Army Child Care in your Neighborhood

[Anonymous]

Anyone on here with experience with the Army Child Care in Your Neighborhood program? I am an Army civilian employee and have been told I qualify for this program which supposedly pays the difference between daycare at a DoD child care center and an off-post center (only participating centers). I would be really interested in:
- any experiences with the program - did the funding actually come through? was it stable?
- any centers you have found that participate, esp for infants. we live in Alex city and are open to anything between Arlington and Ft. Belvoir - all we can really find right now is the Hopkins House McNeil Academy on Rte 1 by the Ft. Belvoir Tulley gate.

Would really appreciate any insights!! THANKS!!

[Anonymous]

I tried the program but no luck. It's been a few years so my info might be dated. The child care had to be certified and accredited - and most aren't. This is different than licensed. The centers that are accredited have longer wait lists than on base child care.
There's also some reimbursement for in home, if the on home provider has a certain degree. Again, hard to find.

[Anonymous]

We are on post (civilian dad works at Fort Belvoir) in a home, family child care setting. We are so so happy with our provider. We were told that as civilians we had no hope of getting into the family child care program, but we did! He was 5 months when we got in. we never got off the center waiting lists, though. the other providers we've had as back up care were either bad, ok, or good, but none as great a the one we have all the time. I never heard of the other program, though...interesting! we live in Alexandria city also.

[R_meow]

OP here. I was able to confirm some of the info. Army civilians are eligible for ACCYN and MCCYN. They both appear to be administered by an organization called NACCRRA - you can find them online. I'm still trying to get specific details on the programs - I would love to find the Army/DoD Regs, but no luck so far.

I have found a couple big daycares in Arlington and Fairfax County that take ACCYN, so we're going to get on wait lists.

NACCRRA also offers a referral service to help you find ACCYN and MCCYN providers in your area - but they will not hook you up with the referral service until you are 60 days out from needing care. Since waiting that long to find care is a BAD idea around here, we're going to keep calling around on our own and hope we can dig these places up and get on the wait lists now.

To the poster who had the home care arrangement -- I have to ask - does your home care take infants?? We are pregnant, due in May, need care starting ~July. We are actually really interested in home care but it's just so hard to find them!!

[Anonymous]

No personal experience, but try a KiderCare center. In the one we go to I see several/many military parents in uniform dropping off their kids (this is at the Crabs Branch center in Rockville). Maybe it's just convenient for them, but the center meets the criteria you list so maybe it will work. We're moving to VA soon, so I've only just started looking at centers down there, but there seem to be quite a few. Maybe one will be close to your area.

Good Luck!

[Anonymous]

sorry - that should be kiNdercare

[Anonymous]

yes the family child care setup allows two infants per provider (and that's under two years old) only, plus I think up to 3 or 4 toddlers. that includes the provider's children . not everyone actually takes infants though. ours has her baby, our 1 year old, her 3 year old, one kindergarten-er one day after school, and one other older toddler. it's setup through the cyss office on post. the fcc people are nice but not super competent, but if you get a good provider I personally prefer it to the center setup. they have plusses and minuses, of course. good luck!

[Anonymous]

We looked into this benefit a couple of years ago. I don't remember exactly what happened, but we hit a brick wall somewhere along the way. I'll talk to my DH to see if he remembers the issue. As PP pointed out, try Kindercares. I do remember them as being on a list as potentially eligible for this program.

[Anonymous]

also check out the bright horizons at dla