04/18/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 04/18/2024 11:45
Alarming investigation from Military.com finds "Military Child Care Centers Slow to Report Abuse with Little Oversight"
VIDEO: At Defense Appropriations Subcommittee hearing Tuesday, Chair Murray pressed Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro on reports of abuse and lack of oversight at Navy child care facilities
Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Laphonza Butler (D-CA) sent a letter to Department of Defense (DoD) Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III expressing alarm and demanding answers after a recent investigation from Military.com uncovered horrifying reports of child abuse at military child care facilities-and a gaping lack of oversight and accountability from the Department following instances of abuse. The Members asked Secretary Austin to provide answers to a series of detailed questions about the incidents and the Department's response and policies moving forward by May 1, 2024.
"We write with deep concern regarding the recent reporting of failures to appropriately respond to child abuse at Child Development Centers (CDCs). According to reporting from Military.com, interviews with families and reviews of military regulations and other documents show a pattern of unacceptable failures to identify abuse, take swift action, and communicate transparently-and an emphasis on protecting the reputation of Department of Defense (DoD) facilities and personnel. In several instances, CDCs were slow to identify abuse, did not quickly inform families about incidents, and had no clear lines of responsibility for investigating or holding perpetrators accountable. If accurate, this situation is completely unacceptable," the senators wrote.
Senator Murray, Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, also pressed Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro about the reports at a Navy appropriations subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, saying in part: "Mr. Secretary, I want to know: what is the Navy doing to investigate these reports and ensure those responsible are held accountable?" Murray pressed Secretary Del Toro on what he's doing to ensure nothing like this happens again and whether trainings are happening to address the unacceptable instances of abuse. She noted she is following the response by the Navy very closely and expects full accountability, making clear: "Men and women in uniform can only do their jobs if they know their kids are okay."Video of their exchange at the hearing Tuesday isHERE.
DoD operates the largest employer-sponsored child care program in the United States, serving approximately 200,000 children of uniformed servicemembers and DoD civilians. In their letter to Secretary Austin, the Members noted that Congress provided over $167 million in the fiscal year 2024 appropriations legislation to fully fund DoD's child care initiatives. That includes new resources to recruit, support, and retain staff at DoD's child development centers-including $33 million to provide a 50 percent discount for the first child of employed center staff. The legislation also invested $730 million for the renovation and repair of CDCs, and $277 million to establish six new CDCs on military installations.
"By enrolling their children in CDCs, servicemembers are entrusting DoD to take care of their children while they perform their duty to protect American citizens. When the safety of these children is threatened, it is DoD's responsibility to take measures to protect them from harm immediately" the senators wrote. "Yet, the investigation from Military.com described specific failures in at least two incidents that suggest a pattern of failure to aggressively respond to indications of problems, which may have left children in unsafe situations well after the time parents should have been informed and perpetrators terminated and held accountable."
"For example, after a case of abuse at a CDC near Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, was discovered, staff failed to timely file official reports, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) did not intervene until seven months after the incident occurred. Moreover, staff did not properly document the injuries, tell the parents the full extent of what happened, or provide them a copy of the incident report form. It ultimately took more than a year for two of the three workers responsible for the abuse to be charged in civilian court, and two of the workers were allowed to keep working for five months. In another incident at Naval Air Weapons Station Center China Lake in California, staff failed to review videos of the CDC that would have revealed a host of safety violations, including 'touch incidents' that ultimately led to at least seven staff being put on administrative leave. After the abuse was discovered in October 2022, officials seemed unclear about their responsibilities to address the issue and whether DoD or the state of California had responsibility to investigate and hold perpetrators accountable."
"Even one incident when abuse is not taken seriously is absolutely intolerable, and the potential that this type of behavior is widespread across CDCs is unthinkable. We write to you today to learn more about how you can be assured DoD regulations are strong enough to protect children enrolled in CDCs and those regulations are implemented successfully," the senators concluded.
In their letter, the Members asked Secretary Austin to provide a response to the following questions by May 1, 2024:
The full text of the senators' letter is HERE.
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