The center – and two others like it in the pilot program under contract with the nonprofit Armed Services YMCA – are being opened with “lightning speed,” said Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Christopher J. Mahoney, at a ribbon cutting ceremony for the center, expected to open by the end of March. The power of the partnership between Armed Services YMCA and the Defense Department helps empower military families, increasing readiness and resilience, he said.

The Arlington center encompasses the third floor of the St. Athanasius Coptic Orthodox Church, located in a civilian area a few minutes from Fort Myer and the Pentagon. It was built out to meet the requirements of the Defense Department, including special ramps on either side of the building to facilitate the evacuation of mobile cribs and buggies.

The first center in the pilot program opened in Norfolk in May 2025 and is at 100% capacity.

The last of the three centers, opening in Virginia Beach this summer, will open just 28 months after the contract was signed. Military child development centers built in the military construction process can take upwards of five years before opening.

Between the National Capital Region and the Norfolk area, the waiting list has grown to about 2,000. The three centers will reduce that waiting list by more than 600, each with a capacity for 216 children. Families can request spots for their children in the centers at www.MilitaryChildCare.com, the portal for requesting all types of military child care. As of publication, 99 families had requested immediate spots at the Arlington center, with 260 requesting care in advance as they plan for the summer moving season.

More than 600 child care slots coming to these military families

Under the pilot program, parents pay the same fee they would at any DOD-run child development center. It’s based on total family income and the same for children of all ages. Armed Services YMCA bills DOD for the difference in what it costs them to provide the care.

DOD provides subsidies for child care in many settings, including their child development centers, where DOD typically covers about 50% of the cost of child care, with family fees covering the remainder.

Care is available for infants up to age 5, with 19 separate rooms featuring age-appropriate learning programs, toys and activities for each. Miniature stationary bikes for pre-schoolers and a sand table with colorful swimming fish and dinosaurs projected from above onto the sand are just two examples.

Among the many features are storage areas for car seats, as well as extra rooms that focus on gross motor skills that can also provide therapy for children.

Diapers, infant formula if requested, meals and snacks, and all other accoutrements, are provided at the child care centers.

The Arlington child development center will be licensed in Virginia and nationally accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Staff members undergo background checks and are trained with the same methods used in DOD child care centers. The center is inspected by local, state and DOD officials on a regular basis.

DOD runs the largest network of child development centers in the world, with 27,000 staff members caring for 172,000 military-connected children every year, said Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata. That includes 739 child development and school-age centers, 148 youth and teen centers, and more than 800 family child care homes, he said.

Yet, he said, “We know there’s a gap in child care ... It’s partners like Armed Services YMCA that help close that gap,” Tata said.

DOD is trying to get the persistent 20% rate of spouse unemployment down to the national average of about 4%, he said. “Undergirding all of that is affordable, accessible child care.”

Over the years, DOD and the services have embarked on a number of efforts to increase the availability of child care. Information was unavailable from DOD officials about any other new initiatives underway to address child care shortages, or the number of children on waiting lists overall. There was no timeline available for when DOD expects to decide whether to expand these pilots to other areas.

”There’s no more important time for us to worry about child care than now," said retired Navy Vice Admiral William French, president and CEO of Armed Services YMCA. That 165-year-old nonprofit has a number of different programs focusing on young enlisted families at its 12 branches and 29 YMCA affiliates serving more than 104 military bases.

“But the one program that has the biggest impact on families is child care,” he said.

Some schools operated by the Department of Defense Education Activity already prohibit the use of cellphones in schools, but the policies aren’t consistent across DODEA, according to a Military Times spot check of some schools’ handbook policies.

The legislative provision requires DODEA to update existing regulations to “prohibit disruption in the learning environment by minimizing the use of such mobile devices to the greatest extent practicable, and to standardize such regulations across all DODEA schools.”

DODEA operates 161 schools in 11 foreign countries, seven states and two territories.

The proposed NDAA has been approved by the House and now awaits the Senate’s vote.

A common policy statement viewed in several schools’ current student handbooks was “Cellphones may be brought to school but must be turned off and stored in the backpack or locker during the school day. In cases of emergency, students may contact their parents by using the phone in the school office.”

Policies about cellphone use are clearly outlined in each school’s student handbook, said DODEA spokeswoman Jessica Tackaberry. “With that guidance already in place, implementation is managed at the local school level based on community needs. Overall, cellphone use is not a systemic issue in DODEA,” she said. “Our focus remains on promoting responsible use through consistent citizenship and helping students make smart, informed choices in today’s connected world.”

States across the country are addressing students’ cellphone use. At least 32 states and the District of Columbia have required school districts to ban or restrict students’ use of cellphones, according to Education Week. There are ongoing concerns about distractions from learning.

When asked about students’ cellphone usage during a recent interview with Military Times, DODEA Director Beth Schiavino-Narvaez cited her recent visit to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, when she visited all six DODEA schools at that base.

“Honestly, I didn’t see a cellphone in any of the kids’ hands in any of the six schools. We have guidance and our students are great at following that guidance. We want kids engaged in their learning, and that’s what I saw,” she said.

