Military Child Care: Services’ Use of Worker Recruitment and Retention Incentives
Fast Facts
DOD operates the largest U.S. employer-sponsored child care program. But recruiting and retaining child care workers has been difficult, contributing to lengthy waitlists for military families.
In this Q&A, we looked at what's being done to address these workforce issues. We found child care workers were offered various benefits and incentives, including:
Recruitment bonuses
Discounts for workers to enroll their children in centers
Skills-based training and professional development, such as mentoring
Each military service can offer and combine these and other incentives based on their specific needs.
An adult woman at a table with young children playing with colorful blocks.
Highlights
What GAO Found
The military services may offer monetary incentives to help recruit and retain child care workers on an ongoing basis. In 2024, the Air Force, Army, and Marine Corps collectively provided 4,955 recruitment bonuses and retention allowances to child care workers who are paid using nonappropriated funds (i.e., child care fees), according to the military services. Most of these incentives (about 4,000) were provided by the Air Force. The three military services provided more retention allowances than recruitment bonuses, and none provided relocation bonuses. GAO did not include Navy data in the analysis. In July 2025, Navy officials explained they track recruitment bonuses and retention allowances together with performance awards, and could not readily separate them. As a result, GAO determined that these data were not reliable for the purpose of quantifying the types of incentives the Navy provided to child care workers.
Number of Recruitment, Relocation, and Retention Incentives the Air Force, Army, and Marine Corps Provided to Child Care Workers, 2024
|
Military service |
Number of recruitment bonuses provided |
Number of retention allowances provided |
Number of relocation bonuses provided |
Total number of incentives provided |
Number of child care workers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Air Forcea |
429 |
3,645 |
0 |
4,074 |
4,820 |
|
Army |
56 |
399 |
0 |
455 |
7,419 |
|
Marine Corps |
20 |
406 |
0 |
426 |
2,307 |
|
Total |
505 |
4,450 |
0 |
4,955 |
14,546 |
Source: GAO analysis of summary data from the Air Force, Army, and Marine Corps. | GAO-26-107831
Note: The information in this table covers all child care workers employed by the three military services at any point during 2024.
aThe Air Force oversees the Space Force’s child care program. Air Force officials said the Air Force employs 354 child care workers who work at Space Force child development centers and are included in the Air Force data. They also said the Space Force does not have its own child care workforce.
In 2024, the Air Force, Army, and Marine Corps collectively provided the most recruitment and retention incentives to child care workers in California, Florida, Colorado, Texas, and Virginia, based on GAO’s analysis of the services’ data.
In addition, the military services provide benefits and workplace initiatives to recruit and retain child care workers. Benefits include child care fee discounts, such as a 100 percent fee discount for the first child enrolled at a DOD child development center. Military services’ workplace initiatives include those that help develop child care workers’ skills and improve the classroom environment. For example, the Army’s classroom assessment system aims to create a positive learning environment and enhance learning by focusing on child and teacher interactions and providing feedback to workers. This system has helped improve workers’ classroom management, which has helped with retention, according to Army officials. Military service officials said they have the flexibility to combine recruitment and retention incentives, benefits, and workplace initiatives differently to meet the needs of each military service. For example, Army and Marine Corps officials said that workers have different needs and preferences, and recruitment and retention needs vary across installations.
Why GAO Did This Study
The Department of Defense (DOD) operates the largest employer-sponsored child care program in the United States. DOD employs about 19,000 child care workers who are paid using nonappropriated funds. These workers care for nearly 172,000 children of service members and DOD civilian employees (as of fiscal year 2024). The military services face challenges recruiting and retaining child care workers, contributing to lengthy waitlists and wait times for child care. GAO previously reported on these challenges in 2024 (GAO-24-106524). To help mitigate these challenges, the military services may offer incentives to child care workers including recruitment bonuses and retention allowances.
House Report 118-529 accompanying H.R. 8070, the Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025, includes a provision for GAO to review recruitment and retention incentives for nonappropriated fund child care workers in DOD child development centers.
This report describes (1) the number of recruitment and retention incentives the military services provided to these workers in 2024, (2) the states in which they provided the most incentives in 2024, and (3) the benefits and workplace initiatives the services use to recruit and retain these child care workers.
GAO reviewed relevant DOD and military service documents about recruitment and retention incentives, benefits, and workplace initiatives. GAO also analyzed Air Force, Army, and Marine Corps data on recruitment and retention incentives provided to child care workers in 2024 (the most recent available data at the time of this review). GAO interviewed DOD and military service officials about challenges recruiting and retaining child care workers and about how they implemented incentives.
For more information, contact Kathryn A. Larin at larink@gao.gov.