The Defense Department will expand child care availability in Norfolk, Virginia, in the spring of 2025.
To address an ongoing, critical need for quality, affordable child care for military families, DOD is partnering with the Armed Services YMCA to open and manage a new child care center in the Norfolk area. The center will have approximately 200 spaces for children 0 to 5 years of age and will serve DOD families in the Norfolk area.
The DOD manages the nation’s largest employer-sponsored child care program, serving more than 450,000 active-duty service members and their families. The department’s child care program includes military service-operated child development and school-age care centers, military-certified Family Child Care homes and additional community partnerships.
Despite the scope of the program, challenges remain in meeting child care demands because of staff and infrastructure shortages within the DOD locations and a shortage of commercial child care nationwide. Because no single solution exists to meet these challenges, the DOD has launched several initiatives to grow capacity and reduce wait times for families.
In addition to the child care center opening in the spring, two more facilities will open as part of the expansion initiative — a second center in Norfolk in early 2026 and another center in the National Capital Region in fall of 2025. These new child care centers will be used exclusively for eligible military and DOD civilian personnel and will follow DOD policy for priority placement and waitlist management for enrollment. These child care expansions represent efforts to provide more capacity in areas with some of the greatest need.
DOD families will pay parent fees based on their total family income at the same rates as charged by DOD-operated child development centers. “This initiative demonstrates how community partnerships can help bring additional child care capacity to areas where military and civilian work force families have been affected the most by a lack of quality, affordable options,” said Lee Kelley, acting deputy assistant secretary of defense for Military Community and Family Policy.
Service members and their families can go to MilitaryChildCare.com to find more information about the new Norfolk center, check eligibility and request care in the new center and all other available DOD child care programs.
About Military Community and Family Policy
Military Community and Family Policy is directly responsible for establishing and overseeing quality of life policies and programs that help our service members, their families and survivors be well and mission ready. Military OneSource is the gateway to programs and services that support the everyday needs of the 4.4 million service members and immediate family members of the military community. These DOD services can be accessed 24/7/365 around the world.
About Armed Services YMCA
The oldest military support organization in the U.S., the Armed Services YMCA serves nearly 200,000 military service members, spouses and children and delivers more than 2 million points of service through its 12 branches and 24 affiliate partners. The organization provides full-day, drop-in or school-age child care to almost 15,000 children, primarily to junior enlisted ranks. To learn more about how the ASYMCA is Strengthening Our Military Family®, visit www.asymca.org.
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