Military school students' test scores lead the nation

Fort Campbell schools are part of the DODEA Americas region, where DODEA operates 50 schools in seven states, two countries and one territory. Their regional policy stated on the DODEA website is that cellphones must be turned off and stored in backpack or locker during the school day.

Others, like Edgren Middle High School at Misawa Air Base in Japan, have variations in their policies. Edgren allows students to use cellphones at their discretion during non-class time.

The new provision requires DODEA to update and standardize the regulation across all its schools no later than 180 days after the law is enacted.

“Cellphones don’t belong in the classroom, and students learn best when these distractions are removed,” said Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., in a statement about the inclusion of the provision in the negotiated agreement between House and Senate lawmakers. “This provision will ensure DODEA students are able to focus on what matters most: their education,” said Banks, who originally introduced the legislation in the Senate in June along with Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich.

“Last month, I said we should ban cellphones in all K-12 schools in America, and now we have started down that path by banning cellphones in DoDEA classrooms,” said Slotkin, in an announcement in July about the Senate Armed Services Committee’s approval of the measure.

“With over 65,000 military children attending DoDEA schools worldwide, it’s critical students in DoDEA schools have an environment where they can focus, learn, and build meaningful relationships without the distraction of cellphones.”

Defense Commissary Agency officials have awarded a contract for the delivery to OnPoint, a delivery service previously known as ChowCall, said Todd Waldemar, founder and CEO of the company. The 70 commissaries that are part of the contract include eight pilot locations that have been offering the delivery service since 2022. Waldemar said the remaining 62 stores will be offering the service by Jan. 11.

“These 70 include the largest military markets, so I estimate that they represent over half of the total [U.S.] military population,” Waldemar said.

A spokesman for commissary officials did not immediately confirm the award of the contract, and it had not been published on Sam.gov by the time this article was published.

The contract includes the flexibility to expand to the remaining 108 commissaries in the United States. That expansion to all 178 commissaries is optional and is up to the commissary agency, Waldemar said.

“But we hope to get delivery in all markets as soon as we can. I think it would be realistic to see all markets have delivery by the summer,” he said, emphasizing that he does not speak for the commissary agency.

Commissary officials are not considering doorstep delivery for overseas commissaries because of overseas regulatory constraints.

The initial contract award is for $14 million, Waldemar said. Delivery will be available within a 20-mile radius of the commissaries.

Commissary officials have provided an online, curbside pickup service for customers for a number of years, and have been working to find a way to provide the delivery service, too.

“We need this. Our customers want and need this contract,” John Hall, director of the Defense Commissary Agency, told a meeting in March.

“I’m really excited about this,” he said at the time.

Under the system, customers order groceries online, which are retrieved by store employees who pick the items and hand the orders over to OnPoint. OnPoint then delivers the groceries to the customer’s location. The delivery can occur as soon as three hours after the order is submitted, depending on the location, because commissaries need the time to pack the order.

The commissary agency will not subsidize the delivery costs for customers. The fee will be $17.75 for those within 10 miles and $31.25 for those within 11 to 20 miles. The commissary agency does not have the flexibility in pricing delivery fees that commercial retailers do, because of their limitations in marking up prices, for example.

Customers pay the delivery fee in addition to the cost of their groceries, the usual 5% commissary surcharge, and any tip for the driver.

Nationwide doorstep delivery getting closer for commissary customers

OnPoint has been gearing up for the expansion, and is also hiring delivery drivers in all 70 areas, Waldemar said. About 80% of their employees are affiliated with the military, as spouses or veterans, for example. They are paid according to the wage scale under the Service Contract Act, which varies from area to area, and also receive fringe benefits, he said.

ChowCall/OnPoint has delivered more than 40,000 loads of groceries since beginning commissary deliveries in June 2022, Waldemar said.

Customers using the current delivery pilot program range from active-duty families to troops living in barracks, retirees and disabled veterans and people who want to get a head start on shopping or a bite to eat while at work. The service can be especially helpful to young families of troops who are deployed, such as spouses with young children, Waldemar said.

More than 50% of customers using the delivery are within 5 miles of their commissary, he said.

Those eligible for the commissary shopping benefit include active-duty, Guard and Reserve members, military retirees, Medal of Honor recipients and their authorized family members. Veterans with any Veterans Affairs Department-documented, service-connected disability rating are now eligible for commissary shopping, as well as Purple Heart recipients, former prisoners of war and those who have been approved and designated as the primary caregivers of eligible veterans by the VA.

Waldemar said he has received positive feedback from customers about the delivery, including some disabled veterans who said they depend on the commissary delivery. One veteran who cannot drive called it a lifeline, Waldemar said.

“Our mission is to really solve this problem, and really make a big impact across the whole military for quality of life,” Waldemar said. His company has made over 2 million deliveries of food and merchandise to military bases for 15 years, he said.

“The problem as we see it, is that the delivery of goods and services is either nonexistent or minimal in most military markets,” he said. So those who live and work on military bases do not have as many options as everyone else does, he said, partially because access to military bases is harder.

