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June 17, 2009 - Kaine signs bills to assist Va. military families, veterans RICHMOND, Va. - Gov. Tim Kaine Tuesday ceremonially signed several Virginia General Assembly bills providing assistance to military personnel and their families and honoring the Commonwealth's veterans. Among the bills signed was the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children. The compact, which has been signed into law in at least 10 other states, will allow for the uniform treatment, at the state and local district level, of military children transferring between school districts and states, and will also address the timely sharing of their educational records. According the Governor's office, Virginia currently has more school -aged children of active duty military than any state in the nation (76,352). Full Article +

June 16, 2009 - Tinton Falls can appeal to keep out civilian students TRENTON - The Tinton Falls Board of Education can proceed with a legal appeal that attempts to keep out of its classrooms the children of civilian tenants who may soon live at Naval Weapons Station Earle. An administrative law judge Friday rejected a motion filed the by Colts Neck Board of Education that asserted the time limit for Tinton Falls to file an appeal has long expired. Peter Karavites, the Tinton Falls school board president, said the district was well -prepared to press its case that the education of civilian children was never part of the arrangement with the Navy."Anybody who is neutral can see that we never, ever, requested anyone but Navy children," Karavites said. "Every piece of paper says that, except the law that was written in favor of Colts Neck." Full Article +

June 6, 2009 - Children of Conflict Since 9/11, more than a million kids have had a parent deployed. Their childhoods often go with them. The Harding girls have their own name for the local Applebee's - "the bad -news place." The last two times their father was sent to Iraq, he took his young daughters there and broke it to them as gently as he knew how, over a sampler platter and soft drinks. "I just tell them, 'Here's what's going on in the world, and this is what I have to go do'," says Sgt. First Class Sean Harding. Since the Army doesn't say just when a deployment is supposed to end, he offers his best guess with a three -month margin of error: "?'If everything goes right, I'll be back sometime within these 90 days'." He says other things, too. He tells the girls that they have to help their mother take care of the house and each other, that he may not come back, and that if he doesn't, each daughter will get a last letter from him. He won't discuss the contents, but in essence the letters would give his final wishes and try to say how much he loves them. "We all started crying," says Courtney, 14. "Nobody wanted to hear that he might not come back." Full Article +

June 11, 2009 - Findings of Task Force to Help Children of Military Families Announced Sacramento, California - State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today unveiled the final report of the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children Task Force. The report offers recommendations to remove barriers to the educational success of children of military families because of the frequent moves and deployment of an active duty military parent. "Military families make many sacrifices on behalf of our country's safety and security," O'Connell said. "Children of men and women in the service often shoulder an extra burden of trying to complete their education while transferring from one state to another. These students often don't get academic credit for the school work they performed or have trouble getting their student transcripts. We can help these students overcome some of these challenges by adopting the suggestions in the Military Children Task Force's report." The report entitled, Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children, is the culmination of a series of meetings of the Military Children Task Force. The Task Force is comprised of 15 members, including lawmakers, military, educators, and other government representatives. The goal of the Task Force was to identify issues and offer solutions. Full Article +

June 5, 2009 - Education compact endorsed The Fort Drum Regional Liaison Organization voted Thursday to support the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children. Immediately after the organization voted in support of the compact, L. Michael Mortimer,state Sen. Darrel J. Aubertine's community liaison, sent a text message to the Cape Vincent senator telling him there was community support. Mr. Mortimer said Mr. Aubertine then presented the legislation in Albany on Thursday. Full Article +

June 4, 2009 - 48th Brigade families cope with deployments Staff Sgt. Dwayne Watson and other members of the 48th Brigade left Camp Shelby in Mississippi last week to board a plane bound for Afghanistan. Watson, 39, left behind his wife, Traci, and their two children - Allie, 10, and Chris, 3 - in Byron in exchange for serving as a military police officer in Afghanistan. Dwayne Watson previously deployed to Bosnia in 1997 as an Army reservist when the couple was first married. But with two children now, Traci Watson has a lot more responsibility to handle on her own.

�You take for granted being able to go to the grocery store alone,� she said. �Everything becomes more hectic when you have one or two kids tagging along.� Allie Watson is old enough to have a basic understanding of what it means for her father to be heading into a war zone. While her grades haven't fallen, her mother said teachers have noticed that Allie's schoolwork has reflected her father's deployment.�She's just turned 10,� Traci Watson said, her voice choked with emotion. �They've studied war. She knows what happens - that people don't come home.� Full Article +