21st Century Strands & Strategies
Chapter: Strands & Strategies: Deep Dive
80
The Military Connected Child Strategies
The Child
American service men and women are
parents of about 2,000,000 children. These
children are primarily young; of those
children who are in school, 57% are
between the ages of six and eleven. These
children move to a new duty station every
three to four years, on average, with some
moving with much more frequency. Some
students may have four to six different
schools in the course of their education.
Even when their family stays put, however,
the children face multiple challenges; not only do they often have a military parent
deployed, sometimes for over a year at a time, but they also have classmates and
neighborhood friends who rotate to new duty stations every few years.
Connections
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Despite the stressors and hardships brought by the deployment and permanent
change in station moves, military kids are optimistic, eager and remarkably well-
adjusted students.
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Most military children earn good grades, are statistically similar to their civilian
peers in their long-term physical and mental health, and report a general
satisfaction with life in similar numbers as their civilian peers.
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Our role in the DoDEA schools is to understand the unique challenges facing
military connected students and provide, not only the academic environment
our students need for success, but also a nurturing atmosphere and support
services they need to thrive.
The Family
The military family is an all-inclusive term
representing the parents and guardians of
school-age children of military members.
These families include active duty service
men and women that move every two to
three years. The average military child
therefore experiences six to nine moves
during their PK-12 school career. This is
approximately three times more often than
the civilian population. Due to high rates of
student mobility, the effects of multiple deployments, and a variety of military
transformations, military families can often encounter many school challenges involving
enrollment, eligibility, placement, transfer and graduation. Thus for military families, is not