“We want to solve that problem by giving more options to the military, more options to the dependents in family housing, more options to the young service member who doesn’t have a vehicle, stuck in the barracks.

“My son, for example, just enlisted in the Air Force. He’s living in barracks. He told me the other day, totally unsolicited, ‘Dad I finally understand what your company does,’ because he’s on a base where all he can get is pizza from the gas station down the road.

“That’s it. We want to totally change that. We want to have options, we want to have convenience for everybody that’s on bases.”

Alabama

• Fort Rucker (formerly Fort Novosel)

Arizona

• Davis-Monthan AFB
• Fort Huachuca
• Luke AFB

California

• Camp Pendleton MCB
• Miramar MCAS
• San Diego NB
• Ord Military Community
• Travis AFB

Colorado

• Fort Carson
• Peterson SFB

Connecticut

• New London NSB

Florida

• Eglin AFB
• Hurlburt Field
• Jacksonville NAS
• MacDill AFB
• Patrick SFB
• Pensacola NAS

Georgia

• Fort Benning (formerly Fort Moore)
• Fort Gordon (formerly Fort Eisenhower)
• Fort Stewart

Hawaii

• Hickam JBPHH
• Kaneohe Bay MCBH
• Pearl Harbor JBPHH
• Schofield Barracks

Illinois

• Scott AFB
• Great Lakes NS

Kansas

• Fort Leavenworth
• Fort Riley

Kentucky

• Fort Campbell
• Fort Knox

Louisiana

• Fort Polk (formerly Fort Johnson)
• Barksdale AFB

Maryland

• Andrews AFB
• Fort Meade

Mississippi

• Keesler AFB

Missouri

• Fort Leonard Wood
• Whiteman AFB

Nebraska

• Offutt AFB

Nevada

• Nellis AFB

New Jersey

• McGuire AFB

New York

• Fort Drum
• West Point Military Academy

North Carolina

• Camp Lejeune MCB
• New River MCAS
• Fort Bragg North & South locations (formerly Fort Liberty North & South locations)

North Dakota

• Minot AFB

Ohio

• Wright Patterson AFB

Oklahoma

• Fort Sill
• Tinker AFB

Puerto Rico

• Fort Buchanan

South Carolina

• Shaw AFB

Texas

• Fort Bliss
• Randolph AFB
• Fort Sam Houston
• Lackland AFB
• Fort Hood-Clear Creek location (formerly Fort Cavazos-Clear Creek location)

Virginia

• Fort Eustis
• Langley AFB
• Little Creek JBLCFS
• Norfolk Naval Station
• Oceana NAS
• Fort Belvoir
• Fort Myer
• Fort Lee (formerly Fort Gregg Adams)
• Quantico MCB

Washington

• Fort Lewis Main
• McChord AFB
• Whidbey Island NAS

If you’d like to share your thoughts, email kjowers@militarytimes.com. Include your service branch, rank, age, marital status, family size, the name of your installation and phone number if we can contact you for more information. Let us know if it’s okay to use your name; anonymity can be granted upon request.

Julia Bardsley felt a growing dread as she toured a day care just outside the gates of Fort Gordon, Georgia, with the nine-month-old son she had never even left with a babysitter on her mind.

Three infants cried from their cribs. One baby on the floor clutched a rattle, the only toy Bardsley could see in the room. Another had pulled herself up to a cabinet and was peeling off the laminate. In the corner, a television was tuned to Judge Judy.

Bardsley didn’t feel she had much of a choice when it came to child care; she was days away from starting her dream job, and wait lists for the child development center on post were two years long. But this was not the answer for her son, Carter. No way was a celebrity judge going to raise her child.

Instead, she shocked her Army specialist husband — and herself — by ditching her career in retail management and turning her home into a child care center for military families.

At bases around the country, military leaders are leaning on spouses like Bardsley to open their own family child care homes that will offload pressure from understaffed on-base centers with long waitlists.

Military moms are answering the call, lured by the triple promise of making good money, working from home, and being their own bosses.

But Bardsley and dozens of other moms have a warning for them. The rules and regulations, well-meaning though they are, are out of control.

You can’t store a box of fruit cups on the floor of your pantry: inspection violation.

Shovel snow immediately to ensure there’s always a clear path out of the house. But never leave children unattended to do so.

Take pictures of the children in your care only with a government-issued phone. Never mind that you won’t be issued a phone by the government.

Family child care centers can be a lifeline for military spouses who want careers and for parents of kids with special needs that make finding center-based care even more challenging.

‘Nobody to Watch My Twins.’ Military Spouses Quit Jobs, Families Bust Budgets in Scramble for Child Care

But when The War Horse spoke with seven current and former providers who had taken care of military kids in 13 states, they said reams of rules and a culture of retaliation make them feel less like independent contractors and more like peons in a chain of command they did not sign up for.

