§1794 Child Abuse Prevention and Safety at Facilities

Summary

The Secretary of Defense must keep a special task force and a national phone line, write safety rules, require regular inspections, and make sure parents are told quickly if a child is suspected of being harmed at military child care. The task force must include people from fields like medicine, psychology, and child development and must help installation commanders and parents when there are widespread abuse claims. The phone line is for reports about suspected abuse or safety problems at military child development centers or family home day care sites. People may call anonymously. The Department must follow up on calls and must post the number in public areas and give it to parents and guardians. Commanders or the task force must seek help from local child protection agencies when available. Safety and operating rules must be the same across the services. Each child development center must get at least four unannounced inspections a year, including one by the installation and one by the major command. Safety, health, or welfare problems must be fixed right away unless they are not life threatening. Non-life-threatening problems can be delayed up to 90 days by the major command; if not fixed after 90 days the center must close until they are fixed unless the military department secretary authorizes it to stay open for certain reasons. The center director must tell a parent or guardian within 24 hours after a staff member learns of a suspected abuse or neglect that happened at the center, unless telling them would interfere with a law enforcement investigation. "Covered incident" means alleged or suspected abuse or neglect that occurs at a military child development center.