Running Head: RESEARCH PAPER

E. LEROY RICHARDS

Research Paper

Family Care Plans

E. LeRoy Richards

RWS 1302 Tuesday

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Introduction

My future sister-in-law had asked me questions about a soldier that keeps dropping off

her child to her and the other neighbors saying that she needs them to watch her. They felt it

might be abuse or neglect but were not sure who they should call the Military Police, local

authorities, or Child Protective Services. The Soldier was single which made her applicable to

The Family Care Plan (FCP) standards and procedures. This can also bring light to other

civilians in the community if they see instances of the same thing happening in their

neighborhoods. This paper aims to bring an understanding to enlighten those not familiar with

why, who, and what are some of the consequences if the procedures are not adhered to.

The Family Care Plans was mandated as a program policy when President Regan (1987)

signed the Family Executive Order (EO) 12606 on September 2, 1987. As President Regan

asserted, “The autonomy and rights of the family are considered in the formulation and

implementation of policies.” (para. 1). The EO paved the way for the creation and mandating

programs, policies to support, and protect all family members of federal employee personnel.

Although simple in their scope, these guidelines have a great impact on the personnel that they

are intended to supervise. The Instruction manual (Military Family Readiness) explains in detail

all of the responsibilities for the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness

(USDPR) and all government officials’ responsibilities as directed and derived from the USDPR

DoD Directive 5124.02. It provides Policy requirements for the DoD Personnel and their

families, in addition to directing the purpose and applicability to all personnel at all levels of the

DOD and its affiliates. The EO, Department of Defense Instructions (DoDI) manuals, and Army
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Regulations (AR) put into place brings into question if the Army Family Care Plan, is it a

necessary policy and program or does it need to be rescinded?

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Literature Review

The EO signed by President Regan is the foundation document that made Government

departments create and maintain Family Care Plan Policies, procedures, and regulations. The

order took in to account that families of government agencies needed to be properly cared for in

case of national emergencies and common daily work-related functions of the departments and

agencies supporting the United States government. This order gave Executive and agencies the

power to answer basic questions about families and to make policies in accordance with all

applicable laws. It is the foundation for Department of Defense Military Family Readiness and

Family Care Plan Instructions manuals and regulations that all branches of the military had to

use to create their individual policies and procedures.

This Instruction manual for Military Family Readiness explains the responsibilities for

the USDPR, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, Director,

Transition to Veterans Program Office, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, Heads

of the DoD Components, and Secretaries of the Military Departments. These responsibilities are

directed by the USDPR DoD Directive 5124.02, which directs their complete job description and

duties of responsibilities for their positions. The DoDI manual provides Policy requirements for

the DoD Personnel and their families, besides directing the purpose and applicability to all

personnel at all levels of the Defense Department and its affiliates.

This Instruction manual for Family Care Plans explains the responsibilities for the

USDPR, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, Heads of the DoD

Components, and Secretaries of the Military Departments with more detail on their specific
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instructions. These responsibilities are directed by the USDPR DoD Directive 1342.22, which

directs the duties of responsibilities for their positions. The DoDI manual provides Policy

instructions by establishing policy, assigns responsibilities, and procedures of care for military

family members of single parents, dual-member couples, married custody or joint custody, or if

their primarily responsible of a family members. Provides applicability to all personnel at all

levels of the Defense Department and its Military subordinate commands, as per enclosure 3 and

explicate instructions under the “POLICY”.

The AR 600-20, is the overall Command Policy guidance regulation used for

responsibilities, directions, and instructions on numerous subjects providing guidance and

direction for command policies. O’Keefe, (2014), Chapter 5, “Other Responsibilities of

Command”, paragraph 5 specifically give detailed instructions on the Family care plans ranging

from the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1 to the individual service member that this AR covers. It

provides the necessary steps, paper work and forms required, time frames to counsel, and

deadlines to process paper work. The AR has guidance for the Commander and Service

members if they find difficulty gathering the required documents and allows for extensions to the

time frames and deadlines. It explains consequences by way of the counseling forms if the

program is not completed and maintained. There is also in formation on how to check if the

Family care plans are current, working properly, and directives on recertifying the plans in your

Unit. This regulation is used in conjunction with AR 635-200 for non-compliance.