Be your own boss, but act like an employee

Family child care providers care for up to six kids at a time who can’t access on-base child care spots, need care during nontraditional hours that centers can’t provide, or whose parents want a more home-like environment. In 2021, the latest year for which data is available, around 2,700 children were enrolled in a family child care home.

Air Force spouse Lisa Slaba said her children, now in first grade and pre-K, have “thrived exponentially” thanks to loving family child care providers who, as fellow military spouses, she’s more inclined to trust.

Home-based care for DOD families started decades ago as an informal way for military moms to help out other families while earning a living. But as the program grew, so did its playbook.

The DOD says its requirements for certifying family child care providers are “typically more stringent than state standards,” and providers are inspected more often; while most states require annual inspections, supervisors visit military child care homes every month.

And with supervisors able to interpret inspection criteria as they see fit, many providers say the level of oversight is more intrusive and less standardized than they expected.

“It’s no longer just people wanting to just drop their children off into a safe space,” said April Dingle, a provider at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

Today, parents expect a miniature child development center in these women’s living rooms.

The DOD seems to share that expectation.

On a recent inspection, Kayla Calhoun says she was told she had to leave all the lights on during naptime at the family child care center she runs from her home at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey; the Air Force regulation states that lights stay on in Child and Youth Program facilities. “This is my home, and you’re telling me I can’t turn my lights off?” Calhoun said.

Guidance like that makes some providers feel they’re responsible for running an on-base child care center with a staff of one.

Dingle says she has to be not only an early childhood educator but also a janitor, a medic should an emergency arise, a chef, and an administrator.

“I have to be just all these other different labels instead of just caring for kids,” she said. “That’s not what I thought I signed up for. I signed up to provide a safe space, a routine for these children, and care and love, but it’s way too much.”

Many of the rules providers must follow make perfect sense, and Dingle said everyone wants there to be reasonable boundaries.

But some of those rules? “Just crazy,” she said. Like having to use chemical test strips to confirm her home was properly cleaned and sanitized.

Or being told she can only serve the children food from the commissary, despite the fact that she was finding expired milk and spoiled meat on the shelves.

Kayla Calhoun used to take her toddler and a child she watched through the family child care program to a local farm nearly every Monday, when it was free for military families. The kids loved throwing pellets of food to the barnyard animals, climbing on the tire tower, and running through the splash pad.

Then the Air Force changed a regulation and said children under the age of two were not permitted on field trips. The preschooler Calhoun takes care of was allowed to visit the farm. But Calhoun’s own son Lyle — 18 months old at the time — was now considered too young for his own mother to drive him there.

“It’s asinine,” Calhoun said. Fun wasn’t the only casualty; a program coordinator misinterpreted the new regulation and told providers they could no longer take young children along to drop older ones off at school. “It really screwed over a lot of people,” said Calhoun.

A spokesperson for the Department of the Air Force, which oversees more family child care providers than any other service, said specific guidelines for providers ensure high-quality care for kids. And every licensed child care operation, military or civilian, must adhere to safety guidelines.

But the DOD’s expectations for military moms have gone too far for some.

Kayla Corbitt, the founder and CEO of Operation Child Care Project, a military child care advocacy nonprofit, surveyed 59 family child care providers in 2023. Just over a third of the 45 who had quit the business said they did so because of all the red tape and regulations.

Corbitt says from what she can tell, family child care providers have zero autonomy and are treated like employees, not independent contractors, as the military claims.

“I honestly always thought the IRS would eventually take them down,” she said. “You can’t claim someone is a [contractor] when you tell them when to work and what to charge and how to do your work and who you’re allowed to watch and where you’re allowed to watch them.”

A house that’s not a home

When Dingle became a family child care provider almost two decades ago, she was lured in part by the promise of working from home while she took care of her own kids.

But soon it didn’t feel like her home at all. With demands including materials to have and how to set up the space, it felt like an institutional care center.

When her children were around they were required to be in the same space as Dingle and the other kids — even if their father was home, even if they were old enough to go do their homework or hang out in their own rooms.

They couldn’t have friends over, or go put dishes in the sink.

“In that aspect, I’m not even my child’s parent at that time any longer,” she said. “It’s like I’m 100% provider.”

These rules are in place to protect kids and uphold fire, health, and safety standards, said the Air Force spokesperson. “We truly appreciate providers’ flexibility as adjustments are required to adhere to regulations,” they said.

While Dingle feels a sense of purpose taking care of children who really need her, she wants her home back.

“By this time next year,” she said, “I want to be completely done.”

Too many standards, not enough standardization

Despite all the family child care program’s regulations, many providers complained that their jobs and treatment look wildly different from installation to installation.

“Everything from paperwork to policies to the systems that are in place. … The way that things are implemented are different at every single garrison,” said Bardsley.

It all comes down to the relationships between providers and the various authorities overseeing the family child care program, providers said.

Providers say some coordinators and directors are helpful, knowledgeable, respectful, and encouraging. Get someone who is not well-trained, not that invested, or just plain vindictive? You could be in for it, providers told The War Horse.

