The Air Force provides complimentary time-limited respite care to families who have a dependent with a moderate or severe special need. To be eligible for this care, the active-duty sponsor must be enrolled in the Exceptional Family Member Program (EFMP). To apply, enrolled sponsors must contact their local EFMP Family Support (FS) office.

The EFMP-FS office will provide 2 documents required to complete a respite care application:

1. Family Demographics Form – Completed by family.

2. Needs Assessment – Completed by medical provider with exhaustive list of challenges that warrant respite care.

After the completed documents are returned to the EFMP-FS office, EFMP-FS staff will forward the package to headquarters for consideration. After evaluating the package, headquarters will send a level of need determination memo for each dependent child to the EFMP-FS office. At that time, the EFMP-FS office will share the memorandum(s) with your family.

LEVELS 1 & 2 — If your child receives a determination level below 3, they are not eligible to receive respite care.

LEVEL 3 — If your child receives a determination level of 3, they are eligible to receive 20 hours of respite care per month.

LEVEL 4 — If your child receives a determination level of 4 (the highest level), they are eligible to receive 32 hours of respite care per month.

Currently, sibling care is not available for siblings who are determination level 2 or lower.

For more information, please visit: DAFFamilyVector.us.af.mil