It’s a fact of life—military families move a lot, and that makes school transitions a frequent concern. Tom Cruz, MCAGCC’s liaison to the Morongo Unified School District, has distributed the Top Ten Transition Tips for Marine parents. Reporter Dan Stork passes them along…
If you’re an active duty Marine, and your duties require you to transplant your family to a new assignment, here are 10 things you can do to make the transition easier for your school-age children…
1. Talk the move up positively with your child. Start talking about the upcoming move with your child as soon as you receive your orders. Talk about the positive aspects of moving and experiencing new areas.
2. Explore the new location with the Internet. Help your child to explore the local area before the move using technology. All schools and districts now maintain websites, and many heavily impacted school districts have pages dedicated to military families.
3. Notify the current school ASAP. If your orders require that your family relocate before the end of the current school year, make sure to notify your child’s current school as soon as possible.
4. Bring copies of current text covers and contents, and syllabi, to new school. Make copies of your child’s current textbook cover, table of contents and the course syllabi to bring to your new school.
5. Hand carry all the unofficial current school records that you can to new school. Contact your child’s current school to arrange for unofficial copies of the all necessary school records that you can hand-carry with you during the move and provide to the receiving school upon arrival.
6. Bring samples of current school work your child has produced.
7. If your children will miss tryouts for favorite activities, bring a video showing them off. If you will be arriving after tryouts have occurred for a favorite extra-curricular activity, create a short video introducing your child and highlighting his or her skills in action; it might help reserve a spot on the team.
8. Arrange for required tests ahead of time. Find out if the new school requires testing and/or prerequisites in order to place students at the appropriate level for their skills. It might be possible to arrange for those tests before you arrive, so you are good to go when you register your child.
9. Pay up current fees and return library books. Be sure to pay any outstanding fees at your current school, return library books and any other items belonging to the school if those items are not cleared, there could be delays with transcripts.
10. Contact your school liaison ASAP. Last but not least, make sure to contact your School Liaison right when you get orders. School Liaisons are subject matter experts on K-12 education and local school communities, and can help ease the transition for everyone involved.
The Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center school liaison is Thomas Cruz. You can reach him at [email protected] or 760-830-1574.
Learn more about the school liaison program at:
FB: https://www.facebook.com/CombatCenterSchoolLiaison
Web: http://www.mccs29palms.com/index.cfm/marine-family-programs/school-liaison1/
Find your school liaison here: http://bit.ly/12betbJ.
The liaison is looking for feedback. What are your family’s K-12 educations needs? Make your PCS a positive change of schools for your children. Please take this brief survey: https://www.surveymonkey.con/s/K12MarinePCS