AR 635-200 for Active Duty Enlisted Administrative Separations details the major and a

majority of the different types of separations that can be used by Commanders to discharge

personnel from active duty service. O’Keefe (2016), Chapter 5 “Separations for Convenience of
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the Government”, explains the scope, characterization, description, and who has the authority to

request or sign separations. Family care plans for the most part is covered under section III

“Other Conveniences of the Government Separation Policies”, paragraph 8 “Involuntary

separation due to parenthood” (O’Keefe 2016), is a very small paragraph but it gives specific

reason and justification for a Commander to use this chapter as a means to separate a service

member from active duty if “parental obligations interfere with military duties.” (O’Keefe 2016).

It provides the process for separations, how to notify the service member of the procedures, and

which chapter and paragraph gives the Commander the authority to process the separation

actions. Some of these type of separations can be avoided with proper training and providing

personnel in-depth guidance to service members and senior leadership, as per Department of the

Army G-1 presentation produced by LTC Rice, C.

In LTC Rice’s presentation, she gives a basic over view of the policy that commanders at

all levels can use as a briefing tool to provide their personnel a better understanding of the

program and its possible consequences. This presentation allows commanders at all levels to

give training to their leaders, subordinates, and personnel in their unit that needs to complete and

maintain a family care plan. It gives statistics of personnel who have been separated from active

military service that is the important part of the presentation for senior leadership and

subordinates to take note of. The percentage of personnel being separated does not seem that

significant in comparison to the actual number of personnel that serve in the Army but they are

numbers that can be decreased or avoided with proper training and guidance. The presentation

also gives the basic guidelines from DoDI 1342-19 and AR 600-20 for commanders to follow
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and the personnel that will be in the program. There are a few documents written about what

some mothers feel are non-supportive military programs.

In Goodman’s et al. (2013) “Deployment of military mothers: Supportive and

nonsupportive military programs, processes, and policies”, discusses the role and importance of

military supportive and non-supportive resources. This article provides research findings of

women personnel that have deployed while serving in the military. The authors discuss a

minimum of supportive and non-supportive resources as described by the persons interviewed

for the research. It does talk about the FCP as non-supportive for not facilitating deployments

because the care plan is incomplete and an inflexibility in family care plans. As some mothers

were quoted, “in that the information does not provide evidence of a safe and effective care plan

for the children.” (p 731). Some of the participants felt the care plans caused issues since the

majority of women surveyed found it hard to find adequate caregivers. They did believe in the

policy and that it is there to serve the Military and the Family members both equally, which is

the care of the children while the companies had to deploy or conduct mission-related operations.

There are some academic journals that focus on custody issues that service members can

encounter due to deployments or assignments.

In Sullivan, M. E. (2015) academic journal article’s, “Good to Go (and Return): Custody

and Military Absences”, discuses about military parents who have sole or primary custody, and

how military absences can affect their custody orders and FCP. When service members are

preparing their FCP’s they need to pay close attention to court custody orders they have. He

states that your lawyer who prepares your temporary custody order should, “…write up an

airtight custody consent order—bullet-proof and rock solid.” (Pg. 218). While the first section of
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the article part I covers the basic ground rules for protecting and advising a military custodian as

to mobilization, sea duty, deployments, and other military absences. Part III discusses, “avoiding

disaster by crafting the court's custody order with an eye to the future and a plan for who gets

custody when the military member absent.” (Pg. 105). This is very important to ensure the child

or children in question are properly cared for and the custodian regains custody once deployment

has been completed or even during temporary vacation. Additional articles have been drafted by

prior service members referencing custody orders like “Custody & Consent”.

