North Dakota bill promotes opportunites for military children Published May 4, 2011 By Airman 1st Class Jose L. Hernandez Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- A North Dakota law, designed to provide greater educational opportunities for children of military families, passed both legislative state houses April 27, and awaits a final signature from the governor. House Bill 1248, the Military Children Education Compact, seeks to integrate North Dakota as the 37th state in a compact that facilitates military children's transition from one school district to another, given frequent moves and deployments their parents endure. When it comes to educational requirements, not every state has the same prerequisites, thus member states of the compact have established standardized policies on graduation requirements, extracurricular academics, immunizations, special education placements, school start ages and other related issues. "Each state has different rules and requirements for students in school," said Mrs. Joyce W. Raezer, National Military Family Association executive director. "This makes it difficult for students to transition from one school district to another." She stressed the importance of implementing legislation that can ease school transitions of military children, because it shows communities how important military children are to society. "The quality of a child's education has an impact on the morale, readiness, and retention of military servicemembers," said Mrs. Raezer. "They may be willing to sacrifice for country, but sometimes not willing to sacrifice for their child's education." According to the National Center for Interstate Compacts, military families move on average every 2.9 years, affecting more than 1 million children of military servicemembers a year. Here at Minot Air Force Base, leadership, spouses and local civic leaders have continually advocated on behalf of military children and worked hard to support the legislation. One such advocate is Mrs. Jolene Tolbert, wife of 5th Bomb Wing vice commander, Col. Julian Tolbert. "Educational issues have always been important to me," said Mrs. Tolbert. "I first became aware of the compact in 2008, when Missouri was in the process of joining it." In the beginning, Mrs. Tolbert said she was not fully aware of the full breadth of the compact, yet soon learned about the different issues families deal with when transferring children to different school districts in particular states. She explained their might be some transitional difficulties for families with special needs children, educational testing for high school age children, fulfilling graduation requirements or even being able to participate in sports. "I had difficulties of my own that I dealt with because my children were in special programs and they were required to redo the requisite testing each time we moved," said Mrs. Tolbert. "As we moved around, little frustrations begin to build up and I realized that for some, these frustrations might lead to a family separating from the military earlier than what they had planned." According to Mrs. Tolbert, it was heartwarming to see the Minot community stand firm with the base community on this issue. "I really wanted to see this compact passed to alleviate some of these frustrations," said Mrs. Tolbert. "It was a pleasure to get to work with our community leaders and have them rally with us to help get this legislation passed." She thanked State Representative, Kim Koppelman, key sponsor for the bill and all parties involved in advocating for the educational advancement of military children. "There were several state legislators, Minot community and base leaders, who were all instrumental in the success of this bill," said Mrs. Tolbert. "I know this will help military families and cannot thank all who supported the bill enough."