Making Sure Every Child Is Counted

It's been a long time since I had a child in school, but I remember the deluge of forms that heralded the beginning of a new school year. Among those forms today is a Federal Survey Card. Schools send these cards home in the early part of October. By taking a few minutes to complete this card, parents and guardians allow schools to report an accurate number of military dependents enrolled. This data is the only way that schools are able to qualify for Federal Impact Aid funding.

By returning Federal Survey Cards, school districts with significant numbers of military children will receive funding from the federal government through the Impact Aid Program. The Impact Aid Program directly compensates local school districts for local revenue lost due to the presence of federally owned, and therefore tax-exempt, property, as well as costs incurred due to “federally connected” students, such as the children of armed services personnel working at a nearby military base. Unlike most other forms of educational assistance, Impact Aid disburses roughly $1.3 billion annually in unrestricted Federal funds directly to local school districts rather than through state agencies.

Schools face many fiscal challenges today, negatively impacting all children’s education. Lamentably, in the past, return rates of the Federal Survey Card have been low. Active participation is the only way to ensure that public schools receive the federal aid dollars to which they are entitled. A low return rate leads to loss of federal dollars that could otherwise benefit military children’s education.

A Life in Service of Military Children

Deborah Baeuchle, the newly retired superintendent of Fort Leavenworth schools was presented the Secretary of the Army Public Service Award Aug. 24, 2010, for her 39 years serving the district.Baeuchle, the daughter of a World War II veteran, began working at the district in 1971 as a sixth-grade teacher, went on to become an elementary school principal, and eventually became district superintendent.

Brig. Gen. Sean MacFarland, deputy commandant of the Command and General Staff College, presented Baeuchle with the award, which is the second highest award the Army can present to a private citizen. "We just want to recognize her for spending her life educating military children and having a positive impact on them.”

The award recognized Baeuchle for being a part of a district that sets high academic standards.Preliminary results show that in the spring 2010 testing cycle, children in the district met the standard for excellence in 34 categories.

Baeuchle called it a privilege to work with military children.“I know that military children face many challenges resulting in numerous moves endured during their parents’ careers, but they display an amazing resiliency,” she said. “I attribute their strength to the families and to the greater military community. I believe that our children belong to a select and special group that brings many unique gifts to society.”

A library at a local elementary school is also named in her honor.

Recruiting Elmo

More than two million U.S. children have been affected directly by a parent's military wartime deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan; 40% of these children are younger than 5 years old. Sesame Workshop has developed a program called "Talk, Listen, Connect" aimed at kids of all ages, including the youngest and most vulnerable. The newest episode is helping children dealing with the worst outcome of deployment: a parent who doesn't return at all.

Over the past few months, Sesame Workshop has distributed more than one million "When Families Grieve" multimedia kits to support groups and families. The program has been enthusiastically received by top military brass; Adm. Mike Mullen got on stage with Jesse, Rosita and Elmo for a Pentagon screening of a "When Families Grieve" special hosted by CBS's Katie Couric that aired April 14 on PBS.

The Sesame programs offer free books, websites and other resources to cope with a wide range of issues affecting military children, as well as videos mixing Muppets with footage of real kids and parents sharing their experiences. The first two installments, aired between 2006 and 2008, dealt with deployments, redeployments, and parents who come back with a combat-related injury or post-traumatic stress disorder. In one, for example, Muppet Rosita's father is wheelchair bound.

Gary Knell, president of Sesame Workshop, says the initial inspiration came from a story he read about a family that lost its home because it fell behind on mortgage payments while the father was deployed in Iraq. "I just was so sick of seeing all these 'support the troops' posters when we were allowing things like this to happen," he says.

Kim Ruocco, deputy director of suicide education and support for TAPS, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, says the program helps kids understand that "it won't always hurt this bad, there is another side of grief, and you will one day feel joy again and some peace."

"The broader American public can learn a lot from our military about resilience," says Sesame Workshop President, Gary Knell, "and how to teach those lessons to kids in this country."

