Brockton Public Schools

School Committee Policy

EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES FOR MILITARY CHILDREN - JFABE

In an effort to facilitate the success [e.g., placement, enrollment, graduation, data collection, and provision of services] for students transferring into or out of the District because of their parents being on active duty in the U.S. Armed Services, the Brockton Public Schools supports and will implement its responsibilities as outlined in the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children. The School Committee believes it is appropriate to remove barriers to educational success imposed on children of military families because of their parents’ frequent moves and deployment. The Brockton Public Schools is committed to facilitating the on-time graduation of high school students in military families by providing alternatives to assist eligible students in meeting graduation requirements, including submitting alternative evidence to DESE as a means of achieving a competency determination, when appropriate.

Definitions:

Children of military families means school aged children, enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade, in the household of an active duty member of the uniformed service of the United States, including members of the National Guard and Reserve serving on active duty and parents who within the past year died on active duty, were medically discharged or retired.

Deployment means the period one month before the service members’ departure from their home station on military orders through six months after return to their home station

Education(al) records means official records, files, and data directly related to a student and maintained by the school including, but not limited to, records encompassing all the material kept in the student’s cumulative folder.

The requirements, applicable to eligible students, which must be fulfilled, are listed below. Eligible students are those who are children of active duty personnel, active duty personnel or veterans who have been severely injured and medically discharged, and active duty personnel who die on active duty within one year of service. Students are not eligible for the provisions of the Compact if they are children of inactive Guard or Reserves, retired personnel, veterans not included above or U.S. Department of Defense personnel and other federal civil service employees and contract employees.

Responsibilities to eligible children include the following:

• Sending schools must send either official or unofficial records with the moving students and Brockton Public Schools must use those records for immediate enrollment and educational placement.
• Simultaneously, the Brockton Public Schools must request official records and the sending schools shall respond within 10 days with the records.
• Immunization requirements of the Brockton Public Schools may be met within 30 days from the date of enrollment (or be in progress).
• Brockton Public Schools must honor placement of students in all courses from the sending school. These include, but are not limited to, Honors, International Baccalaureate, Advanced Placement, vocational-technical, and career pathway courses if those courses are offered in the receiving school.
• In compliance with federal law, special education students must be placed by the existing IEP with reasonable accommodations in the receiving school.
• The Brockton Public Schools will exercise, as deemed appropriate, the right to waive prerequisites for all courses and programs, while also maintaining its right to re-evaluate the student to ensure continued enrollment, as deemed appropriate.
• Students of active duty personnel shall have additional excused absences at the discretion of the Brockton Public Schools for visitations relative to leave or deployment.
• An eligible student living with a noncustodial parent or other person standing in loco parentis shall be permitted to attend the school in which he or she was enrolled while living without the custodial parent without any tuition fee imposed.
• The Brockton Public Schools high school will accept exit or end-of-year required exams from the sending state, national norm-referenced tests, or alternate testing instead of testing requirements for graduation in the Brockton Public Schools. If this is not possible, the alternative provision of the Interstate Compact shall be followed in order to facilitate the on-time graduation of the student in accordance with Compact provisions.

ADOPTED/UPDATED: May, 2018; June 4, 2019

LEGAL REFS.: M.G.L. 15E;
Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children