Bardsley said she faced retaliation from a coordinator at one post after taking a policy issue she disagreed with to the garrison leadership. Before the month was out, Bardsley — who said she’d never once been written up for any violation in her nine years of providing military child care — received three write-ups, including serving lunch 15 minutes early and allowing children to remove their shoes indoors. She was threatened with closure. After her next move, to Texas, Bardsley decided running a family child care center was no longer for her.

Denise Clark, a three-time “FCC provider of the year” in two states, said she was excluded from the list of available home day cares at Scott Air Force Base, just east of St. Louis, after she refused to provide 50 hours of care each week and accept families using the military’s child care subsidy program.

Clark submitted a DOD complaint and met with Nathan Whitesides, the director of Scott Air Force Base’s Inspector General Complaints Resolution Department. Afterward, Whitesides searched for guidance stating providers had to offer 50 hours of care. He couldn’t find any.

“My belief is that there is no official written guidance and that the AF [Air Force] childcare program is running the FCC [family child care] program in an ad hoc manner without proper oversight,” Whitesides determined in a memo dated Dec. 4, 2023.

Without being able to get a straight answer from program leaders, he added that “The potential for fraud and/or abuse in this program is high.”

But instead of getting relief, Clark learned this summer her certification was being suspended after someone made a child maltreatment allegation. Investigators determined the allegation was unfounded, but revoked her certification anyway for a transgression Clark believes would have ended with a slap on the wrist for other providers. She thinks it is retaliation for challenging the 50-hour rule and lodging complaints.

Public affairs officials at Scott Air Force Base did not respond to a request for comment on Clark’s case.

Clark said she will continue fighting to clear her name. But she’s offended and confused by everything that’s happened. She and other disgruntled providers say it’s time to remind the Department of Defense that they’re not servicemembers duty-bound to say, “Yes, sir.” They’re moms — trying to do their part. “It really hurts,” she said.

This War Horse story was edited by Mike Frankel, fact-checked by Jess Rohan, and copy-edited by Mitchell Hansen-Dewar. Hrisanthi Pickett wrote the headlines.

Jennifer Brookland is a regular contributor to The War Horse who served as a special agent in the Air Force before she received her master’s in journalism from Columbia University. She’s covered military and veterans’ issues for North Carolina Public Radio and child welfare for the Detroit Free Press. She was also a 2022 War Horse Fellow.

Parents, babies, toddlers and preschoolers joined in remotely from Camp Pendleton, California, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina, for a USO Military Virtual Programming session to experience Sesame Workshop’s latest resources for military families.

“Healthy, Happy, Ready” resources are designed to help military families build habits together around nutrition, movement and emotional wellness.

Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind “Sesame Street,” has partnered with the Defense Department’s Office of Military Family and Community Policy for 19 years on resources for military families with young children. Through the beloved Muppets Rosita, Elmo, Grover and others, they communicate directly with young children in ways they can understand, as well as their parents. Over the years, Sesame Workshop has conducted research and consulted with military families and other experts in various fields to develop its resources.

The new digital resources, available online 24/7, focus on fun but easy ways to get the whole family involved in healthy habits.

Videos focus on preparing nutritious meals as a family, a guide for growing a kitchen garden and ideas for making physical activity a regular part of the day. In her discussion with military families Thursday, Rosita said dancing is her favorite way of moving because she can dance whether it’s sunny or stormy outside.

The resources offer healthy, easy, kid-pleasing recipes; articles featuring tips and strategies for meal planning; and turning regular activities into play and games, especially during transitions or other busy times in military life. Printable pages related to videos’ themes are also available, offering suggestions for getting started.

During a question-and-answer portion at Thursday’s session, mothers at Camp Pendleton and Fort Bragg learned, for example, that the new resources address picky eaters and provide suggestions on ways to connect with other military families around healthy habits.

Sesame Workshop encourages families to share ideas, but they’re seeing that not only are adults sharing ideas with other adults, but kids are sharing with other kids, too, said Jeanette Betancourt, Sesame Workshop’s senior vice president of U.S. social impact.

Whether the day is sunny or stormy, Elmo is there for children of the wounded

In the past, Muppets have been featured in segments for military children dealing with deployments, homecomings, relocations, grief and other realities of military life. In a segment on military caregiving, Rosita, as a Muppet daughter of a Muppet military veteran, shared her feelings about adjusting to the family’s new life after her father’s injuries and how it helps to talk to Elmo about it. Those resources remain available on Sesame Workshop’s newly redesigned website, Betancourt said.

But more recently, they’ve heard directly from military families that they want to find easy ways to keep their children healthy that they can incorporate into their busy daily lives, Betancourt said.

During Thursday’s session, Rosita offered a tip for both children and adults on what to do when things get a little busy or stressful at home. It helps her to stop, take a deep breath and then let go.

“Sometimes I need two deep breaths,” she said.

After that, she said, “We hug.”

The new myAuth system is replacing the legacy DS Logon system, which authenticates users onto more than 200 Defense Department and Veterans Affairs websites, defense officials announced July 17. Those who use the DS Logon system currently include military personnel, DOD civilians, military and civilian retirees, family member beneficiaries, contractors and vendors.