Helping the Two Million

A new program will send graduate students in USC's Master of Social Work program to work as interns with the Temecula Valley School District, near Camp Pendleton, in Southern California. A $7.6 million dollar grant from the Defense Department will enable interns to provide counseling services while studying the social, academic and emotional challenges children with deployed parents face.

Amazingly, until 2008 the Defense Department had no knowledge of how many children from military families were in schools. Now, it appears as if around 80,000 children are being educated in schools on bases around the world and another two million are in public schools. Grants such as this one will help school districts around the country identify the particular needs of these students so resources can be tailored to meet them.

Recently retired Temecula superintendent Carol Leighty grew up in a military family herself. "When [USC] called me, it was a no-brainer," Leighty says. "When you're a military brat yourself, you're very sensitive to what those kids go through."

United Through Reading

The Army Wife Network featured a story on its podcast yesterday about the wonderful group United Through Reading. The subject of the podcast was surviving military separation, and one segment was an interview with United Through Reading's president, Sally Ann Zoll. United Through Reading works with the USO and directly with deployed or soon-to-deploy military units, providing the opportunity for servicemen and women to be videoed reading a story to their children. The video is then sent to the child, who, by taking the book out of the library or receiving his/her own copy where possible, has the opportunity to participate in one of the things that research (and millions of parents' personal experience) tells us is one of the great bonding moments in families. One soldier has read one hundred books to his children! The books range from "Goodnight Moon" to chapters of Harry Potter. United Through Reading also works with other people separated from their children, including prison inmates and grandparents who don't have the opportunity to visit. This is such a good idea, and United Through Reading has become my favorite charitable group.

A Heart Apart

Melissa Seligman and Christina Piper are the authors of A Heart Apart, a book for young children of deployed military parents. Here's what they have to say:

"There are books out there for military children, several of which we highly recommend, but none of them offer what they crave: to literally see themselves in the content. After all, an Asian military boy cannot fully see himself in a story revolving around a blond Caucasian girl.

"Our book is different in that it encourages children to create and share their own unique stories, upload their own photos then share it with their deployed parent overseas. We are also unique in that we offer helpful suggestions for children too young to fully express themselves. With paint-by-number exercises revolving around our "mascot" (SGT Sam E. Hears, the Messenger Star), and fill-in-the blank letters, our military children are encouraged to interact with their deployed parent while expressing their emotions and anxieties.

"Each deployment is different. And each military child is special. Taking the time to celebrate each child’s uniqueness is essential in helping our war children on the road to healing and recovery. Each picture uploaded is a window into their hearts, and if a picture is worth a thousand words, these children have volumes to tell.

"We also firmly believe in the healing power and the honest communication that comes through the written word. Giving our young, struggling military children the opportunity to share in that experience is the first step in giving them the platform and understanding they are so desperately craving.

"These children serve bravely and repeatedly. They deserve the opportunity to share their story, honor their struggle, and salute their victory. Every hero should be celebrated. And we have written A Heart Apart to celebrate and honor the very warriors we admire most: our own children."

Over the Rainbow, Together

Ashley Siller says that her little girl Abbigail, 5, "thinks that she can't be happy while [her father] is away, like she's not supposed to have fun without him." Abbigail is just one of fifty campers who participated in Hartt Stearns' One World Theatre Camp this last week. Stearns received a Texas Resources for Iraq-Afghanistan Deployment grant with the San Antonio Area Foundation to create the camp, which is exclusively for children of deployed parents. Using the volunteered services of LifeSize Communications, a local high-definition videoconferencing company, the theatre-oriented summer camp was able to videotape its production of The Wizard of Oz so it could be seen live by parents now serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Children (and spouses) were able to see the deployed parent on screen while they all watched the show. Afterwards, Siller said, "I loved being able to keep her involved, and it really comforted her." A bonus, says SIller, was being able to meet with other parents in such a fun and uplifting context. Here is a link to an article about the show.