Exceptional Family Member Program

Managing the care and services for a family member with medical or educational needs can be easier with the right support. The Exceptional Family Member Program strives to help your military family thrive in military life.

EFMP is a Defense Department program that provides comprehensive support and services to military families with special medical or educational needs. A family member with special needs is a:

• Spouse, child or incapacitated adult who has special medical needs and requires medical care for a chronic condition, receives ongoing services from a medical specialist or has a significant behavioral health concern.
• Child (birth through age 21) with special education needs who is eligible for, or receives, early intervention services through an individualized family service plan, or special education services through an individual education program.

Each branch of service implements EFMP to support individual, family and unit readiness needs in accordance with DOD Instruction 1315.19.

EFMP is more than just one program or connection point. It’s the work of three interrelated components across the Defense Department that work together to support military families with special medical or educational needs:

• Identification and enrollment
• Assignment coordination
• Family Support

As part of EFMP identification and enrollment, your medical provider or staff from early intervention services or your child’s school will provide support and help to coordinate your family’s enrollment in EFMP.

EFMP enrollment is mandatory for service members who have a family member with a special medical or educational needs. Enrollment ensures the family’s needs are considered during the assignment process.

While enrolling in EFMP, you can also request a referral to TRICARE to request a review for eligibility for the TRICARE Extended Care Health Option. ECHO may provide additional medical support services for family members with complex medical needs.

Take time to learn more about EFMP and how it can benefit your family.

This is the most visible component of EFMP, with a Family Support center on most installations. EFMP Family Support providers play a critical role in providing information, referral, family needs assessments, family service plans and transition support during PCS moves to help you achieve the goals that are unique to your family. They provide individualized support to families and help them become their own best advocates by providing:

• Information and referrals for military and community services
• Education outreach
• Information about early intervention and local school services
• Warm handoff to the EFMP program at the next location
• Non-clinical case management

Reach out to your local EFMP Family Support office to learn more about EFMP and the support available to your family.

With the family member’s special medical or educational needs documented, EFMP assignment staff and military personnel departments work together to coordinate assignments to locations that have the resources to address those needs. While the military mission is the driving force behind the assignment process, enrollment in EFMP ensures that your family member’s medical or educational needs are considered during the assignment coordination process.

Factors considered in the CONUS assignment coordination process include:

• Availability of appropriate medical staff
• Distance to care
• Wait time for medical providers
• Severity of the family member’s need
• Frequency of care

For CONUS assignments, notifications will include the reason for the decision. Service members can request a second review of the decision within 14 business days of receiving their assignment notification.

Families can contact their EFMP Family Support provider to request a warm handoff to the gaining installation to ease their PCS transition.

Respite care is a temporary break for the primary caregiver of a family member with special medical or educational needs. Families enrolled in EFMP may receive respite care through their branch of service’s EFMP respite care program if they meet eligibility requirements.

Depending on your family member’s level of need, your family may receive 20 or 32 hours of respite care each month. Families experiencing exceptional circumstances may be eligible to receive additional respite care hours each month.

Families who wish to receive respite care may request an eligibility review through their EFMP Family Support office.

You may disenroll from EFMP if your family member is no longer the sponsor’s dependent or when their original condition is no longer present.

PRODUCTS TO LEARN ABOUT DISENROLLMENT

• The Process to Disenroll From EFMP

Children or other family members incapable of self-support who are 21 or older can remain in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System and receive continued military benefits and privileges.

To be eligible, children must be:

• Unmarried
• Incapable of self-support because of a mental or physical incapacity that existed before their 21^st birthday (or 23^rd if enrolled as a full-time student)
• Dependent on the sponsor for more than 50% of their support — or was at the time of the sponsor’s death

Documentation requirements vary among the military departments, but they generally require the following to verify eligibility for establishing permanent dependency of an incapacitated child:

• A birth certificate, if not already enrolled in DEERS
• A parent’s marriage certificate, if not already enrolled in the system
• A current physician’s statement dated within 90 days of application
• A letter from the school registrar reflecting full-time enrollment in an accredited institution of higher learning when the incapacitation occurred, if applicable

In addition to eligible children, secondary or nonprimary dependents, can include:

• A parent, parent-in-law, stepparent, parent by adoption or “in-loco parentis” (in the place of a parent)
• Unmarried children ages 21 and 22 who are enrolled full time in an accredited institution of higher education
• Ward of the court, unmarried and placed in the permanent legal physical custody of the member

To qualify as a secondary dependent, the individual’s income, not including service member contribution, must be less than one-half of their actual living expenses and the service member must contribute more than one-half of the dependent’s monthly living expenses.

Find more information on establishing secondary dependency at the Defense Finance and Accounting Service.

EFMP strives to continually enhance services and have transparent communication with service members and families with special medical or educational needs. The program is committed to improving EFMP to establish more standard procedures across the services to make it easier for families to find what they need when they need it.

EFMP & Me is an online tool for military families with special needs to directly solve problems, stay organized and informed, locate support and plan ahead. EFMP & Me’s interface for service providers and leaders provides easily accessible information and answers to your questions about EFMP, allowing you to guide service members and their families to the resources they need. EFMP & Me offers:

• Up-to-date information on what is happening with the Office for Special Needs and across EFMP
• Flexible, ready-to-go briefing materials
• Easy access to tools, messaging and information that address common misperceptions about EFMP, helping you answer questions and address readiness concerns of EFMP-enrolled service members