Families at Utah Air Force Base Lose Day Care Center as Pentagon Slashes Personnel Spending

Hill Air Force Base in Utah has closed one of its two day care centers, harming quality of life for some service members, civilian employees and their families following hiring freezes ordered by President Donald Trump's administration.

Earlier this month, Military.com first reported that Hill -- the service's second-largest base by population and size -- had begun warning certain families that it would likely have to close one of its child development centers, or CDCs, due to a lack of staffing exacerbated, in part, by Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk's push to trim the size of the federal workforce.

"CDCs traditionally face high turnover, and several recent departures in conjunction with the hiring freeze have reduced the number of supervisors and trainers available," Kendahl Johnson, a Hill Air Force Base spokesperson, told Military.com on Friday. "Maintaining two open CDCs at current personnel levels would pose an unacceptable risk to the 200 children who remain in care at Hill AFB."

Read Next: Ride-Sharing Services Finally Coming to Army Installations in Effort to Ease Travel Woes

Military.com first learned of the CDC closure Friday and detailed it as part of an in-depth report into military parents, spouses and children's complaints about executive orders harming their quality of life.

Johnson said 31 families were disenrolled from Hill's CDC East facility on Friday, after they had been notified in advance on March 12. Notably, on March 18, a Department of Defense memo detailed positions that would be considered exempt from hiring freezes and included "child and youth programs staff," as well as "instructors or facility support staff at DoD schools or child care centers."

It appears that the new exemption came too late for Hill Air Force Base's CDC. Johnson told Military.com that, while the freeze is now in effect, "the hiring, on-boarding, and training process will take time."

Kayla Corbitt, a military spouse and founder of the Operation Child Care Project -- a nonprofit that advocates for family care for service members and their loved ones, said that one week's notice for those 31 families who were disenrolled from the CDC is too little time.

"A week's notice to find alternative care is a harsh timeline," Corbitt said. "Families with two to three months' notice prior to a PCS struggle [to] find care. These are families who will likely need to cobble together care and need safety planning to ensure their children are safe while they return to the mission."

An email notifying families they were disenrolled reviewed by Military.com showed it affected priority types 2A through 3F.

That includes single or dual defense or Coast Guard employees with full-time, part-time or non-working spouses, including Gold Star spouses. It also applies to defense contractors, deactivated National Guard and reserve personnel, and military retirees.

Notably, it also affected Priority 3A, which is active-duty military, as well as National Guard or reserve service members on active duty, with a non-working or part-time student spouse, the email said.

Johnson did not respond to a Military.com question asking about the accuracy of the email.

"Guard and reserve families are already disproportionately impacted with a lack of care access due to their on-again, off-again duty status," Corbitt said. "This swift loss of care will create additional hardships for a mission-essential community."

Johnson told Military.com on Friday that Hill Air Force Base leadership is "looking at all options to provide quality child care options while the facility remains closed."

News of the CDC closing at Hill comes after an incident at the Utah installation in which 37 kids were allegedly abused at the day care center and a Military.com investigation revealed oversight and staffing failures across many of the service branches.

Related: Hill Air Force Base Prepares to Scale Back Child Care Services Amid Mass Federal Firings, Resignations