November 25, 2025
Ms. Tokuda (for herself, Mr. Moore of Utah, Ms. Jacobs, Mr. Wittman, Ms. Strickland, Mr. Bacon, Mr. Bell, Mr. Schmidt, Mr. Case, Ms. Norton, Mrs. Kiggans of Virginia, Mr. Carson, Ms. Garcia of Texas, and Mr. Davis of North Carolina) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services
To require military child and youth programs to provide prompt notice of alleged or suspected neglect or abuse of children to the parents or guardians of those children, and for other purposes.
Section 1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Military Child and Youth Program Abuse and Neglect Notification Act
.
Sec. 2. Notification of suspected child abuse at providers of child care services or youth programs
Section 1794 of title 10, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
(g) Notification of Suspected Child Abuse
(1)
The Secretary of Defense shall prescribe a policy that requires covered child and youth programs to—
(A)
not later than 24 hours after a program becomes aware of alleged or suspected abuse or neglect of a child occurring in such program, notify the parents and guardians of such child of such alleged or suspected abuse or neglect; and
(B)
not later than 72 hours after a program becomes aware of alleged abuse or neglect of a child occurring in such program, provide notice of such alleged abuse or neglect to—
(i)
the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and the House of Representatives;
(ii)
if the alleged abuse or neglect occurs in one of the several States, the Senators that represent the State in which the alleged abuse or neglect occurred; and
(iii)
if the alleged abuse or neglect occurs in a location represented by a Member of, or Delegate or Resident Commissioner to, the House of Representatives, the Member of, or Delegate or Resident Commissioner to, the House of Representatives that represents such location.
(2)
In this subsection, the term
covered child and youth programmeans a military child development center, a Department of Defense youth program, a family home day care, or a provider of child care services or youth program services that receives financial assistance under section 1798.