“Custody & Consent” was an article written by Ahlers, J. B., & Hodges, S. A. (2012) in

the Reporter, they both served as Officers in the military and talk about the requirements in child

custody and consent under the FCP. They review highlights from Air Force FCP instruction

manuals and a major change which states, “now requires not only consult with an attorney if they

wish to name a third-party as their child’s caregiver in the event of a deployment….” (Pg. 37).

These changes were not previously addressed in prior manuals or regulation but have become

areas for concern with more deployments of service members after 9/11. It’s a positive change

to inform personnel of possible delays or issues they might encounter while preparing and

completing their FCP’s. Prior to the AF making changes to their FCP’s other services found it

necessary to make changes as problems arouse due to more deployments and sole custody

parents enlisting into the military.

“Family Care Planning Key to Readiness” from Seif-Kyler, S. (2004) focused on Sailors

planning for family care, as a prior planning step, and how it is essential to combat readiness, by

ensuring Sailors and their families are prepared for deployments, and ready to execute their

military and professional duties. Like the other branches of service regulation and manuals, this
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article was to provide Sailors clear guidance for developing reliable FCP’s and to assist

commands in creating effective family care programs. Captain Schmidt, branch head of

Women's Policy in Washington, D.C. states “We included a simple checklist to guide Sailors

through the development of a plan.” (Pg. 8). These types of check lists were designed to

streamline the directions and instructions that were outlined in the perspective branch of service

FCP’s and give a Commander’s and leaders a simplified process to assist their personnel for a

successful program.
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Methodology

For my literary review I will conduct a Qualitative study for the primary question about

the FCP, is it a necessary policy and program or does it need to be rescinded? I chose this type

of study over the Quantitative study because I do not feel conducting a big event or use of online

or surveys with fifty plus participants would improve or give me the information that I am trying

to see if people in the community have knowledge of. The use of the qualitative study would be

more formal in gathering my needed information for my questions as an interview of ten to thirty

participants. They will have ten secondary questions to answer with an addition four questions

for those participants that might have more knowledge or experiences with FCP’s.

This study will be to interview approximately thirty participants from throughout the

local El Paso, TX community. Since the El Paso community is largely encompassed with

personnel stationed at Fort Bliss, TX and live within the surrounding civilian housing areas.

They should preferably have children but does not particularly need to be married. This will

allow the participants to understand or maybe have knowledge dealing with caregivers like

daycares or babysitters. The participants can either be male or female ranging between the ages

of 21 to 45 years old. It does not matter what country or nationality or ethnic background for any

of the participants.

Conducting the interview in two locations would be best to give the best demographics

that my study is intended to reach. I feel during the weekend time from midmorning through

early evening. If you try to conduct it too early some participants might not of have their coffee

or if it’s too late in the day they might be tried from shopping and rush or either not want to
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answer the questions. The participants do not need to be currently employed or either college

students. At least half should be affiliated with the military. Some could have had family

members in the military that have been deployed and had dependent children.

These are the questions that I would ask but not to every participant because they might not have

enough prior knowledge or background to answer them all:

o 1. When was The Army’s Family Care Plan introduced as a program policy?
o 2. Who is required to be enrolled in the program?
o 3. How does the program benefit the Army and the Families?
o 4. Does the policy create undo stressors on family members of single Soldier’s?
o 5. Why do some Company Commanders give extensions of deadlines to some Soldiers
and not others?
o 6. How does a Soldier’s failure to comply with program affect themselves and their
family?
o 7. Does the effectiveness of a Unit really become hindered if they are short a few
personnel?
o 8. What can be improved on the current Plan?
o 9. Are improvements really a viable solution?
o 10. Is it possible to streamline the program process? (Lima Six Sigma)
o A1. What would happen if there was not a requirement for this program?
o A2. How would or could family members continue to maintain everyday life and
activities on their own with/without a Family Care Plan?
o A3. Would it be better for the Army to rescind or remove the Company/Unit
Commanders from enforcing the policy?
o A4. Cost to the personnel required to maintain a program, is it too expensive for those on
a lower salary?
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Conclusion

