Maine schools will ask military families to self-identify so students can get support
BANGOR, Maine — Students at public schools across the state will get a letter to take home next month asking if they are members of military families.
Parents who fill out the questionnaire will help school districts ensure that students who are eligible are getting the necessary accommodations, according to the Maine Department of Education. Responding to the letter is voluntary.
Accommodations for students in military families include being excused from school when a family member is on leave during deployment or when a family member returns home from deployment, Bangor School Committee member Sarah Smiley explained at a meeting on Wednesday. Children from military families who move and enter a new school mid-year must also be allowed to try out for sports teams or other activities even if they missed the original tryout.
“It is not a negative thing to fill out this identification,” said Smiley, a military spouse who serves as a member of the Maine Military Interstate Compact Council and writes a column for the Bangor Daily News. “It’s a positive thing. Identifying yourself helps the school who has now been briefed. I encourage military families to fill that out.”
The accommodations apply to students who are the children of active duty members of the military and National Guard and to the children of service members who are medically discharged or who die while on active duty, according to the Military Interstate Compact Council’s website.
Bangor School Department Superintendent Betsy Webb said the city’s schools already give students with parents in the military the appropriate accommodations.
According to the Maine Department of Education, a 2011 estimate from the Department of Defense showed there were about 6,500 military-dependent children in Maine. The Department of Education expects to have a more accurate and up-to-date number after families respond to the questionnaire, which will be distributed by school districts in October.
Several Maine groups were among the recipients of the 2013 Pete Taylor Partnership of Excellence Award, which recognizes successful partnerships that benefit military children. The Maine groups that jointly received one of the five awards given out were the Maine Department of Education, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, the Kittery School Department, the Rotary Club of Kittery and the Maine Military Interstate Compact Council.
Original Article in Bangor Daily News
