COLORADO SPRINGS — According to two memos obtained by News5, both Fort Carson and Peterson Space Force Base are cutting services for military childcare due to ongoing impacts from President Trump’s federal hiring freeze.
A Fort Carson memo dated April 1 said enrollment on its waitlist had to be temporarily paused “due to staffing challenges.”
“As you may know, the recent federal hiring freeze, while lifted, has significantly impacted our ability to hire and onboard qualified personnel,” said the memo, sent by Ryan Noble, Director of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation. “This has resulted in staffing levels that are currently not sufficient to meet the needs of our waitlist.”
A separate memo sent to Peterson Space Force Base (SFB) families dated March 24 said the infant room would be closing on April 11 due to “a critical shortage of qualified childcare providers.”
The Space Force memo also noted that ongoing staffing challenges were due to “adherence to current administration guidance and recent impacts from the hiring freeze.”
Both military installations verified the memos were authentic, and Space Base Delta 1 officials at Peterson SFB confirmed their infant room closed over the weekend.
Military.com was the first to report on the memos.
Peterson SFB directed its families affected by the infant classroom closure to an off-base licensed and accredited childcare center, Carlton Academy, at no extra cost.
Located about nine miles from Peterson SFB, Carlton Academy said they’ve had a contract with Peterson for over a year, and the additional families won’t cause any added stressors since they are fully staffed.
“We are working through hiring freeze exemptions as quickly as possible,” said a Space Base Delta 1 spokesperson on Friday. “The hiring, on-boarding, and training process will take time; however, we will work with impacted families to return to the main Child Development Center as quickly as possible.”
Similarly, in response to a News5 request for comment on the memo, a Fort Carson spokesperson said “While we had to adjust enrolling new children, we are working as quickly as possible to alleviate any impacts while also bringing on new direct-care staff to ensure we are providing the services and support for our Fort Carson Families.”
President Trump signed a federal civilian hiring freeze on his first day in office. Then, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth bolstered the president’s executive orders and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency efforts to shrink the federal government with a Feb. 28 Department of Defense memo.
“No vacant civilian position may be filled, and no new civilian positions may be created,” Hegseth wrote at the time.
But the secretary issued a second memo just weeks later allowing the Secretaries of the Military Departments to approve federal civilian exemptions. Then, on March 18, he issued yet another memo with further exemptions including “Child and Youth Programs staff” and “Instructors or facility support staff at DoD Schools or Child Care Centers.”
Despite the exemptions, the damage had apparently already been done on military installations like Peterson and Fort Carson and others across the country.
Kayla Corbitt is the founder of the nationwide nonprofit, Operation Child Care Project. She said it’s the only nonprofit dedicated exclusively to child care access and equity for military and veteran families. She’s also a military spouse and mother herself.
“When this hiring freeze came, what was already a difficult position to fill is now going to be nearly impossible to fill,” said Corbitt. “On installation centers, they already struggle to get people to work there. It's generally not a pay thing. It is usually a burnout thing. Or they predominantly do hire military spouses to fill those positions. And we just have very transient lifestyles, so it's not something that we usually get to stay in.”
She said some installations are working to speed up hiring now, but the average onboarding time for these roles is six to eight months. And right now, due to ongoing uncertainty in the administration, these potential childcare workers could end up being hit with another hiring freeze or a reduction-in-force layoff.
As a result, Corbitt said the positions aren’t attractive for job seekers.
And there will be downstream economic effects for the greater Colorado Springs community, Corbitt said.
As more military families must now seek childcare in the community, that will in turn take spots away from other, non-military families.
According to data from the Joint Initiatives for Youth + Families, a local nonprofit focused in this realm, El Paso County and Colorado Springs are already considered a childcare desert.
Home to Colorado’s largest population of children ages 0 to 5, there is an estimated 17,000 spot gap for necessary childcare in the area, the nonprofit said.
On top of that concern, Corbitt said the military installations cutting childcare services will take more people out of the workforce.
“These are now spouses, these are other family members who were filling these positions that are now not going to be able to work because they were not able to get the childcare needed to go into those positions,” Corbitt said.
“It'll impact your colleges. A lot of military families go to school while they're here. If they can't find employment, you can't go to school if you don't have childcare,” she said. “So we're going to see a trickle down effect into our economy if we aren't able to bolster this situation with some more community options.”
FULL STATEMENTS FROM FORT CARSON AND PETERSON SPACE FORCE BASE IN RESPONSE TO NEWS5’S QUERIES INTO THE MEMOS ARE COPIED BELOW:
FORT CARSON
“We can confirm the authenticity of this memorandum as it pertains to Fort Carson only. We constantly evaluate mission requirements and available resources to maximize efficiency and productivity in the programs and services we provide the Soldiers, families, and civilians who live, work, and train at Fort Carson. While we had to adjust enrolling new children, we are working as quickly as possible to alleviate any impacts while also bringing on new direct-care staff to ensure we are providing the services and support for our Fort Carson Families.”
-Fort Carson official
PETERSON SFB
"On March 24, a memo was disseminated to Peterson Main Child Development Center (CDC) users requesting eight families to voluntarily transfer their infant childcare services to an off-base licensed and accredited childcare center at no additional cost through the Community Contracted Childcare program. Due to ongoing staffing challenges, one of the infant rooms is closing effective April 11 to maintain appropriate child-to-teacher ratios and ensure the children’s safety and well-being. We are working directly with the impacted families to ensure continuity of care for their children.
Peterson SFB launched the innovative Community Contracted Childcare program in 2023 to address the already high demand for childcare. This first-of-its-kind initiative offsets costs for families utilizing off-base care. Thanks to its success, initial OSD innovation funding was increased to allow expansion from three to five community childcare centers in order to better meet the needs of our military-affiliated families. From 2023 to March 2025, this program reduced our childcare waitlist by 150 children. Despite staffing challenges, families are still able to be added to the waitlist and will be placed pending space availability.
We are working through hiring freeze exemptions as quickly as possible. The hiring, on-boarding, and training process will take time; however, we will work with impacted families to return to the main CDC as quickly as possible.
Peterson SFB's Family Child Care program continues to provide solutions not only for traditional care but also for nontraditional needs for evenings and weekends. Providing accessible, affordable, high-quality childcare is paramount for supporting military families. We achieve this with a multi-pronged approach through our base childcare programs, family childcare, Military Childcare in Your Neighborhood, and our OSD pilot community program. The Department of the Air Force employs strategies to recruit and retain childcare staff to provide various childcare options. Competitive compensation, comprehensive benefits, and career development opportunities are key to attracting and retaining talented professionals. Our Child Development Program staff also receive substantial childcare discounts.
Space Base Delta 1 is sensitive to the challenges with moving to an off-base childcare facility. While the number of available classrooms and infants cared for fluctuates with the changing population at Peterson SFB, the installation looks forward to reopening the infant childcare room."
-Space Base Delta 1 Spokesperson
Email Senior Reporter Brett Forrest at brett.forrest@koaa.com. Follow @brettforrestTVon X and Brett Forrest News on Facebook.
Contact Brett to communicate via encrypted apps like Signal. Due to the sensitive nature of ongoing reporting from federal actions, he is willing to take steps to protect identities.
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