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Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children
A Background and Summary
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Military families move between postings on a regular basis. While
reassignments can often be a boon for career personnel, they usually
play havoc with the children of military families; losing and making new
friends, adjusting to new cities and bases and changing schools. While
the armed services has taken great leaps to ease the transition of
personnel, their spouses and most importantly children, much remains to
be done at the state and local levels to ensure that the children of
military families are afforded the same opportunities for educational
success as other children and are not penalized or delayed in achieving
their educational goal by inflexible administrative and bureaucratic
practices.The average military student
faces transition challenges more than twice during high school and most
military children will have six to nine different school systems in
their lives from kindergarten to 12th grade. With more than half of all
military personnel supporting families, the impacts of reassignment and
long deployments are a key consideration when making long-term life
choices.
Specific impacts on military children include:
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Transfer of Records
- Official transcripts
for military-affiliated children often come from other states or overseas
schools. Children are placed incorrectly because some of the schools refuse
to accept hand-carried copies until the official version arrives. Because
of the possible time lapse between entry into school and the arrival of
school records, this process jeopardizes proper placement for all students
and, in particular, those involved in Special Education, Gifted Education,
English as a Second Language, and Advanced Placement Courses.
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Course
Sequencing -
States have varying
prerequisite course requirements that can result in thwarting students'
academic advancement, repeating content or eliminating student from Honors
or Advanced Placement courses.
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Graduation
Requirements -
Graduation requirements
vary from state to state. In some states, specific courses are required for
graduation. The graduation of military students who transfer during their
junior or senior year may be jeopardized if they are unable, due to state or
local policies or scheduling constraints, to enroll in the necessary
coursework.
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Exclusion from
Extra-Curricular Activities -
Students who enroll in
school after auditions, tryouts, elections and membership recruitments are
often eliminated from activities that promote socialization and
connectedness to their new school community. Often their skills and talents
are not recognized or developed or are placed on "hold" because they are
seen as transient or having arrived "too late." Organizations such as the
National Honor Society permit local entrance requirements that can eliminate
students even when they have been members in their previous school.
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Redundant or
Missed Entrance/Exit Testing - Children who move frequently can be
penalized for missing state mandated tests required to enter or exit various
levels of the educational system. Tests are often specific to the state and
therefore, entrance/exit tests taken in another state, are not recognized.
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Kindergarten
and First Grade Entrance Age Variances -
Children enrolled in
Kindergarten in one state may not qualify by age when transferred during the
year to another state. Children who have completed Kindergarten in another
state are sometimes denied entry into first grade if they do not meet the
age requirement.
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Power of
Custodial Parents While Parents are Deployed -
Due to circumstances created by military
deployment, there are times when children are placed in the care of
designated guardians. Legislation is needed to protect the children of these
families so that they may continue to attend their school or relocate to the
neighborhood school of their newly appointed guardian.
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The new Interstate Compact
on Educational Opportunity for Military Children addresses these issues
as well as compact enforcement, administration, finances,
communications, data sharing and training. The new compact establishes
an independent compact operating authority, the Interstate Commission,
which will be positioned to address future interstate problems and
issues as they arise.
The development of interstate and
intrastate solutions to these issues is of paramount importance to
military families. While armed services personnel are serving our
country, their children may, more often than not, be adversely affected
by these and other educational policies. While many states and
communities have responded on an ad hoc basis to ease the shift of
military children, no comprehensive policy approach exists to improve
the long-term educational transitions and outcomes of this constituency.
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