Title 10Armed ForcesRelease 119-73

§1793 Parent fees

Title 10 › Subtitle Subtitle A— - General Military Law › Part PART II— - PERSONNEL › Chapter CHAPTER 88— - MILITARY FAMILY PROGRAMS AND MILITARY CHILD CARE › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER II— - MILITARY CHILD CARE › § 1793

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary of Defense must create one set of rules for parent fees at military child development centers. Fees for children who attend regularly must be based on family income. The Secretary can allow installation commanders, case by case, to lower fees if military rates are not competitive with local civilian centers. For families with two or more children, each child after the first may be charged 85% of the normal fee. Children of child-care employees get the first child free and other children pay a fee equal to or less than that 85% rate. A family may not use both discounts at the same time.

Full Legal Text

Title 10, §1793

Armed Forces — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Secretary of Defense shall prescribe regulations establishing fees to be charged parents for the attendance of children at military child development centers. Those regulations shall be uniform for the military departments and shall require that, in the case of children who attend the centers on a regular basis, the fees shall be based on family income.
(b)The Secretary of Defense may provide authority to installation commanders, on a case-by-case basis, to establish fees for attendance of children at child development centers at rates lower than those prescribed under subsection (a) if the rates prescribed under subsection (a) are not competitive with rates at local non-military child development centers.
(c)In the case of a family with two or more children attending a child development center, the regulations prescribed pursuant to subsection (a) may require that installations commanders charge a fee for attendance at the center of any child of the family after the first child of the family in amount equal to 85 percent of the amount of the fee otherwise chargeable for the attendance of such child at the center.
(d)In order to support recruitment and retention initiatives, the Secretary of Defense shall charge reduced fees for the attendance, at a military child development center, of the children of a child care employee as follows:
(1)For the first child, no fee.
(2)For each other child, a fee equal to or less than a fee discounted under subsection (c).
(e)A family may not receive discounts under subsections (c) and (d) concurrently.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2024—Subsecs. (d), (e). Pub. L. 118–159 added subsecs. (d) and (e) and struck out former subsec. (d). Prior to amendment, text of subsec. (d) read as follows: “The Secretary of Defense may, to support recruitment and retention initiatives, charge a child care employee, whose child attends a military child development center, a reduced fee for such attendance.” 2022—Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 117–263 added subsec. (d). 2021—Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 116–283 added subsec. (c).

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

10 U.S.C. § 1793

Title 10Armed Forces

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73