From my review of all of the fore mentioned EO, Instructions, Regulations, manuals,

articles, and presentations all branches of service are and have been continuing to address

possible issues with FCP’s and make changes as necessary for the good of the service, members,

and families alike. Not all possible concerns might be answered as of yet but large steps forward

to assist sole custodian parents with possible custody disputes has been and continue to be

addressed. While oversees deployments have declined there will continue to be a need for some

type of program to maintain and ensure families of deployed military personnel are cared for in

their absence. The policies, instructions, and regulations are constantly being revised with

updated information to ensure, those affected or mandated to follow them, have their voices or

concerns heard. Individual branches of service have incorporated workshops to assist service

members and families in the program process while providing them a clear understanding of why

the program is considered important. With a combined effort by the Commanders and service

members with one goal in mind, the FCP can be successful for both sides to benefit. These all

support that the Army’s Family Care Plan is a necessary policy and program and it does not need

to be rescinded.
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References

Ahlers, J. B., & Hodges, S. A. (2012). Custody & Consent. Reporter, 39(2), 36–42. Retrieved

from

http://0search.ebscohost.com.lib.utep.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mth&AN=904737

32&site=eds-live&scope=site

Conaton, E.C. (2017). Department of Defense Instruction (DoDI) number 1342.22, Military

Family Readiness. Executive Services Directorate. Retrieved from

http://www.esd.whs.mil/Directives/issuances/dodi/.

Goodman, P., Turner, A., Agazio, J., Throop, M., Padden, D., Greiner, S., et al. (2013).

Deployment of military mothers: Supportive and nonsupportive military programs,

processes, and policies. Military Medicine, 178(7), 729-734. doi:10.7205/MILMED-D-

12-00460

O’Keefe, G.B., Milley, M.A. (2016). Active Duty Enlisted Administrative Separations Army

Regulation (AR) 635-200. Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Army and

General USA Chief of Staff, Headquarters, Department of the Army. Washington, DC.

Retrieved from https://armypubs.army.mil/ProductMaps/PubForm/AR.aspx.

O’Keefe, G.B., Odierno, R.T. (2014). Army Command Policy Army Regulation (AR) 600-20.

Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Army and General USA Chief of Staff,

Headquarters, Department of the Army. Washington, DC. Retrieved from

https://armypubs.army.mil/ProductMaps/PubForm/AR.aspx.
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Reagan, R. (1987). Executive Order (EO) 12606 The Family. The White House. Retrieved from

https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/archives/speeches/1987/090287b.htm.

Rice, C. (2016). Army Family Care Plan Policy. Headquarters, Department of the Army G-1.

Retrieved from

http://dacowits.defense.gov/Portals/48/Documents/General%20Documents/RFI%20Docs/

Dec2016/USA%20RFI%207.pdf?ver=2016-12-04-23.3103-367

Seif-Kyler, S. (2004). Family Care Planning Key to Readiness, Policy Updated. All Hands,

(1047), 8–9. Retrieved from

http://0search.ebscohost.com.lib.utep.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=voh&AN=1401420

0&site=eds-live&scope=site

Stanley, C. (2017). DoDI number 1342.19 ch1, Family Care Plans. Executive Services

Directorate. Retrieved from http://www.esd.whs.mil/Directives/issuances/dodi/.

Sullivan, M. E. (2015). “Good to Go” and Return!: Custody and Military Absences Part I of III:

Unraveling the Rules. American Journal of Family Law, 28(4), 216–219. Retrieved from

http://0search.ebscohost.com.lib.utep.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=9941770

2&site=eds-live&scope=site

Sullivan, M. E. (2015). “Good to Go” and Return!: Custody and Military Absences: Part III of III:

Planning and Prevention. American Journal of Family Law, 29(2), 105–108. Retrieved

from

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53&site=eds-live&scope=site