On Wednesday, First Lady Jill Biden stood in a colorful preschool classroom at the Gateway Child Development Center inside San Antonio’s Lackland Air Force Base, as the young children of service members showed off their counting skills. Afterward, military staff and families joined Biden in a discussion about service members’ access to childcare, particularly for children with disabilities.
“Again and again in my travel to bases, I’ve heard that for families who have children with disabilities, it’s so difficult to get the support services that kids need when families move from duty station to duty station,” Biden said, referring to her travels with the Joining Forces program that she and former First Lady Michelle Obama started during the Obama administration.
The Gateway Child Development Center is one of seven childcare facilities run by Joint Base San Antonio, and serves approximately 250 children from 6 weeks to 5 years old. Of the more than 1 million active duty service members around the country, 43 percent have children. And of those children, about 42 percent are 5 years old and younger.