Among other things, myAuth offers enhanced security protections, such as multi-factor authentication, which requires two or more verification methods.

When the system is completely phased in, users will be able to access all of their regular DOD applications with the one sign-in through myAuth. DOD officials say the new system will simplify the login process.

Many users can already log in to MyAuth and set up an account using their DS Logon credentials.

Officials are launching the system in phases, starting with milConnect and ID Card Office Online in May. As of July 14, more than 740,000 DOD-affiliated personnel had created myAuth accounts, officials said. The success rate for people creating their accounts is more than 99%, they said, minimizing the need for people to contact the call center.

Those who wait until after the DS Logon is gone must reverify their identity if they don’t have a Common Access Card. Many Tricare secure online patient services, such as the MHS Genesis patient portal, require a DS Logon account.

Those who don’t have a CAC or a DS Logon must create a one-time DS Logon account over the next 18 months to establish their identity and benefits before creating a myAuth account, the DOD told Military Times.

Active-duty service members and DOD civilians with a CAC will likely have no problem making the transition to the new system, officials said in their announcement, because their daily use of programs that currently offer both DS Logon and myAuth for authentication will be a reminder for them to sign up for myAuth.

Officials are focusing on getting the word out to a large number of users who don’t use the DOD systems daily, such as retirees, family members and contractors.

For example, the Defense Manpower Data Center is working with the Defense Health Agency to let users who access Tricare-related systems know about the change, said Zachary R. Gill, the branch chief of DMDC’s identity credential access management and partner services, in the announcement.

The myAuth provides secure access for retirees and other beneficiaries who may not have a Common Access Card.

It also provides access options for people who do have a CAC but might not be able to use it in certain circumstances — for example, a soldier traveling on orders booked through the Defense Travel System who encounters problems with a flight at the airport.

Without access to a CAC-enabled computer, it’s a challenge to access the Defense Travel System to make changes in travel. But with myAuth, a soldier in that circumstance could use a different credential to access the Defense Travel System with a personal cell phone. The CAC will no longer be the only way to access these government systems.

The myAuth uses Okta Verify, which can be installed on a personal or government-issued cell phone. There are biometric capabilities for both face and fingerprint recognition; the DOD organization using the system sets the methods for access.

Some of the applications individuals need to access may not require the highest levels of authentication, and not everyone has a CAC or a smartphone, or access to technology. So the myAuth system will “flex” to meet different needs, Gill said.

As the new system is rolled out, individuals using applications such as milConnect are seeing a login screen for myAuth, which allows them to create a myAuth account.

Gill noted that legacy DS Logon system isn’t the only system being replaced by myAuth, but it is the largest.

“There are multiple authentication systems across the department that each department is paying for individually, which means each department is paying for sustainment costs or licensing costs,” Gill said in the announcement, noting that DOD will shutter those systems and replace them with myAuth.

More information about the change is available at myAuth Help.

They’ve asked for a report on DOD’s plans by March 31, 2026, as part of the House draft on the annual defense authorization bill today. Lawmakers want details on plans for maintaining the current benefits for service members and their families.

“The committee is concerned that privatization of retail programs could result in disruptions to benefits and productivity without providing substantial improvements,” stated the amendment adopted by the House Armed Services Committee. So they direct the Secretary of Defense to submit the report to the House and Senate armed services committees on the plans and processes being used for evaluating whether to privatize the retail programs.

The provision will have to survive negotiations over the next few months before the final compromise bill is settled.

Lawmakers are responding to an April 7 memo from Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg on restructuring the DOD civilian workforce, which stated, “All functions that are not inherently governmental (e.g. retail sales and recreation) should be prioritized for privatization.”

Other information lawmakers would require include the feasibility of privatizing retail programs at remote and overseas locations. Critics of privatization have said that while private entities might be willing to operate large stores in the U.S. such as those at Fort Belvoir, Va., and San Diego, it would be less financially viable to operate stores overseas and in remote areas.

Lawmakers want details on the anticipated benefits of privatization, to include savings and operational efficiencies; an analysis of key challenges associated with privatization; effects on current appropriated-fund employees of the programs; and effects on contractors supporting the retail programs, such as those supplying groceries sold in commissaries and the items sold in military exchanges.

They’re also asking for an assessment of the disruption to the benefits and workflow of retail programs during transition.

Various groups within and outside the Defense Department have proposed commissary privatization over the past several decades, eyeing the billion-plus dollars of taxpayer money used to operate the stores, but those proposals have been rejected as advocates defended the benefit.

Defense officials kept commissaries open during the COVID-19 pandemic, deeming them “mission essential.”

By law, commissaries must provide an average overall savings of 23.7% compared to civilian grocery stores. To provide the savings, the stores rely on the annual appropriation of more than $1.4 billion in taxpayer dollars for the costs of operations, including employee salaries. In 2022, then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin directed DOD to fully fund commissaries in order to cut costs at the register in an effort to help families with the rising costs of food.

