Kids Of America's Heroes are often left in the middle without support.

Around this time two year ago, a child moved away from the school I was teaching at. On the surface, this wasn’t unusual. Families move all the time, for a variety of reasons.

This was different though.

This little boy had been in the classroom right next door to me, taught by one of my best teacher friends. He had been in my small math group on and off all year. And his family was moving because of PCS orders.

I’m a military spouse. I should have known about this military child, this military family, that was in my school. This child was in direct contact with me almost every single day.

I should have known. I could have helped with education issues, helped them to get acclimated to the new school, and helped as they were transitioning out, too.

Here’s the bigger question though: If I didn’t know, did anyone else?

Military children deal with so much at very young ages:

• Deployments, often for months on end, in combat zones

• Frequent trainings away from home, often for weeks to months

• Lack of contact with a parent during deployments and training

• Frequent moves, at least every three years

• Making new friends due to moves

• Possible lack of proximity to extended family

• Changing schools with each move

There should be built-in supports for military children in every school where even one MilKid is enrolled.

Military children should have access to mental health professionals to help work through tough situations. Parents should be given help finding Boy or Girl Scout troops, registering for sports teams, and locating tutors.

Most of all, the teachers should have trainings on how to best work with MilKids. Yes, there are documents out there. The National Military Family Association has a great primer for teachers of military children. However, it’s almost 15 years old.

And it is only helpful if the teacher knows he is teaching military children.

​If I could miss it, even with a radar on high alert for other military families, what about teachers with no military connections? Would they know if they weren’t told outright?

That’s why it’s so important that military families inform their teachers right away about their military status. Knowing this might have help my teaching team transition my student more smoothly or helped us to be more aware of possible tough situations, like deployments.

MilKids are Everywhere!

It’s so important that all schools, public and private, provide their teachers with MilKid trainings because military families are everywhere. Military connected children are in every community and every school district.

They are not just around military bases. Families in the National Guard or Reserve, as well as families of veterans, live in every town and city in our country. And they have children in public and private schools in each of those cities and towns.

Since these families fly below the radar, teachers might never know they have MilKids in their classrooms. Suddenly, a child could be in crisis due to a deployment or as a result of caring for an injured veteran parent. Without training and supports, teachers might not be able to provide help in a timely fashion.

MilKids Have Gaps

All of that moving around, especially for active duty MilKids, can lead to gaps in learning. A mid-school year move might mean that a fourth grader misses fractions. Their last school hadn’t taught it yet, but their new school already covered it!

Those moves also mean that some students with learning differences fall through the cracks. The special education process can be lengthy. Between trying in-classroom teaching changes, referrals to teams for review, and assessments, it could take a whole academic year or more for a student to be identified and placed on the special education track.

If a child moves while this process is going on, all of that progress could be lost in transit. Without a formal

IEP or 504 Plan, there is no guarantee that academic supports will be continued. A MilKid might have been getting extra math help outside of special education or might have been working one-on-one informally with the teacher. But there is no record of these on report cards or on standardized test results.

So children with more mild or moderate special learning needs might be missed or passed over due to lack of data. They could be missed because they move just as their current school is getting the ball rolling on the special education process. They could be dismissed as “just a little bit low” or “destructible” or “disruptive.”

It’s not fair, and it’s not right.

ESSA Requires MilKids be Identified

The Every Student Succeeds Act, signed into law by President Obama in 2015, includes requirements to track MilKids through test results.

But there aren’t plans in there about how to do this. There aren’t plan to help support military families in K-12 education.

It’s still up to military family organizations, bloggers, and charitable groups to provide this training. And it’s up to individual schools or districts to access that training.

In the meantime, thousands of MilKids are left in the middle, possibly without adequate support.

Meg Flanagan M.Ed and K.O.A.H. Military Education Specialist

I'm a teacher, blogger, writer, runner, mother, and military spouse. I am passionate about helping ALL children learn, offering tips to guide parents through the K-12 education world, and providing useful advice to teachers of all ages and stages.Visit Meg's Blog at MilKidsEd.com

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