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November 2010

State money smoothes rough transition for military kids

Melissa Garcia, News 4 WOAI

SAN ANTONIO -- 10,000 families are moving to San Antonio because of changes due to the Base Realignment and Closure Commission. That could be a tough transition, considering many San Antonio schools are already overburdened. That's why one state agency has stepped in to help keep military kids from falling behind.

Region 20, San Antonio's education service center, recently received a $100K grant from the Texas Education Agency. They have used that money to hire liaisons at Fort Sam Houston, along with Randolph and Lackland Air Force Bases. The liaisons serve to help transition military children who are uprooted from their homes and have to start their lives all over again in San Antonio.

Military-connected Schools Benefit From Grants

By Elaine Wilson, American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5, 2010 - The Department of Defense Education Activity awarded more than $38 million in grants this year to public schools serving military children across the nation. Officials awarded the grants to 32 military-connected school districts to boost student achievement and ease the challenges associated with military life, including deployments and frequent transitions, DoDEA officials said.

Grant recipients serve about 190,000 students--with at least 37,000 students from military families--and cater to communities near more than 30 military installations.

"While we really want to enhance opportunities for military students, these grants also provide an opportunity to raise achievement for all students," Kathleen Facon, chief of DoDEA's educational partnership, told American Forces Press Service. "It's important to the school as a whole. The types of programs we're awarding help to promote services for all of the students."

Mental Health Visits Seen Rising As Parent Deploys

Benedict Carey, New York Times

Young children in military families are about 10 percent more likely to see a doctor for a mental difficulty when a parent is deployed than when the parent is home, researchers are reporting Monday in the most comprehensive study to date of such families' use of health insurance during wartime.

Visits for mental health concerns, like anxiety and acting out at school, were the only kind to increase during deployment; complaints for all physical problems declined, the study found.

Researchers have long known that deployment puts a strain on families, particularly spouses. Experts said the new study, being published in the journal Pediatrics and including more than half a million children, significantly fills out the picture of the entire family as multiple deployments have become a norm.