WASHINGTON— Linh Narum knows what it means to be a part of a military family. Her father served in the Air Force for 27 years and she and her husband, an Air Force communications officer, have two sons of their own.
Like most military families, the Linh and Col. Jerry Narum are no strangers to relocation. They currently live in Illinois after time spent in Florida, Virginia and Ohio.
As a new school year begins, many families are asked to get used to new homes, neighborhoods and schools in order to serve their country.
Eileen Huck, deputy director for government relations at the National Military Family Association, says a typical child changes schools an average of 6 to nine times during the course of their education. Sometimes teenagers attend two or more high schools.
“A lot of our kids really thrive on having so many different experiences in a lot of different places. But there is no denying that it can definitely present some challenges both academically and socially,” Huck says.
Though moving is never stress-free, military family advocacy groups work to make the transition a little easier for parents and children alike by providing resources and training sessions to teachers, administrators and community leaders.
For Narum’s sons, the hardest thing about the move to Scott Air Force Base in southern Illinois was being “bored all the time.”
“When we moved to Illinois, it was quite an experience,” Narum says. “My kids were in advanced academic classes in Virginia, but they didn’t offer that here.”
In one attempt to remedy this situation for families like the Narums, the Defense Department and advocacy groups created the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children.
On Monday, New York became the final state to join the compact. Signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, it is an agreement between states that’s aimed at making the process of transferring student credits, grades, and classes easier for parents and administrators.
Huck says the compact brings consistency to a normally stressful ordeal by setting up a universal structure for dealing with roadblocks between schools and emphasizing the role of a school liaison officer as a go-to support system.
“We want to make sure kids get to a new school, can enroll right away, get placed in new classes and, for high school students, graduate on time,” Huck says.
In her work with the military families association, Huck says one of the most common problems connected with transitioning military families is that teachers and other community leaders sometimes don’t even know the new kid is from a military family. So, she says, they don’t know how to best reach out to new arrivals in difficult times, such as when one parent is deployed overseas.
“Once you engage in that awareness and make that connection, there are definitely tangible things that you can do to help make that experience easier,” Huck says.
One way, Huck says, is to “involve the absent parent as much as possible.”
“We hear stories about teachers having classes sending letters to deployed parents. It’s about working with the child to know what the child’s comfort level is,” Huck says.
Comfort level in a new place is something that is always on Narum’s mind when it comes to her oldest son, who is 14. Moving around is toughest for him, she says, because he suffers from diagnosed social anxiety.
“It’s hard to be at a school for a few years and the faculty and everybody knows your child and knows how to react to them. And it’s difficult to start that process all over again,” Narum says.
The Military Child Education Coalition, a non-profit specializing in the schooling of military children, has seven programs to help community professionals reach out to military-connected families. The most recent, Helping Military Children Discover Their S.P.A.R.C.: Strength, Potential, Aspirations, Resourcefulness, Confidence, was introduced last November. It‘s a six-hour class aimed at helping kids succeed in new situations.
Sandy Franklin, director of curriculum development and professional standards at the coalition and her colleagues, want to help kids move “beyond resilience” and “to not just make it by” in their communities.
All young people have specials interests and sparks, Franklin says. The curriculum uses these interests to develop kids’ goals for the future, both socially and academically.
Especially in an age where U.S. military action abroad and at home keeps military families in a state of flux, Cindy Simerly, MCEC’s director of marketing, says it is important to keep military kids a top priority.
“It is very tempting for the issues facing our children to fall off the radar as the public perceives the wars drawing to a close,” Simerly says. “That is really the last thing that should happen because they will continue to face transition challenges.”
For more information and to find resources provided by the Military Child Education Coalition and the National Military Families Association, click here.
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