Putting Parents in the Driver’s Seat: Empowering Army Families

When Christy Miller moved to Fort Bliss, Texas, with her Family, finding employment was a challenge. As a military spouse, she was looking for a job that fit her experience but also worked for her Family. Miller found an opportunity with Child and Youth Services at a child development center.

“This was my first time returning to work since becoming a mom,” Miller said. “The CDC gave me the opportunity to take that step while still having my son close by, which was incredibly important to me.”

Once at the center, Miller realized how much time and effort went into training staff to ensure children at the centers were safe, learning and developing.

“As a mom, that gives me a lot of confidence in where my son spends his day,” Miller said.

Miller, the 2025 AUSA Volunteer Family of the Year spouse, made those remarks during the Warfighter and Family Forum, “Empowering Parents and Children,” at the 2026 AUSA Annual Meeting. The session was designed to provide Army Families with information and resources for child care, details about options for care and services provided by school liaison Officers.

Speakers and panelists highlighted the Department’s priority to always provide child care directly on the installation. However, for geographically dispersed Families or for those facing extensive waitlists, the Army Fee Assistance program provides a critical bridge to approved community-based care while ensuring children can thrive and Families can maintain readiness and well-being.

The session highlighted the Army’s tiered approach to child care: maintaining on-installation care as the priority, while simplifying the process for Families to access approved community-based providers when capacity or distance requires it. Throughout the forum, panelists discussed the importance of making information accessible and processes easier to navigate.

Keynote speaker Tim Dill, Assistant Secretary of War for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, emphasized that strong Families mean a strong Army and that strong Families are anchored by parents. As the Army works to attract and retain Soldiers, Dill said Family support is the best predictor of whether a Soldier will stay in the force.

“A Soldier who does not have the support of their Family or is not confident their Family is well cared for cannot fully be in the fight,” Dill said. “I know exactly the level of discipline and concentration it takes to do the things that we call young Americans to do, and the last thing you can afford to do is be wondering how your Family is doing when you are on the front line.”

Dill said the Army cannot simply maintain the status quo but must instead put parents in the driver’s seat to determine what is best for their children.

“We must offer parents affordable, accessible and high-quality child care,” Dill said. “We are improving those offerings by refining the compensation system for child care workers. We need to make sure that we appropriately incentivize them and care for them and make it doable for them to accept employment at our CDCs.”

During the panel discussion, Stephen Simmons, Deputy Assistant Secretary of War for Military Community and Family Policy, encouraged the audience to think of Family support as an ecosystem. For example, Simmons said a child’s educational needs cannot be supported without addressing child care issues.

“It’s not as if you just fix this one thing right here, I’d be good,” Simmons said. “It’s multiple things.”

The key, according to Simmons, is empowering parents. School liaisons are embedded at every base and installation to work with Families so they can access the educational resources parents need for their children. Simmons said they also have a plan to modernize and accelerate support for homeschoolers.

“One of the first steps we did was we educated our school liaisons,” Simmons said. “We accelerated the training curriculum that our school liaisons all take so they are set up to support homeschoolers.”

Panelist Josh Gwinn, Director, Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation, U.S. Army Installation Management Command, said meeting child care needs requires expanded access to fee assistance. If a Family needs care at a specific installation and immediate care is not available or within a specified time, the waitlist is reviewed and Army Fee Assistance is distributed as appropriate.

“What we’ve seen is that that immediate need wait list is probably the lowest we’ve seen in the last 10 years of the Army,” Gwinn said.

Simmons said one of the benefits of addressing child care and education issues is that spouses are free to pursue employment opportunities. Finding those opportunities can be difficult, especially for spouses who move every few years. One solution is the SpouseWorks website, which Simmons said makes employment resources accessible.

“There’s multiple options for military spouses,” Simmons said. Those options include career coaching, resume building and SpouseWork scholarships. “For spouses who are more in their early career stages, we also have a SpouseWorks Fellowship … it’s a three-month paid fellowship of your choice.”

For Soldiers with a Family member with special needs, panelist Col. Anne Chiquitucto, Chief of the Exceptional Family Member Program, said she and her team recognize that frequent moves can disrupt special education services for children and cause friction for parents. Chiquitucto said the Army has created a multitiered advocacy network to help parents, which includes EFMP support at installations.

“They’re there to connect a Family member to the community and education services to ensure that the IEP requirements are being met,” Chiquitucto said. School liaisons are another level of support. “They would be a good resource if a Family member was looking to see which school in a district would be a good fit for their child.”

While additional resources and more options can better support Families, they are only useful if both Soldiers and spouses know about them. Panelist Command Sgt. Maj. Brett W. Johnson, Command Sergeant Major of the XVIII Airborne Corps, said the installation works to make information easily accessible for new Families moving to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He said it’s also important to recognize that circumstances change as Families grow.

“The upstream effect that we are looking at on Fort Bragg (is) to connect all of those questions, resources and answers and make it very simple,” Johnson said. “Here’s a QR code for this, here are all the different resources, so when you come (here), you’re more prepared to move into your position.”

Whatever phase a Family is in, Johnson said it’s essential for leaders to understand the range of support available.

“I always think: Are we treating the symptom or the disease?” Johnson said. “Are we hopping back and forth because we’re playing Whac-A-Mole with people’s problems, or are we actually trying to find a solution?”

Miller, who is pursuing her bachelor’s degree, has moved with her Family three times in the last five years and understands the challenges many spouses face in pursuing their careers. She encourages them to take advantage of the options the military offers.

“What I’ve come to appreciate most is that CYS can support military Families in more ways than one,” Miller said. “It provides care for our children, but it can also provide employment training and opportunities for military spouses who are trying to build their careers while navigating military life. Being part of that has also given me a much greater appreciation for the work that goes into caring for and supporting military children.”

Watch the panel discussion in its entirety at DVIDS.