§1794 Child Abuse Prevention and Safety at Facilities

Summary

The Secretary of Defense must keep a special task force to handle reports of widespread child abuse at a military base. The task force will include experts like doctors, psychologists, and child development specialists and must help the base commander and parents deal with the reports. The Secretary must also run a national phone line to report suspected child abuse or safety problems at military child development centers or family home day care sites. Calls can be made anonymously, and there must be procedures to follow up. The phone number must be posted in public areas of child centers and given to parents. The Secretary must create rules that require asking local child protective authorities for help when available, and must set uniform safety and operating rules for all military departments. Each child development center must be inspected at least four times a year, with inspections unannounced; at least one inspection by the installation and one by the major command. Any safety, health, or child welfare violation must be fixed right away unless the major command commander allows up to 90 days to fix a non-life-threatening problem. If not fixed after 90 days, the center must close until fixed, unless the Secretary of the military department allows it to stay open because the problem can’t reasonably be fixed in 90 days or requires major reconstruction. The center director must tell a parent or guardian within 24 hours if a child care worker learns a child may have been abused or neglected at the center, unless telling would harm a law enforcement investigation. "Covered incident" means alleged or suspected abuse or neglect at a military child development center.