The state of Virginia has recently passed two legislative bills – House Bill 1085 & Senate Bill 775 – that will positively impact transitioning military families with school-aged children.
SB775
Senate Bill 775 eliminates additional transitions of military-connected students.
“The Child shall be allowed to enroll in the school division of the child’s intended residence if documentation is provided, at the time of enrollment, of military orders of the service member parent or an official letter from the service member’s command indicating such relocation. Documentation indicating a permanent address within the school division shall be provided to the school division within 120 days of a child’s enrollment, or tuition may be charged, including tuition for the days since the child’s enrollment in school. The assignment of the school such child will attend shall be determined by the local school division.”
Once the policy is changed, military families who reside in temporary housing will be eligible to enroll their student in the school zoned for the permanent residence they are seeking. Parents will be required to provide a copy of their orders or letter from the command when enrolling their children in local school systems.
These families will have 120 days to produce the required documentation of permanent residence for face charges for tuition retroactive to the date of their initial enrollment. An exception to this case would be families who, within the 120-day period, were deployed or received orders to another duty station. These families would not be subjected to the reimbursement to the school division for tuition.
“Military families have reached out to me when they already have a permanent address such as a contract to build a home or rent a place, but the school system does not acknowledge those instances, and they were being placed in a school using their temporary address,” said Lolita Gunter, Naval Support Activity South Potomac (NSASP) school liaison officer. “This bill will truly help these transitioning military families; they will no longer need my intervention regarding this issue.”
Before the passing of this bill, students with an active military sponsor often had to transfer schools twice due to residency requirements when they moved to a particular location. Upon registration, the school system used the current residency address, which could be a temporary lodging such as a hotel, in placing the student. Therefore, when the family moved to their permanent address, the student must move to a different school again.
Additional moves can be devastating to the student, affecting their academics, and has a significant impact on their social and emotional developments. Students from military families move an average of six to nine times within their school years already. The new bill will lessen the number of moves these children have been experiencing.
HB1085
“Any local school board of a school division in which a military installation or other military housing is located shall establish and implement policies to provide for the enrollment to any school of any student residing on a military installation or in military housing within the school division upon the request of his parent if space in the school is available. In developing such policies, a local school board may include any of conditions listed in subsection A of § 22.1-7.1 or any other condition deemed appropriate by the local school board.”
This bill requires that school divisions create an “open enrollment” policy for military families residing in military housing. While this does not guarantee enrollment due to other limiting factors such as school grade level capacity, it sets in motion a more supportive state policy for military families that will in turn shape local school policies. Local schools still must balance a variety of priorities in their policies, but the bill formalizes enrollment of military children as a priority.
“The previous Virginia First Lady Dorothy McAuliffe played a big role in pushing this bill forward. She listened to the concerns we experienced on the field as School Liaisons and acted on those issues,” Gunter added. “The Virginia School Liaison Officers made a big contribution in the passing of these bills as well.”