A day-care center at an Air Force base in the Florida panhandle will be reducing hours for families amid ongoing staffing issues, a move that comes amid the Trump administration's mandate to reduce the civilian workforce throughout the Department of Defense.
A May 7 memo shared with Military.com sent by the Eglin Air Force Base Child and Youth Services detailed to families that starting next month, child-care hours at the Florida installation would be reduced from 12 hours a day to 10 hours a day due to staffing issues, which "follows a trend" occurring across the department.
"This reduction in operating hours is necessary to address critical staffing challenges to reduce the risk of unexpected room closures and potential denial of child care," the memo says.
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The memo, confirmed as authentic and accurate by Eglin’s 96th Test Wing, marks the latest move a military base has taken to slow the effects of already dire staffing levels for a crucial service provided to service members and their families. The situation has been exacerbated, in part, by President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's ongoing push to cut the number of employees throughout the Defense Department.
There are currently two child development centers at Eglin Air Force Base and a third one being renovated and, depending on staffing levels, set to open later this year, Kayla Prather, a 96th Test Wing spokesperson, told Military.com. The reduction in child-care hours would allow for staff to be spread out.
"The reduction in hours aims to stabilize staffing levels and reduce the risk of unexpected room closures and potential denial of child care," Prather told Military.com in an emailed statement.
Prather said the move means no families will be disenrolled from Eglin's child development centers and that it would "eventually expand current classroom capacity, ultimately reducing the waitlist duration for families seeking child care."
The news at Eglin Air Force Base follows other issues with child development centers at other bases.
Kayla Corbitt, a military spouse and founder of the Operation Child Care Project, a nonprofit group that advocates for family care for service members, told Military.com in a statement that the trend of reducing care is alarming.
"These centers are licensed and operated by the [Defense Department] so they can adjust to mission needs," Corbitt told Military.com. "More and more, we are seeing them do the opposite."
Last month, Military.com reported Peterson Space Force Base and Fort Carson in Colorado were disenrolling some families and stopping waitlists as they struggled with staffing issues. Additionally, in late March, Hill Air Force Base in Utah had to close one of its two child development centers, which led to 31 families being disenrolled.
In mid-March, a Defense Department memo identified "child and youth programs staff" as well as "instructors or facility support staff at DoD schools or child care centers" as crucial positions that needed to be exempt from ongoing hiring freezes.
For some installations, such as Hill Air Force Base, that exemption came too late, with a base spokesperson saying "the hiring, on-boarding and training process will take time."
The Department of Defense is still aiming to cut 50,000 to 60,000 civilian jobs as part of the administration's effort to reduce the size of the federal government dramatically.
"As we continue to see this across the nation, I anticipate families will develop a lack of confidence in military-operated care access," Corbitt said.
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