Child Care

  • Published
  • By Brig. Gen. John W Hesterman
  • 48th Fighter Wing commander
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England --  

COMPLAINT: 

I have a concern about the shortage of child care providers at RAF Lakenheath and the surrounding areas. My husband and I are dual military and we have been stationed here for one year. When we first got here there was no child care available. We added my children to the CDC waiting list prior to arriving. 

My daughter got offered a spot shortly after we arrived but there was still no child care for my son. We ended up flying my mother -in-law over here for one month to take care of our children and then we hired a live in au-pair as a last resort to meet the needs of our schedules and child care needs. After 7 months we had to let her go and once again had to fly my mother in-law out to watch my children. This of course was after exhausting all the child care providers on the monthly FCC listing and local child care providers listing.

I added my children back on the CDC waiting list and was told I lost my priority level as Category B Mil-Mil couple because I had denied a spot previously for my daughter. My son got a spot and has begun childcare at the CDC, but my daughter because we are now in Category D (one working parent and one stay at home parent) has been on the CDC waiting list since February and has not moved up since she has been on the list. There is something like 42 children on the list in her age group and she is at the bottom half. I call every provider on the FCC listing every month when the list comes out and there are never any spots available. I submitted a waiver to re-gain my priority level back into Category B of the CDC waiting list and it was denied.

My husband is currently deployed and it has been nearly impossible to find child care suitable for my work schedule. After talking with many other parents, they have stated their concern for the shortage of providers as well. While my squadron is working with me on the hours I can work etc., I was wondering if there were any future plans of building another CDC or if there is a plan in place to alleviate this issue?

RESPONSE: 

I too was a mil-Mil parent and share your concerns over the importance of available child care for our active duty members.

Here at RAF Lakenheath, we remain focused on increasing available quality child care spaces. Despite staffing challenges in both of our Child Development Centers (CDC), we are currently providing Child Care to 265 children ages 6 weeks to 5 years. We anticipate adding an additional 63 child care spaces by Nov 2007. In the past week, our Child Development Center staff placed 18 children from the waiting list into care. Mildenhall Child Development Center recently renovated their center and will be adding an additional 6 CDC classrooms in the future. Therefore, I am hopeful between both bases we will be able to more adequately serve the needs in our community.

Our Family Child Care (FCC) Coordinator, Victoria Jones at DSN 226-2170 is working hard to expand FCC child care capabilities. Three new Family Child Care providers are currently going through the training/inprocessing requirements to meet licensing standards. Once they have completed the licensing process, they will be able to provide 18 child care spaces. We currently have 9 licensed child care homes on RAF Lakenheath providing care for 54 children. Our Family Child Care program staff is confident they will be able to open more homes with licensed providers as new personnel PCS into RAF Lakenheath.

Please contact Ms Jones and she will be able to assist you in securing a quality FCC home for your children. In addition, our family child care coordinator has a list of quality programs within the surrounding community.

Additionally, we do provide special dispensation for some families of deployed members in terms of priority and placement in our CDCs. Please contact Ms. Nancy Adams at DSN 226-3285 to see if this applies to you.

With the expected expansion of child care availability both in our Child Development Centers and in our Family Child Care Program, we are confident we will be able to meet your child care needs in the very near future.