Impact Aid is swinging in the balance- that means there could be less money serving the student popu

All children in the United States are entitled to a free public education. This is the great promise of our society: if you pay your taxes, your child will go to school for free.

This is true for all children in America.

School districts around the nation are proud to provide education to military connected children. However, the cost of operating and effectively serving MilKids as well as civilian children can be overwhelming.

Effectively Serving MilKids

Military kids come with some extra needs. Many of these concerns comes directly from frequency they move or their responsibilities at home.

Due to frequent moves, military children receiving special or gifted education services need to be reassessed at their new school. While this might not seem like a big deal, it really is. Each standardized test costs money and takes time to administer and score. The school needs to pay for additional copies of each test, as well as hire or contract with a qualified assessor.

As more students are enrolled in special or gifted education, funds need to be redistributed to meet the needs of all learners. This could mean hiring more teachers or support staff and buying more specialized supplies.

Students outside of special education also have unique learning needs. So many moves means that many military children have gaps in knowledge. The school they just left hadn’t covered a topic, but their new school had already moved beyond it.

This means that classroom teachers must determine where their military connected students might be missing knowledge, and then work to fill in those gaps. This could mean school-based tutoring, reteaching, or after school programs. All of these require staff and supplies.

Military connected children may also be working through mental health concerns. The last fifteen years have seen a high tempo of operations, with lengthy deployments often coming back-to-back. Parents have returned home with physical and mental wounds that require care. While adult family members may take the lead during deployment and post-military caregiving, MilKids are still shouldering a massive burden.

In addition to working through military related emotional stressors, military children are also navigating unfamiliar schools and trying to make new friends.

When you combine these factors, many children become overwhelmed and need a friendly face to turn to in school.

Qualified mental health providers are needed in schools to help military connected children work through their emotions and building skills to cope. While all schools do have social workers, psychologists, and counselors on staff, these individuals are not all trained to effectively help military children specifically.

The same is true for teachers. While there are many programs out there to help teachers of military children, they often fill-up fast or only those “in the know” are aware of their existence. This leaves a large segment of teachers who might not know what to look for with, or say to, a child in crisis due to military matters.

There are some ways in place to help military children.

Impact Aid

This is a vital program for military families and school districts located near military bases. Impact Aid is a program started about four decades ago to help ease the burden near federal lands. Public schools are largely funded through property taxes. Since federal lands, like military bases, cannot be taxed, schools often lose out on a large chunk of potential revenue.

Especially on military bases, those federal lands are populated with families that need education services for their children.

For years, Impact Aid has helped to close the gap between what the funding level could be if all available land was taxed and the actual tax profits in a district. This has allowed schools located near military bases to continue to operate on par with the rest of the nation. They have been able to maintain staffing levels and supply levels comparable to their potential, if all land were taxable.

However, this program is on the chopping block in President Donald Trump’s new budget proposal for the Department of Education. Removing this program would not allow school districts to tax federal land. Instead, it would remove a vital revenue stream to help maintain the current education systems. In order to make up this difference towns and cities near military bases would need to rapidly increase property taxes. Or the schools would likely have to do without necessities.

This could mean increased class sizes due to teacher lay-off. Schools could see a reduction in available services and programs, like athletics, gifted and talented, and the arts. There could be supply shortages or lack of funds to update materials.

Military Family Life Counselors (MFLC)

MFLCs are amazing, and are attached to most units or bases. They are also in Department of Defense (DOD) schools stateside and overseas.

However, they are not in public schools close to military bases. In fact, these schools might not know that MFLCs exist unless a military connected staff member shares this information.

School Liaison Officers (SLO)

SLOs can help military families make educational decisions, like choosing a good school district or transferring an IEP. However, they may only work or be familiar with a limited number of schools near a military base.

Other Federal Programs

There are other programs, like Title 1, that can help to ease the burden on schools financially. However, there are no military child specific programs currently in place at a federal level to assist schools in providing the necessary staff and programs to fully meet the needs of their population.

Lack of Funds

While there are some services and funds available to help cover the services needed by military children, there may often be a gap.

Military bases might be combined or restructured, causing more students to move into an area than previously anticipated. Military veterans could move into specific areas to be closer to approved medical resources or be near a military base. A shortfall in funds, especially when combined with a large influx of students, can harm a school’s ability to meet the needs of all students.

This leaves children in the wind, without resources and help to meet learning standards or resolve emotional stressors. Teachers and school staff are left without the proper training to help their military connected children in a timely or effective manner.

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

#BoyScoutsandGirlScouts #Christmasforthechildren #Clothes #CommonCoreStateStandards #Deployments