On the other hand, military exchanges don’t use taxpayer dollars for their operations. They provide department-store goods at varying discounts. They also operate gas stations, convenience stores and liquor stores. Eateries ranging from Burger King to Panera Bread also have agreements with the exchanges to operate on many military bases. Military exchanges are also tasked with operating the school meal programs for school-age children at DOD schools on overseas military bases.

Deputy editor Leo Shane III contributed to this report.

Sergio Rodriguez, an Army veteran and military family advocate who was named 2022 Navy Spouse of the Year by Armed Forces Insurance, alleges his First Amendment rights were violated when officials banned him from the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay’s Facebook page and deleted all his comments in August 2024.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, names Capt. Christopher Bohner, commanding officer of the base, and Scott Bassett, a public affairs officer, as defendants.

“This case is about ensuring the government can’t silence voices it doesn’t like, especially those speaking up on behalf of others,” said Mike Petrino, senior litigation counsel for the Center for Individual Rights, a nonprofit public interest law firm representing Rodriguez. “The Navy may not like what Sergio had to say, but the First Amendment prohibits them from shutting him out of a public forum for saying it.”

Rodriguez, who lives in Chesapeake, Virginia, is an advocate for military families who encounter problems with military housing and other issues, and regularly follows official social media pages of various military bases worldwide, according to the lawsuit. He uses those social media pages to advise, mentor and assist families who live on base.

In August 2024, Rodriguez saw on the submarine base’s Facebook page that an electrical power outage had left many military families living on base without power for more than 12 hours, according to the lawsuit. Officials posted that Public Works was on the scene working to restore electricity as quickly as possible, according to a screenshot of the posting included in the lawsuit.

Rodriguez posted questions about whether the base had a plan to temporarily relocate residents if the power outage continued, and whether officials would provide information on how residents could be reimbursed for their spoiled perishables. Officials responded with a post that those with a claim should start with the Navy Legal Service Office.

Shortly after that, Bassett, at the direction of Bohner, banned Rodriguez from the Facebook page and deleted all of his previous comments, the lawsuit alleges. He had been posting to the base’s Facebook page for the previous four years without incident.

Rodriguez received a call from Bohner’s wife indicating he had been banned from the Facebook page, the lawsuit claims. A few days later, Rodriguez emailed Bassett requesting reinstatement to the Facebook page, but received no response.

“The Navy’s actions didn’t just block me — they tried to block the truth,” Rodriguez said in an announcement of the lawsuit. “I was giving families relevant guidance I wish I had when I first started navigating the system. Silencing that helps no one.”

Officials have not given Rodriguez any reason for banning him, according to Rodriguez’s attorneys.

The Navy doesn’t comment on pending litigation, said Destiny Sibert, a spokeswoman for Commander, Navy Installations Command headquarters.

She referred to the Navy’s social media policy, updated in October 2024, which states: “The Navy may not block individual social media accounts from official Navy social media sites. However, the Navy may delete comments that constitute a violation of law, regulation, or the Navy’s terms of service.”

The policy further states that public officials who use social media accounts for official business cannot exclude people from open online discussions simply because they express opposing views, as that would violate the First Amendment. It also notes that the First Amendment doesn’t protect all types of speech, including “obscenity, defamation, fraud, incitement and speech integral to criminal conduct.”

The Navy’s previous social media policy was more ambiguous and didn’t address First Amendment rights, according to a Military Times comparison of the two policies, but listed specific violations that would result in someone being blocked, such as graphic, obscene, explicit or racist comments or submissions, or comments that are abusive, hateful or intended to defame.

According to the lawsuit, Rodriguez received a commendation from then-President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden for his advocacy for military families. He served in the Army from 2000 to 2006, when he retired due to disability. As of 2010, when his wife joined the Navy, he became a Navy spouse.

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This is the second lawsuit the Center for Individual Rights has filed this year regarding allegations of First Amendment rights violations in the military community. In March, the organization filed a lawsuit on behalf of Timothy Stanhope, a retired National Guard member with 23 years of service in the North Carolina National Guard. He named the leadership of the North Carolina National Guard as defendants, alleging he was banned from their official Facebook page after posting critical comments about the Guard leadership, mismanagement, living conditions, food and water quality. The lawsuit alleges he was forced to retire, and after he retired, the leaders banned him from the official Facebook page.

Attorneys for Rodriguez and Stanhope contend that as more government officials and agencies use social media to communicate with the public, the cases could serve as critical reminders to government officials about the constitutional limits of digital censorship.

Because he was banned from the Facebook page, Rodriguez has “suffered irreparable and ongoing harm” because he’s prevented from receiving information from the page, and is prevented from offering advice and assistance to others on the page, the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit asks for an injunction to prohibit the officials from blocking Rodriguez from the Facebook page, or deleting his comments on the basis of his viewpoint. It also asks the court to award him costs, reasonable attorneys’ fees and other expenses and any additional relief.

The changes include adding administrative officers to nearly every school and increasing the number of school psychologists. It also includes eliminating some positions, but it’s not clear yet how many people will be moving to other positions or leaving the school system by the beginning of the next school year.

