify a length of time, not to exceed one year, for the preclearance of an individual to be valid for purposes of employment at military child development centers; and

(B) require annual reverification for a child care employee who received preclearance to be conducted not later than one year after the date of the preclearance of the individual.

(3) Nothing in this subsection shall be construed—

(A) to limit the ability of the Department of Defense to conduct, in accordance with regulations and policies of the Department, additional or more current or recent background checks on individuals who have received preclearance; or

(B) to require the Department—

(i) to hire an individual who received preclearance; or

(ii) to provide any appeal or right of action to an individual who received preclearance and was not selected by the Department for an open position as a child care employee.

(4) In this subsection, the term preclearance, with respect to an individual, means the individual obtains a background check, including a fingerprint check by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a State Criminal History Repository check, and a health screening to be a child care employee at a military child development center, without regard to whether there is an open job for a child care employee at the time of the background check and screening are conducted.

(1) Consistent with chapter 34 of title 5, and policies of the Department of Defense permitting part-time employment and job-sharing arrangements for civilian personnel, the Secretary of Defense may authorize the use of voluntary job-sharing arrangements for child care employees at military child development centers.

(2) The Secretary may authorize job-sharing arrangements under this subsection—

(A) to expand the pool of qualified child care employees available to meet the needs of military families;

(B) to accommodate individuals unable to work full-time schedules as a result of caregiving, education, or other personal circumstances;

(C) to reduce staffing vacancies and workforce turnover; and

(D) to support continuity and reliability of child care services for military families.

(3) In this subsection, the term job-sharing arrangement means a work arrangement under which the duties and responsibilities of a single full-time child care employee position are shared by two part-time child care employees, each serving not fewer than 20 hours per week.

(1) The Secretary of Defense may authorize child care employees working at military child development centers to receive limited access to benefits described in paragraph (2) if the Secretary determines such access is necessary to support recruitment and retention of child care employees and continuity of child care services.

(2) The benefits that may be provided to a child care employee under paragraph (1) are the following:

(A) Commissary and exchange privileges, on days on which the employee is providing child care services on a military installation, on the same basis as civilian employees of the Department of Defense under Directive-type Memorandum 21–003 or any successor Department of Defense issuance.

(B) Use of MWR retail facilities, including fitness centers, if the Secretary determines that authorizing such use will support the stability of the child care workforce.

(C) Tuition assistance and referral bonuses under terms and conditions comparable to similar workforce recruitment and retention programs authorized for other civilian and contractor workforces of the Department of Defense.

(D) Such other limited benefits as the Secretary determines appropriate.

(A) A child care employee who receives a benefit under paragraph (1) may not transfer the benefit to any other person.

(B) The Secretary may revoke a benefit provided to a child care employee under paragraph (1) at any time.

(4) Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this section, the Secretary shall issue guidance to implement this subsection.

(5) In this subsection, the term MWR retail facility has the meaning given that term in section 1063 of this title.

The Secretary of Defense shall establish and maintain a unified, Department-wide child care readiness data system (in this section referred to as the System) to assess, monitor, and manage child care capacity and child care workforce readiness across the Department of Defense.

The System shall include information on the following:

(1) Child care capacity and utilization, disaggregated by military installation and region.

(2) Child care workforce staffing levels, vacancies, turnover rates, and compensation ranges.

(3) Child care waitlists, disaggregated by—

(A) families with no access to child care;

(B) families using temporary child care or child care located off a military installation; and

(C) families requiring child care during nontraditional hours.

(4) Demand for child care by age cohort, with specific identification of children under age 5.

(5) Utilization and attrition data for fee assistance programs.

(6) Geographic areas with persistent unmet child care needs.

(7) Such other information as the Secretary considers appropriate.

The Secretary shall—

(1) standardize the collection of data on child care across the military departments; and

(2) update the information in the System not less frequently than every 90 days.

Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this section, and annually thereafter, the Secretary of Defense shall brief the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and the House of Representatives on—

(1) findings derived from the System;

(2) actions taken to address any gaps in child care availability identified through the System; and

(3) recommendations for legislative or regulatory authorities or funding required to reduce the unmet need for child care.

Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to the congressional defense committees (as defined in section 101(a) of title 10, United States Code) a report on waitlists for child care across the Department of Defense.

The report required by subsection (a) shall include the following:

(1) A description of steps being taken to centralize systems and collect data on waitlists for child care across the Department of Defense.

(2) A description of data that the Department has on child care waitlists.

(3) A description of steps being taken by the Department to resolve discrepancies or misleading information in the data, such as children being counted on multiple waitlists simultaneously and inclusion of children who are receiving child care services but are on waitlists for purposes of obtaining alternative child care.

(4) An analysis of what proportion of waitlist spots represent unmet need for child care as opposed to duplicate entries.

(5) A plan for improving data collection on child care waitlists.

(1) Military readiness and training participation.

(2) Retention and separation decisions.

(3) Families in which two parents are members of the Armed Forces.

(4) High operational-tempo units.

(5) Workforce participation of military spouses.