Accessing affordable, quality care is essential to children’s well-being and parents’ peace of mind. Our military families are looking for safer, healthier environments for their children — so they can continue to serve our country. The New Jersey Department of Human Services (DHS), Division of Family Development (DFD) has partnered with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to offer
Military Child Care in Your Neighborhood (MCCYN).
MCCYN provides fee assistance for eligible families who cannot access military-operated child care due to distance or waiting lists. With this fee assistance, a portion of your child care costs is paid to offset the costs of community-based care. This makes it easier for families to afford quality child care from local community providers.
MCCYN requires both center and home-based community child care providers receiving fee assistance to be licensed, to be inspected by an oversight agency once a year and to meet the requirements of a DoD-approved national or state accreditation agency.
The DoD expanded the MCCYN program, creating
MCCYN-PLUS, to bridge the gap in locations where military accredited care is unavailable. The MCCYN-PLUS initiative uses states’ Quality Rating and Improvement Systems, or QRIS, as an indicator of provider quality in lieu of national accreditation. In New Jersey, this means that provider is rated by
Grow NJ Kids. MCCYN-PLUS broadens the pool of providers eligible to receive fee assistance, on behalf of military families.
If you are a military family and need help paying for child care or would like to learn more about eligibility requirements, family types, and how these factors are used to determine your child's placement, visit
MilitaryChildCare.com.
7/14/25