There is a great need to help the children of the military. Changing schools is a huge sacrifice that these military family members take on and legislation needs to be passed to make this transition easier. They need to be afforded the same opportunities for kids who haven’t relocated to other states, districts. Military children are often penalized when they’ve already completed certain class requirements like a introductory spanish class and must retake them at their new school. Or imagine not being able to play on the JV soccer team because you missed tryouts in the fall.

Children of military will on average face 6 to 9 different school systems from kindergarten to 12th grade. The impacts of reassignment and deployments will impact in a number of ways:

• High School Graduation Requirements
• Prerequisite Course Requirements
• Records Transfers
• Extra-Curricular Activities
• Redundant or Missed Testing

The Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children seeks to address these issues by developing interstate and intrastate solutions that are comprehensive and cohesive.

According to the Council of State Governments (”CSG”), 22 states are participating in this voluntary compact with more on the horizon. If your state is not a member of this compact, make sure you let your state legislator know to join. We need to lessen the burden on the military children whose parents have made huge sacrifices to serve and protect our country.

Here are a couple of related links:

• Council of State Governments Interstate Compact
• Military Impacted Schools Association (”MISA”)