Classroom teaching positions remain unaffected, said Jessica Tackaberry, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense Education Activity.

“Core services and teacher-to-student ratios remain unchanged, ensuring continuity, stability, and high-quality learning environments” across Department of Defense Education Activity Schools, according to a DODEA announcement.

The changes are “in direct support of the Department of Defense’s Workforce Acceleration and Recapitalization Initiative,” according to officials. That initiative required agencies to submit proposals for potential ways to reduce or eliminate redundant or non-essential functions and include adjusted civilian manpower levels.

“This is not change for the sake of change. It’s targeted, strategic, and rooted in our mission to support military-connected students,” said DODEA Director Beth Schiavino-Narvaez, in the announcement. “We are transforming our workforce to meet the future head-on, while preserving the academic excellence that our families depend on.”

DODEA officials said they aim to strengthen school-level leadership structures, ensure smoother student transitions between schools and invest in professional development for educators.

The Federal Education Association, the union representing DODEA faculty and staff, has “big, big, big concerns about this,” said Richard Tarr, executive director of the FEA.

Tarr questioned the changes, citing the school system’s accomplishments. For example, military school students led the nation last year in 4th and 8th grade math and reading scores.

“In general, this reduces the number of people serving the students in the school, but those duties don’t go away,” he said. “They’re distributing the duties among other people who are already overworked and have their own full-time positions.

“Teachers’ working conditions are the students’ learning conditions.”

FEA has asked DODEA for more information and has made proposals “to alleviate the harm” but hasn’t gotten answers, Tarr said.

DODEA hasn’t included FEA in discussions around these changes, he said, following President Donald Trump’s executive order March 27 excluding certain federal workers from the right to collective bargaining. The union has filed a lawsuit challenging that order.

Last November, DODEA invited parents, students, educators and leaders to participate in a systemwide questionnaire on Future Ready Learners, and the results shaped many of these decisions, officials said.

DODEA operates 161 accredited schools in 11 foreign countries, seven states, Guam and Puerto Rico, including the DODEA Virtual School. There are nearly 900,000 military school-age children, and of those, about 65,000 attend DODEA schools.

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The changes outlined include adding 21.5 psychologist positions across the school system, lowering the psychologist-to-students ratio from one for every 900 students to one for every 700.

The national ratio for the 2023-2024 school year was one school psychologist per 1,065 students, according to the National Association of School Psychologists, which recommends one psychologist per 500 children.

DODEA also plans to transition school education technologist positions to district-level instructional systems specialists. Tarr said this change is cause for concern because these technologists not only help keep students’ laptops running, but also work with educators to make sure they can use the technology embedded in the curriculum.

In response to this concern, DODEA spokeswoman Tackaberry said, “Schools also have IT personnel that support the school for any technology issues, and have other staff capable of handling school automation needs.”

The plan also calls for phasing out or significantly changing special education assessor positions and speech-language pathologist assessor positions.

Tarr said FEA is disappointed that these positions are being eliminated. However, Tackaberry said assessments will continue with speech-language pathologists, who will also participate in eligibility and Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings.

School psychologists will continue to administer cognitive and behavioral assessments and participate in eligibility and IEP meetings, Tackaberry said. This will allow school psychologists to serve as the primary coordinators for all special education evaluations.

“This change is aimed at improving early intervention and more individualized support for students,” Tackaberry said.

Another change will add administrative officers at nearly every school “to streamline operations and free principals to focus on instructional leadership,” according to officials.

Currently, DODEA has some administrative officers, but they serve multiple schools. They perform a wide range of tasks, Tackaberry said, including managing office operations, budgets, personnel and records and providing support to administrators and staff.

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Another step in the plan is to phase out or significantly change office automation assistant and office automation clerk positions, as well as numerous positions above the school level.

About 88% of DODEA’s workforce is at the school level, while 12% serve above the school level in districts, regions or headquarters offices. About one-third of the cuts in positions are happening at above-school levels. The numbers of those cuts, as well as the other two-thirds of the changes at the school level, have not yet been confirmed, Tackaberry said.

“While the transformation is not focused on broad workforce reductions, it does include the careful elimination or reallocation of certain roles to improve efficiency, reduce duplication and strengthen support systems at all levels within DODEA,” Tackaberry said.

The changes affect a number of instructional systems specialist positions and some operations-focused positions at the district and region levels, she said.

Nearly every headquarters department was affected, including logistics, procurement, equal employment opportunity programs, curriculum and instruction, professional learning, general counsel, security management, facilities and others, Tackaberry said.

“The exact number of eliminated positions is still being finalized, as efforts are ongoing to reassign impacted staff into roles that match their skills, experience, and certifications,” she said.

Without knowing which positions are being affected, it’s difficult to know what effects this might have on children’s education, said Eileen Huck, acting director of government relations for the National Military Family Association.

“Any time there are changes at the school level, parents are understandably concerned, especially in the current environment where we know so many federal civilian employees have lost their jobs,” she said.