Military families and others have the opportunity over the next month to provide input for defense officials on quality of life issues at the state level for service members and their families.
Defense officials are specifically interested in issues where state governments are the primary agents for positive change, according to the request for information posted in the Federal Register on Tuesday by the Defense Department’s office of the deputy assistant secretary of defense for military community and family policy.
They’re asking for input on what should be considered for 2028.
Submissions are due by April 23. Information on how to submit the input can be found in the Federal Register notice. The notice includes information that should be included, such as a title for the issue; the description of the issue with a problem statement about who is affected and whether the issue could be solved by change in state procedures, state regulations or state laws; a description of a potential solution; a description of the current status of the issue; and contact information for any needed follow up.
“The proposed solution should positively impact the quality of life of service members and their families, positively contribute to readiness, or both,” according to the Federal Register request for information.
Each year, officials in DOD’s State Liaison Office choose policy priorities for states to consider that cause barriers because of the mobility and uncertainty of military life. They’ll consider the public’s input in crafting their priorities.
Over the years, DOD’s State Liaison office officials have worked to inform state legislators and others about steps they could consider to help ease burdens related to a number of issues, such as easing the transitions of military children into new school schools and military spouse employment, including the transfer of professional licenses when spouses move to a new permanent duty station.
For 2026, the DOD State Liaison’s Office priorities for states to consider are:
• Exempting DOD-certified in-home child care providers from state licensure requirements.
• Speeding up the adoption and implementation of professional licensure compacts to ensure seamless portability, reduce financial strain and support long-term military family stability.
• Including military clauses in state family leave laws to help spouses address urgent family needs without risking income or job insecurity — when the service member is activated or in training, for example.
• Providing solutions for military homeschoolers, such as expanding access to school extracurricular activities and sports.
• Improving local implementation of policies that support military-connected children, and help families by clarifying requirements and streamlining access to information on state and local education websites.
• Providing state support for military families with special needs, ensuring timely establishment of services when families relocate and reducing procedural burdens.
• Providing open enrollment so that students can remain in their current school in spite of moving from temporary to permanent housing.
• Adopting policies that facilitate concurrent juvenile jurisdiction between the military and civilian authorities.
• Enhancing state laws to further protect victims of interpersonal violence by increasing access to civilian protective orders for victims, and mandating required sharing of information between military and civilian law enforcement authorities.
• Establishing statewide military-focused councils that consider military family readiness and dedicate at least one seat to member of the military community.
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book "A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families." She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
