School Liaisons

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL LIAISONS?

Each military service has a dedicated set of civilians who serve as liaisons between families, individual schools and installation leadership — School Liaisons, which are sometimes called School Liaison Officers. One of the top concerns that military families raise when receiving new orders that require relocation is ensuring a quality K–12 education for their children. School Liaisons can play an important role in guiding military families to essential resources and helping them transition from one community to another.

School Liaisons assist with transitions associated with military life and facilitate communication among schools, parents and installation leaders. They educate local schools on the challenges faced by military-connected students and work to connect military families with community and education resources. School Liaisons advocate on behalf of their families to school and district administrators. They also educate commanders on issues (and sometimes act on the commander’s behalf) that need elevating to the school-board level.

HOW DO SCHOOL LIAISONS SERVE FAMILIES & WHAT TYPES OF CHALLENGES CAN THEY ADDRESS?

School Liaisons work on the behalf of students and their families by advocating to the base command and school district administrators and educators. A major advocacy focus for any School Liaison office is ensuring that local school districts follow the Interstate Compact on Education Opportunities for Military Children.  Additionally, they often provide information or support to address challenges with extracurricular eligibility, testing, Honors and AP course eligibility, scholarship access, social and emotional resources, after-school programs, accessing special education resources and homeschool requirements and regulations. 

So, for a military family that has received orders to move locations, the School Liaison should be an important stop when both departing and arriving locations. As families set their transition plans in action, School Liaisons can provide key information and assistance for becoming acclimated into a new educational environment. If a military family has a particular problem, for example, in transferring a child’s Individual Education Plan or Honors credits from one school district to another, the School Liaison should be able to point the parent to helpful resources or the right administrators to contact.