Cadets at the service academies can now have children while attending school

By Rose L. Thayer

Four cadets at the Air Force Academy were allowed to continue their studies during the last year after having children due to a policy change enacted by Congress, according to academy officials.

Prior to lawmakers approving the change in 2021, the cadets would not have been permitted to have children and could have been forced to leave school.

The change impacts all three of the Defense Department’s service academies, though officials for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y, and the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., said they are waiting for the Pentagon to issue a new formal policy, which was mandated by Congress to be implemented by January.

A spokesperson at the Pentagon said Friday that the new policy is still pending and declined to comment further.

The previous rule forced some cadets who became pregnant or sired a child to withdraw from the academies — a move that could cost tens of thousands of dollars because students who quit after the start of their third year can be required to repay the government. One year at a service academy costs roughly $82,000, according to a 2019 Defense Department memo.