Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children

MIC3 CASE STUDIES The family in question moved from IL to NJ. The son was a transferring senior and an exceptional student. His mother contacted the new school about his classes in April His class schedule was finalized in July requiring him to give up a Science class for a required yearly PE/Health credit even though he had credits in PE/Health & only 16 were required to graduate!

Case Study #1 cont. NJ also required the student to repeat Personal Finance and take an additional Practical Arts course, which required him to drop two more classes after school had been in session for 3 weeks. Although he completed a nearly identical Personal Finance class in IL because it was ½ instead of full semester course he was required to repeat it.

Case Study #1 cont. His parents wanted the LEA to waive the rest of the Personal Finance class if he had to complete another Practical Arts course so it did not interfere with his continuity of education in his core classes, band, or Spanish.

Case study #1 - Resolution After receiving this complaint the Commission contacted the school principal explaining what the Compact provided for, in this instance Article V – Placement and Attendance, specifically flexibility. The school was very accommodating and subsequently agreed to work with the child’s parents to ensure that the child’s State mandated requirements were met.

Background & Summary Military families move between postings on a regular basis. While reassignments can often be a boon for career personnel, they usually play havoc with the children of military families. losing and making new friends, adjusting to new cities and bases and changing schools. While the armed services has taken great leaps to ease the transition of military children, much remains to be done at the state and local levels to ensure that the children of military families are afforded that same educational opportunities as other children and are not penalized or delayed in achieving their educational goals by inflexible administrative and bureaucratic practices. The average military student faces transition challenges more than twice during high school and most military children will have six to nine different school systems in their lives from kindergarten to 12th grade. With more than half of all military personnel supporting families, the impacts of reassignment and long deployments are a key consideration when making long-term life choices.

Addressing the problem The Council of State Governments (CSG), in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Personnel and Readiness, drafted a new interstate compact in July 2006, in conjunction with a variety of federal, state and local officials as well as national stakeholder organizations representing education groups and military families to create the new interstate agreement. Since that time the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children has been enacted by forty-seven (47) states and the District of Columbia. Legislation is also pending in the remaining three (3) States of New York, Minnesota, and New Hampshire and it is hoped that the legislatures of all three states will enact the Compact by the end of their respective legislative sessions this year.

Transfer of Records – Course Sequencing – Graduation Requirements – Exclusion from Extra-Curricular Activities - Redundant or Missed Entrance/Exit Testing - Kindergarten and First Grade Entrance Age Variances Power of Custodial Parents While Parents are Deployed Specific impacts on military children include:

What is a Compact? Simply stated, a compact is both an enforceable state statute as well as an agreement between two or more states for cooperative effort, mutual assistance, management, and regulation of public policy matters by the states, which transcend the boundaries of one state. Authorized under Article I of the U.S. Constitution and dating as far back as the 1780s, compacts have been created to address a wide variety of issues that arise among the states. Many of the earliest compacts were designed to settle boundary disputes.

What is a Compact, cont. Throughout the 20th century, compacts became increasingly relied upon to manage and regulate state concerns in diverse areas such as: Emergency management assistance Environmental resource management, Multi-state taxation, transportation, Corrections, crime control and juvenile justice. States ratifying compacts are bound to observe the terms of the agreement until the compact is formally renounced by the state. Compact provisions take precedence over conflicting state laws and inconsistent provisions of existing laws of a compact state.

Applicability The compact applies to the children of: Active duty members of the uniformed services, including members of the National Guard and Reserve on active duty orders; Members or veterans of the uniformed services who are severely injured and medically discharged or retired for a period of one (1) year after medical discharge or retirement; and Members of the uniformed services who die on active duty or as a result of injuries sustained on active duty for a period of one (1) year after death.

Applicability, cont. The compact does not apply to children of: Inactive members of the national guard and military reserves; Members of the uniformed services now retired not covered above; Veterans of the uniformed services not covered above; and Other U.S. Dept. of Defense personnel and other federal agency civilian and contract employees not defined as active duty members of the uniformed services.

Areas of emphasis Enrollment Eligibility Placement Graduation

Enrollment Educational Records - Immunizations – Age of Enrollment/Course Continuation-.

Eligibility Power of Attorney - Tuition - Non-custodial parents - Extracurricular activities -

Placement Course placement / Educational Program placement - Special education services – Placement flexibility – Absence as related to deployment activities –

Special Education Services “In compliance with the federal requirements of the... IDEA... The receiving state shall initially provide comparable services to a student with disabilities based on the current IEP; and compliance with the requirements of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act andTitle II of the ADA

Art. V., Sec. C. cont. “... The receiving state shall make reasonable accommodations and modifications to address the needs of incoming students with disabilities, subject to an existing 504 or Title II Plan, to provide the student with equal access to education. This does not preclude the school in the receiving state from performing subsequent evaluations to ensure appropriate placement.

Graduation Waiver requirements – Exit exams - Transfers during Senior year –

Case Study #2 An MCEC representative contacted MIC 3 concerning a student’s eligibility to play football. The father is active duty Air Force and the family sought an additional year of eligibility to play his Sr. year because he was voluntarily held back in 7 th grade in another compact member state on recommendation of his school counselor. Does the compact apply here?

Answer to Case Study #2 No! The ‘hold back’ was the family’s choice and was not due to the orders of the military. The transfer of his father occurred after this decision was made.

Case Study #3 An Air Force family was transferring from a Sending state to a receiving state. The son, A 7 th grader was not being allowed to Register because of the lack of proof of an Address inside the school district. Does the Compact guarantee them the ability the school of their choice?

Answer to Case Study #3 No, the compact does not require open enrollment in the school of choice without regard to residency requirements of the LEA.

Case Study #4 A service member just returned from a was zone wished to spend more time with his child. Can the compact be used to assist Him?

Answer to Case Study #4 Yes! Art. V E of the compact requires an LEA to consider such requests and in the reasonable exercise of its discretion grant additional excused absences to visit with the parent or legal guardian relative to such leave or deployment

State Coordination State Council – Military Family Education Liaison -

National Coordination Interstate Commission – Rulemaking – Enforcement –

Questions may be directed to: Rick Masters General Counsel Interstate Commission on Educational Opportunities for Military Children 2760 Research Park Dr. P.O. Box Lexington, KY (502)