JFABE

File: JFABE

EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES FOR MILITARY CHILDREN

In an effort to facilitate the placement, enrollment, graduation, data collection and provision of special services for students transferring into or out of the District because of their parents being on active duty in the U.S. Armed Services, the District supports and will implement its responsibilities as outlined in the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children. The District believes it is appropriate to remove barriers to educational success imposed on children of military families because of their parents’ frequent moves and deployment.

DEFINITIONS

Children of military families means school aged children, enrolled in kindergarten through 12^th grade, in the household of an active duty member of the uniformed service of the United States, including members of the National Guard and Reserve serving on active duty.

Children of retired military families - School aged children (kindergarten through 12th grade) in the household of a retired member of the uniformed service of the United States, including retired members of the National Guard and Reserve are eligible for enrollment for up to one (1) year after retirement.

Deployment means the period one month before the service members’ departure from their home station on military orders through six months after return to their home station.

Education(al) records means official records, files, and data directly related to a student and maintained by the school including, but not limited to, records encompassing all the material kept in the student’s cumulative folder.

The requirements, applicable to eligible students, which must be fulfilled, are listed below. Eligible students are those who are children of active duty personnel, active duty personnel or veterans who have been severely injured and medically discharged, and active duty personnel who die on active duty within one year of service. Students are not eligible for the provisions of the Compact if they are children of inactive Guard or Reserves, retired personnel, veterans not included above or U.S. Department of Defense personnel and other federal civil service employees and contract employees.

The District’s responsibilities to eligible children include the following:

• Sending schools must send either official or unofficial records with the moving students and District receiving schools must use those records for immediate enrollment and educational placement.
• Simultaneously, the receiving school must request official records and the sending schools shall respond within 10 days with the records.
• Immunization requirements of the District may be met within 30 days from the date of enrollment (or be in progress).
• Receiving schools must initially honor placement of students in all courses from the sending school. These include, but are not limited to, Honors, International Baccalaureate, Advanced Placement, vocational-technical, and career pathway courses if those courses are offered in the receiving school and space is available. The receiving schools must also initially honor placement of like programs to those of the student in the sending state, including, but not limited to, Gifted and Talented programs, and English as a Second Language programs. Receiving schools are not precluded from performing subsequent evaluation to ensure the appropriate placement and continued enrollment of the student in courses and programs.
• In compliance with federal law, special education students must be placed by the existing IEP with reasonable accommodations in the receiving school.
• The District will exercise, as deemed appropriate, the right to waive prerequisites for all courses and programs, while also maintaining its right to re-evaluate the student to ensure continued enrollment, as deemed appropriate.
• Students of active duty personnel shall have additional excused absences at the discretion of the District for visitations relative to leave or deployment.
• An eligible student living with a noncustodial parent or other person standing in loco parentis shall be permitted to attend the school in which he or she was enrolled while living without the custodial parent without any tuition fee imposed.
• The District high school will accept exit or end-of-year exams required from the sending state, national norm-referenced tests, or alternate testing instead of testing requirements for graduation in the District (receiving state.) If this is not possible, the alternative provision of the Interstate Compact shall be followed in order to facilitate the on-time graduation of the student in accordance with Compact provisions.

SOURCE: MASC (October 2019)

LEGAL REFS: M.G. L. 15E; Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children

NOTE: Updated as a result of Education Stability Audit (DESE) March 2019

Read, reviewed, approved: February 3, 2020 [Policy Subcommittee]

Approved: February 11, 2020 [School Committee]