MCEC Press Archives
August 10, 2003
BACK TO SCHOOL:The School Liaison Officer -- Your Advocate
by Ken Swarner
Signing your children up for a new school can be a mysterious, frustrating, and scary experience -- but not if you're an Army family. On each Army installation around the country is a school liaison officer whose sole job is to assist parents and students transferring in and out of various school districts, according to Norma Melo, the liaison officer at Fort Lewis, Wash. The program was instituted in 2001 Army-wide. Now, the Air Force and Navy, who have started pilot programs on a few installations, are looking to expand the program across their bases as well.
In 1999, former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Dennis J. Reimer formed a commission to study problems associated with high school students transferring from one school to the next. The Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC) got onboard and helped draft a study -- the Secondary Education Transition Study (SETS), published in June 2001. One recommendation derived from that study and subsequent conferences has been the liaison program. Melo said the program makes it possible for families to fully understand their children's schools before they even arrive at a new duty station. Here's how it works.
When a military family receives orders, they contact their local liaison, who will put them in touch with the liaison at their upcoming duty station. That liaison has a complete database and a personal relationship with all of the schools, on-post and off, at the new installation. The liaison officer can answer questions ranging from transferring credits to special programs available to the dates of dance team or football tryouts.
Liaison officers know the inside tricks. For example, if cheerleader tryouts are in the spring when a transferring student is still at her old duty station, some districts allow that student to mail a videotape for consideration.
Melo said the information available from liaison officers is also important because parents need to know when they physically need to be at the new location. "Schools on the east coast and south start in August, while other places it's not until after Labor Day," she explained. "You don't want to get to your new home and find out school started two weeks ago."
School liaison officers also come in handy during the middle of the school year when problems arise. The school liaison program at Fort Monroe has on its website a list of situations when a liaison officer should be contacted. Here are some examples:
- Your child came home with a problem at school that made you and your child's life miserable, and you did not know how to get it resolved or who to talk to.
- You were PCSing and you wanted to avoid the nightmare with the schools you may have heard others have had.
- You want to help your child plan for college, but the school is not giving much help.
- You need a little help figuring out which school your child would do best in and how to get them into it.
- You need to know why the rules are that way at school.
Melo said the liaison program has reduced the amount of misinformation. "Most parents think schools know what their military students need -- but that's not the case," Melo added. Each state sets educational requirements, and they can be radically different from one end of the country to the next. The liaison officers, through their network, are more up-to-date on each state's programs than the school districts are. "Teachers in Washington state aren't going to know what a child who is transferring to Georgia is going to need," Melo added.
"The biggest confusion with parents is what each state requires and offers in their schools," she says. In fact, she fields a lot of complaints from parents who left a great program in one school and aren't happy with similar services in a new state. But don't expect the liaison officer to change that. "We don't fight people's battles," Melo explained. "We are an advocate. I'll steer someone in the right direction to find the information or the person they need to talk to -- but I don't get in the middle of it." Melo will talk with parents having troubles with a district and point them in the right direction. "I'll help them get their ducks in a row."
Liaison officers work with military parents by phone, in person, or by e-mail. "It's a great program," Melo added. "It's so good for kids."
KEN SWARNER writes the syndicated humor column "Family Man" for newspapers in the U.S. and Canada, and is the editor of the Fort Lewis, Wa., Ranger newspaper.
