Month of the Military Child

by Michelle Taylor -- April is designated as the Month of the Military Child. You see them every day; they are playing with your children, on sports teams, serving as volunteer. They are shopping, they are dining, they are attending school, or playing at the park. They look like your child, they laugh, they cry, they bloom where they are planted. These are the children of the Armed Forces. They are the Military Child. Every year in April, we recognize the children who have parents and guardians serving in the Armed Forces. This month recognizes the child and the sacrifices they make for their country as their parent serve. It was Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger who recognized these sacrifices and in 1986 he established that April will be the Month of the Military Child. Each year, efforts to highlight and protect military youth have grown stronger, with additional initiatives and practices being set forth to provide more services to our military youth. The Military Interstate Children’s Compact Commission (MIC3) provides protections for youth who transfer to new schools. It helps to protect against loss of transferable credits and grades, assures proper placement of classes and allows for students to participate and try-out in extra-curricular activities, especially where dates to sign-up or try-out have already occurred while the military youth was in transition to the new school. All 50 States are members of this commission and agree to its policies. Recently, the Every Student Succeed Acts (ESSA) was passed, and included the Military Student Identifier (MSI). The MSI requires public schools to collect certain data related to military-connected students. The information collected is protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Only the information related to the MSI, and not the personal student data, will be reported in the findings. The information will allow the Department of Education to track grades, graduation rates, and higher education entry of the military youth as a sub-demographic and allow for possible new implementation of services and needs for this group. Through the years of frequent changes of duty stations, educators have found that often military students are not at the same pace as their peers in the new location. Due to the frequent moves, military youth are at a higher risk for education inconsistencies.   All States are now required to collect this data. During this month, keep in mind some insights of the military-connected child.  Two million military children have had to say “see you soon” to a parent that has left on deployment since 9/11. Deployments come in many forms. Deployments can include being on a Navy ship, serving a tour abroad, doing time in the Middle East and more. Over half of these youth will have seen parents deploy twice or more. Deployments for the Navy now average nine months, with more service members seeing a 12 month or longer time frames of being away.  In addition, military children in grades K-12 will move on average 6-9 times during their time in school (this is not including any moves made before kindergarten). The majority of military children attend public school and every public school in the United States has at least one military-connected child in attendance. Children of the U.S. Armed Forces are at every corner of the globe, scattered in the world like seeds of a dandelion. The dandelion is the official flower of military youth, as dandelions are able to grow anywhere they are planted. Military children are like a dandelion:  their roots are strong, they can take hold in any terrain and still blossom, and, when the time is right, they scatter again to another part of the world to continue to grow. The color purple represents military children, as it is a mix of Navy blue, Army green, Air Force blue, and Marine Corps red. When mixed together a unique purple is made, just like the military child. These strong, courageous and generous children did not ask to be brought into the military lifestyle, yet here they are thriving and growing through it all. They see sacrifices each day as their parent leaves for work, as they and their peers move, often moving to areas that are out of their comfort zones and away from all that is familiar. They do their best to fit in and make new friends every three years. They do their best to find their passion in the new location while silently standing the watch over their peers; observing, learning and doing what it takes to call their new place home. Fallon and Northern Nevada is called home by many military children. Home is where they root themselves. Home is where they blossom. Home is where they thrive. Home doesn’t have to be apermanent location. Home is where the anchor drops. Military children are like an anchor. You don’t have to see it to know it is the tether that keeps our military families strong, making America proud.   Support local, independent news – contribute to The Fallon Post, your non-profit (501c3) online news source for all things Fallon. Never miss the local news -- read more on The Fallon Post home page. Sign up to receive updates and the Friday File email notices.