The Navy is looking to add 900 new childcare spots to U.S. installations, with projects including a new Child Development Center, seen here on March 6, 2026, at Naval Base Kitsap, Bremerton, Wash. (Amanda Surmeier/U.S. Navy)
The Navy this week announced plans to add more than 900 child care spaces at key bases through 2028, the latest effort by the service to alleviate shortages in availability.
The expansion includes new child development projects at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego; Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Wash.; and Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Virginia Beach, Va., according to a Monday news release from Navy Installations Command.
The initiative is part of a broader strategy that also includes “constructions of new facilities, innovative facility conversions and long-term capital investments,” according to the release.
“Supporting our Sailors means supporting their families,” Vice Adm. Scott Gray, head of Navy Installations Command, said in the release. “Access to high-quality, reliable childcare reflects our commitment to our people and increases fleet readiness. This year’s expansion makes significant progress toward that commitment, and it is only the beginning.”
Child care has been a consistent problem for the Defense Department, with the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. Child Development Centers reported employee turnover rates of 34% to 50% in fiscal year 2022, according to a May 2024 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
The Navy has made efforts to reduce the number of families on waitlists for child care.
From October 2022 to October 2024, waitlists for child development centers and school-age care were trimmed by 50%, reducing the number of children with unmet child care needs from 5,000 to about 2,500, the installations command said in a February 2025 news release.
Since then, that number has fallen to about 1,400, according to Feb. 11 testimony from Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy John Perryman before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel.
New construction accounts for other expansion, such as a Child Development Center at Loma that broke ground in May 2024 and another center at Little Creek-Fort Story that broke ground in January, according to news releases from Naval Facilities Engineering Command.
Elsewhere, old facilities were repurposed, such as at Kitsap, where a former chapel and community center were turned into development centers that offer approximately 154 additional spots for children, according to Monday’s news release.
The initiative announced Monday also aims to increase off-base child care options through the Military Child Care in Your Neighborhood program, which is adding 1,000 fee-assistance spaces this fiscal year to eligible military families to help “offset the cost of community-based childcare when installation care is unavailable,” the release states.
