NM joins compact for military children

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Sondra Escutia
  • 49th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  On March 8, New Mexico became the 28th state to adopt the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity that will directly support the children of military families.

House Bill 24, which was signed by New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, is a national initiative to help military children as they transition between schools when moving from state to state.

"The Interstate Compact is basically an agreement designed to increase the educational opportunities for military children and what it does is remove barriers on educational success imposed on the children of military families because of their frequent moves and their parents deployments," said Heather Miller, 49th Force Support Squadron school liaison officer. "There are many criteria that make up the compact and it covers a wide number of transitional issues for these kids."

The legislation addresses numerous issues that military children face when moving to a new school to include class placement, records transfer, course availability, graduation requirements, redundant or missed entrance or exit testing, age of student enrollment and extra-curricular activities.

"[The compact will] facilitate timely enrollment and ensure that military kids are not placed at a disadvantage because of the difficulties of these transfers," said Ms. Miller. "Some of the difficulty I've seen for parents -- and actually the compact addresses this -- is kids who come in the middle of the year and then they miss tryouts for a seasonal sport and now they are ineligible to play that sport."

Along with easing the transition to a new school, the compact covers power of custodial parents when parents deploy and could grant military children additional excused absences when their parent returns.

"As long as it's not going to be detrimental to their education, they're able to take more time than what is normally allotted out of school so that they can spend time with their parent that just returned," Ms. Miller said. "I know from the school's perspective it's difficult to have kids absent, but on a personal side, as a military family, it's very important to spend that time with the parent once they get home."

The Interstate Compact became effective in August 2008 when the first 10 states adopted the agreements -- Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri and Oklahoma.

In New Mexico, the bill was sponsored by Rep. Nathan Cote, D-Las Cruces, and gained the support of community and military leaders throughout the state.

"State legislators, base leadership, concerned community members and liaisons all throughout the region have been passionate in trying to help [this bill] get pushed through," said Ms. Miller.

For more information on the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children or to monitor state legislative actions across the country regarding the adoption of the compact, visit the Council of State Governments website at www.csg.org/programs/ncic/EducatingMilitaryChildrenCompact.aspx.