Portsmouth Naval Shipyard families losing child care. NH, Maine senators push to help.

KITTERY, Maine — U.S. senators from New Hampshire and Maine are urging the  Department of Defense to support Portsmouth Naval Shipyard families removed from the base’s Child Development Center.

Effective Monday, children from 47 shipyard families using the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard’s child care center were set to be removed from the center, according to information the shipyard prevously provided. This came 45 days after June 17, when families were notified the Navy is reimplementing a priority child care program access policy, which puts children of active military members ahead of children of civilian employees.

The policy was scheduled to take effect two years ago under former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, but was delayed by COVID-19. As of late June this year, 126 children ages 6 weeks to 12 years old were attending the shipyard’s Child Development Center, according to the shipyard.

A letter from Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, both Democrats from New Hampshire, Angus King, I-Maine, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, on Friday, July 29 expressed concern for shipyard families displaced from the child care center.

“While we understand the childcare capacity issues (the Department of Defense) is facing, it is simply unacceptable to displace families from (Department of Defense) child care centers without facilitating a seamless and equitable transition of care to an alternative center,” reads the senators' letter to Kathleen Hicks, the U.S. deputy secretary of defense.

The senators told Hicks while the Navy helped affected families locate child care service programs in New Hampshire and Maine, many were full, “not conveniently located or overly expensive.”

The senators asked the Department of Defense to provide additional child care resources to shipyard employees and to other child care centers.

“The Navy’s efforts to mitigate the impact on displaced families has fallen short of what we owe our invaluable civilian workforce,” they wrote.

More: Portsmouth Naval Shipyard health clinic may shut out 1,000-plus veterans, retirees

The senators said the Department of Defense’s policy to remove families from child care centers “not only harms civilian workforce readiness but also further impairs recruiting and retention, which have been longstanding challenges for our public shipyards.”

Shaheen, Hassan, Collins and King asked the Department of Defense to provide more child care in the region, streamline hiring processes and work with other states to ensure all federal funding for child care purposes is utilized.

The senators said they expect an increase in child care needs in the area around Portsmouth Naval Shipyard because of anticipated operational growth at the shipyard and at Pease Air National Guard Base bringing more staffing with children who will need care. The senators requested a future briefing to hear how the Navy will address shipyard and local child care needs.

“Adequately and swiftly addressing shortfalls in quality of life such as childcare, housing and parking for the DoD civilian workforce is essential to our national security readiness and sustaining our military-industrial base,” the senators wrote. “We are deeply proud of the important work being done for our nation at (Portsmouth Naval Shipyard) and believe that we must take every step necessary to ensure we are providing for the essential workers that we rely on.”

Collins seeks federal funding

Collins, a member of the Senate’s Appropriations Committee, has made more than $3.75 million in federal funding requests to increase child care services in York County, including $2.5 million for planning and designing a new daycare center at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

More: Portsmouth Naval Shipyard to fill 1,200 jobs in 2 years. How to get hired, what it pays.

All the bills released last week by the Senate Appropriations Committee still face votes by the Senate and the House of Representatives, according to Collins’ office.

“Improving access to quality, affordable child care helps promote financial stability for families and benefits small businesses as well as our economy,” Collins said in prepared remarks. “Child care also alleviates stress on working parents when they know that their children are in a safe, structured environment where they can play and learn.”

Included in the child-care related federal funding requests Collins touted was $100,000 to reopen a preschool and child care program in Kittery. In addition, more than $1.15 million would be used to buy a building for the York County Community Action Corporation to house a child care program, along with other numerous social services.

Are you interested in Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and its connections with the community? Are there questions you would like answered? Please email news@seacoastonline.com or reporter Ian Lenahan at ilenahan@gannett.com with "Portsmouth Naval Shipyard" in the subject line.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Portsmouth Naval Shipyard famliies lose child are; Senators seek help