One of the most important priorities for service members is the education of their children. Military careers don't always take families to locations that offer the best schools, but wherever they are, parents want to do what they can to make the most of opportunities for their children.
Parents are their child's first, best and continuing advocates. Before things get too busy as you approach the season for making permanent change-of-station moves, refresh your knowledge about some resources out there that help you be that advocate for your child. Resources are available from the Defense Department, the service branches and installations, private organizations and local school districts.
School liaison officers are the first point of contact for parents for school-related issues and to coordinate with local school systems. They are hired by many installations to act as a liaison among parents, schools and commands; and they represent, inform and assist the command. Contact information is listed, by service branch and installation, for all the school liaison officers at dodea.edu/partnership. This site has links to other resources for parents, too.
Military Interstate Children's Compact Commission is a national effort to address the issues that mobile military children face when they make transitions from one school to another. The compact, which has been adopted by all 50 states, is designed to smooth out administrative issues involved in moving from one school to another, but it doesn't address the quality of education in any one school. Some of the specific issues the compact covers include graduation requirements, education records, immunizations, kindergarten and first grade entrance age, placement and attendance, course and educational program placement, special education services, placement flexibility, absence related to deployment activities, eligibility for student enrollment and eligibility for extracurricular participation.
States are in various stages of implementing the compact; there's a governance structure at the national and state level for enforcement and compliance of the compact. Military parents should try to resolve issues with their local schools and school districts first, with possible help from school liaison officers. For questions the local school or school district can't resolve, parents can contact the commission or state compact officials; contact information is available at mic3.net.
Military Child Education Coalition offers a variety of resources for parents, including a new series of short videos to help guide families through the stages of a student's K-12 experience. Among those videos:
- "Roadmap to Readiness for College and for Life"
- "Foundations: Parents Encouraging Academic Success"
- "A Military Family’s Guide to Kindergarten through 3rd Grade"
- "7th Grade: the Pivotal Year"
- "The 8th through 12th Grade Years"
- "Understanding Student Assessments"
- "Let’s Talk about Changing Schools"
MCEC's SchoolQuest, at schoolquest.org, is an online tool for families on the move who want to learn about potential schools that may fit the needs of their children. Use the search tool to help find and compare schools. It uses a database compiled by researchers to present resources, contact information and transition advice about the school districts and schools that serve the selected military community. It also includes state education resources with state school requirements and resources from all 50 states.
Explore these sites for more resources and tools, and links to other sites. And keep coming back to check what's new.
Karen Jowers covers military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times. She can be reached at kjowers@militarytimes.com
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.
