DEBORAH SIMMONS: Back to school for military kids is not always an easy time

ANALYSIS/OPINION

Back to school.

For teachers, those three words can bring shouts of hip-hip-hooray, because it means continued employment. For students and parents, those words can bring dread and anxiety — especially so if the students and the parents are military families.

I know we don’t ordinarily think of military kids as being in a special class, but they are. In fact, they are in an exceptional class because, when military kids’ parents serve and sacrifice, the kids serve and sacrifice, too.

Understand that:

• An estimated 2 million children and young adults (through age 23) have a parent or both dad and mom serving on active duty in the armed forces, the Guard or the reserves.

• Of those 2 million, more than 1.3 million are 4 to 18 years old.

• Of those 2 million, 80 percent attended U.S. public schools.

• Of those 2 million, about 8 percent attend Department of Defense (DoD) schools.

• More than two-thirds of active-duty families live in civilian communities, not on base.

• There is no nationwide, data-driven decision-making regarding military kids and education. The unknowns include whether they drop out or graduate, and not all school systems know how many students they serve in military families. The unknowns are prevalent because military families don’t always fill out those federal impact aid forms, the paperwork that decides how many federal dollars are poured into a school district.

“Military children generally move six to nine times during their K-12 school years. Many make multiple moves during high school years alone, some even during their senior year,” according to the Military Child Education Coalition.

Moving is a stressor for parents. Imagine the anxiety it levels on children — who have to make new friends, schoolmates, playmates, teammates and fall into the rhythm of a new community. And oftentimes, the new community is in a new state.

Deployment, of course, raises child anxiety to a whole different level.

“Kids tell us, ’Gone is gone,’” Mary M. Keller, president and CEO of the Military Child Education Coalition, said in a recent interview with DOD News. “So if mom or dad are gone for training or they’re deployed, whatever it is, that’s a separation from a child, and it means a missed birthday, but it also means that parent has a challenge in staying as connected to school as they would like to so that whole education continuum is different for military kids.”

A preschooler might not readily notice the many sacrifices and changes underfoot, but even our armed forces leaders are trying to shift gears.

The military is rethinking the teaching and learning environments it oversees as part of the Department of Defense Education Activity, whose director, Thomas M. Brady, was in D.C. Public Schools and Fairfax County Schools, which is one of the largest school systems in the nation.

“I think that there’s an opportunity to work with those local districts and improve student performance and, certainly, awareness of what our children go through — which is completely different, in many cases, than the civilian community,” said Mr. Brady, a retired Army man.

I want to point out another problem you may be unaware of: Not all school districts follow the same grading systems and course requirements, which means the military kid’s new receiving school could decide a child who would have been promoted in her former school or even skipped a grade now has fallen back a grade at the receiving school.

I am not pointing this issue out to create some sort of all-schools-have-to-follow-the-same-rules bureaucracy. Heaven forbid.

I point it out so you can imagine what a drag this might be on a school-age military child who academically was on the ball in one school district, but another district says not so much.

So as we gear up for back-to-school month, don’t just think about the pens, paper and high-tech gadgets military kids needs — although if you want to donate on their behalf, go ahead. The kids can certainly use your help.

I want parents, teachers, principals, coaches and others in leadership positions to think twice about the exceptional class of children — children who, through no fault of their own, have to move when the military says move.

Do not take for granted that these 2 million children are sacrificing, too — and they don’t always say hip-hip-hooray, it’s back-to-school time.

Indeed, they could be in School A in State B this month, and have to be enrolled in School C in State D by the time of Santa’s arrival. And that is something their schools’ teachers don’t have to face.

• Deborah Simmons can be reached at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.