
From the U.S. Code Online via GPO Access
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[Laws in effect as of January 2, 2001]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
  January 2, 2001 and January 28, 2002]
[CITE: 10USC1794]

 
                         TITLE 10--ARMED FORCES
 
                    Subtitle A--General Military Law
 
                           PART II--PERSONNEL
 
      CHAPTER 88--MILITARY FAMILY PROGRAMS AND MILITARY CHILD CARE
 
                   SUBCHAPTER II--MILITARY CHILD CARE
 
Sec. 1794. Child abuse prevention and safety at facilities

    (a) Child Abuse Task Force.--The Secretary of Defense shall maintain 
a special task force to respond to allegations of widespread child abuse 
at a military installation. The task force shall be composed of 
personnel from appropriate disciplines, including, where appropriate, 
medicine, psychology, and childhood development. In the case of such 
allegations, the task force shall provide assistance to the commander of 
the installation, and to parents at the installation, in helping them to 
deal with such allegations.
    (b) National Hotline.--(1) The Secretary of Defense shall maintain a 
national telephone number for persons to use to report suspected child 
abuse or safety violations at a military child development center or 
family home day care site. The Secretary shall ensure that such reports 
may be made anonymously if so desired by the person making the report. 
The Secretary shall establish procedures for following up on complaints 
and information received over that number.
    (2) The Secretary shall publicize the existence of the number.
    (c) Assistance From Local Authorities.--The Secretary of Defense 
shall prescribe regulations requiring that, in a case of allegations of 
child abuse at a military child development center or family home day 
care site, the commander of the military installation or the head of the 
task force established under subsection (a) shall seek the assistance of 
local child protective authorities if such assistance is available.
    (d) Safety Regulations.--The Secretary of Defense shall prescribe 
regulations on safety and operating procedures at military child 
development centers. Those regulations shall apply uniformly among the 
military departments.
    (e) Inspections.--The Secretary of Defense shall require that each 
military child development center be inspected not less often than four 
times a year. Each such inspection shall be unannounced. At least one 
inspection a year shall be carried out by a representative of the 
installation served by the center, and one inspection a year shall be 
carried out by a representative of the major command under which that 
installation operates.
    (f) Remedies for Violations.--(1) Except as provided in paragraph 
(2), any violation of a safety, health, or child welfare law or 
regulation (discovered at an inspection or otherwise) at a military 
child development center shall be remedied immediately.
    (2) In the case of a violation that is not life threatening, the 
commander of the major command under which the installation concerned 
operates may waive the requirement that the violation be remedied 
immediately for a period of up to 90 days beginning on the date of the 
discovery of the violation. If the violation is not remedied as of the 
end of that 90-day period, the military child development center shall 
be closed until the violation is remedied. The Secretary of the military 
department concerned may waive the preceding sentence and authorize the 
center to remain open in a case in which the violation cannot reasonably 
be remedied within that 90-day period or in which major facility 
reconstruction is required.

(Added Pub. L. 104-106, div. A, title V, Sec. 568(a)(1), Feb. 10, 1996, 
110 Stat. 333.)
