Child Care Aware Of America

It's super disheartening when military members are given such a great benefit like the one CCAoA provides, but the quality of service is deplorable. No one has the answers to any questions! Every document you provide is just "in queue" and that's all the "representatives" have to offer you. I have actually been using this service now for 3 years, and the recertification/certification process has always been terrible. I'm going on month two now of having to pay the total cost of daycare fees, and with a pcs in two months, I may never be able to be "reimbursed" that money. Why is there not some sort of data collection process explaining where things are in this mysterious "queue" and why are those answering the phones having no clue of what's going on? They could be reviewing some of these applications instead of answering the phones to just say its in the "queue". I asked if I could speak to someone higher up, and they said they would get someone to call back, never received a call. Who am I supposed to relay these sort of concerns to. Because I'm sure there are more service members being affected by this. Are these the kind of issues that involve state senators. I will be avoiding this at my next base and cautioning those that plan to use this entitlement every where I go.
Apr 9th, 2024

Every person I've talked to on the phone has been extremely pleasant and helpful-and YES, they answer the phone quickly and nicely. My questions have all been answered thoroughly by knowledgeable people, and not a single person has been anything but absolutely pleasant and helpful. Shockingly positive experience!
Mar 8th, 2024

They are slower than the army at processing things... including everything from packets to making payments. I am on my second month waiting for Payments.
Mar 4th, 2024

Sending this in hopes someone will read it and maybe nothing will be done but I truly hope there can be a change. I appreciate this program and I lean on it as the only one financially responsible for my kids. I can not afford childcare but this program has made it possible for me to work and have care for my kids that I can afford. The application submitted last year took over 3 months for me to get approved not anything to do with me holding things up but because my file was just in a queue. I am now yet again in the same boat again and my daughter will be disenrolled next week because I cant afford the full amount. A sole financial parent cant afford paying 107 per week to 445 a week. Thats unrealistic for processing times to take over a month. When I called to plead with them the rep told me company policy is that its not urgent until you hit 2-3months without it being processed. This is insane. I have experienced this 2 many times and it only has gotten worse. My financial situation may not be your concern but I have a family I need to take care of and my financial stress/depression is real. I have called the last couple days and customer service is nice but they apparently cant do anything to help me. I know as a parent I am not the only one going through this and I cant imagine how many parents feel this. Falling behind on bills just to pay for full premium care because we need to go to work, borrowing money if you have people around you to help or maxing out credit cards, which we have to go through every time it comes to recertification for another year or just as simple as sending updated orders. A lot of the moms around me have chose to not use the program because they have no faith in it but thankfully for them they are a household with 2 financial incomes. I know there is a lot of families you guys are helping but it doesnt seem like your processes is working efficiently to help military families and if I could help I would. I would even donate my time if that means one less family wouldnt go through financial stress like this. I had to share my experience because its hard and maybe its not known but some of us are hurting and would like to not deal with this strain that affects oureveryday life.
Apr 4th, 2024

-Update: We should receive part of the fund within the next few days. Still it's about half of what we needed/expected. If I don't receive it I will update again, but otherwise, the whole process shouldn't have taken this long and we didn't get back paid the full amount as we were told (wait time: 6 months, backpay amount: approx 50%.) Applied in October 2023, and still no fee assistance. I'm not sure how we're going to get reimbursed at this point. I (spouse of the active duty member) went back to work based on the assumption that we will be receiving this assistance, because otherwise it's pointless for me to work financially. I was told by the CCAOA staff that there will be a back pay, but not sure if I can trust their words now that I'm reading everyone else's comments here. Now I'm leaving my job because we can no longer afford for me to continue to work. If you cannot help the military community, don't act like you can. Don't give us false hope. This organization is such a disappointment. DOD should really reconsider the contract with this organization, and family readiness should stop recommending this organization to us because it doesn't work and it just affected us negatively financially instead of helping us.
Apr 3rd, 2024