The men and women who serve in our Nation’s Military Services place a high value on education and the availability of quality educational opportunities for their children. The Department of Defense is committed to ensuring that all children of military families have the opportunity for a quality education that prepares them to be successful in their careers, leading contributors in their communities and productive citizens in the 21^st century: 

• Currently there are approximately 1.2 million school-age children of military families.
• Approximately 86,000 are enrolled in the 194 Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) schools around the world.
  • DoD Dependents Schools (DODDS) 
    • 79 DoDEA Europe schools
    • 45 DoDEA Pacific schools
  • DoD Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools (DDESS)
    • 70 DoDEA Americas schools, including Guam, Cuba and Puerto Rico
• 160 public schools are located on military installations and are operated by local education agencies (LEA).
  • 80,000 school-age children attend these on-installation public schools; roughly 75,000 (94 percent) are military children.
  • 157 schools were included in the public school Facilities Assessment associated with the DoD Education Review; three schools are new and were not assessed.
  • The DoD and DoDEA have no authority over the operation of the 160 public schools on military installations.
• The remaining 1.1 million students are enrolled in public or private schools off military installations, or in home-school programs.  

DoDEA’s mission is to provide an exemplary education that inspires and prepares all students for success in a dynamic, global environment. One of the prerequisites for meeting this goal is to ensure that school facilities meet the DoDEA standard for providing safe, secure and functionally adequate environments that contribute to student achievement.  

Currently there are two investment strategies in place to ensure both DoDEA schools (schools operated by the DoD) and public schools (schools operated by LEAs) on military installations are in compliance with quality standards: 

• Section 8109 of Public Law 112-10, The Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011
• The DoDEA School Facility Recapitalization Program 

Section 8109 of Public Law 112-10, The Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011

The Office of Economic Adjustment is authorized by Section 8109 of Public Law 112-10, the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011, to provide up to $250 million “to make grants, conclude cooperative agreements, or supplement other federal funds to construct, renovate, repair, or expand elementary and secondary public schools on military installations in order to address capacity or facility condition deficiencies at such schools: Provided further, that in making such funds available, the Office of Economic Adjustment or the Secretary of Education shall give priority consideration to those military installations with schools having the most serious capacity or facility condition deficiencies as determined by the Secretary of Defense.” 

Update: The FY12 National Defense Authorization Act recently signed by the President on December 31, 2011 provided for an additional $250M for the Department of Defense to continue addressing capacity and condition issues of public schools on military installations.  The Department will work as before under the same protocol established for the first $250M and work down the list to help as many schools and school districts as possible until all funds are exhausted.

In 2010, the DoD established an Education Review directed to assess the effectiveness of the Department in meeting the educational needs of all military children and assess the physical conditions of the public schools on military installations. The Facility Assessment reviewed the facility conditions and capacity of 157 of the 160 public schools on military installations. (Three of the schools are new and were not included in the study.)  Based on the findings of the Facility Assessment, the Department developed a priority list of public schools on military installations with the most serious condition and/or capacity deficiencies. 

On July 19, 2011, the Deputy Secretary of Defense approved an Action Memo stating the approval for the DoD Public Schools on Military Installations priority list and detailing the grant process: