House Recognizes Educators of Military Children - Women's Congressional Policy Institute

On May 4, the House approved, by voice vote, a resolution (H. Res. 598) recognizing the valuable contributions of military impacted schools, teachers, administrators, and staff for their ongoing contributions to the education of military children.

Sponsored by Rep. Robin Hayes (R-NC), the resolution contains a number of findings, including:

There are approximately 750,000 school-aged children of members of the active duty Armed Forces in the United States;
Schools serving military installations understand the importance of providing a normal environment and regular routine for children of parents in the military before learning can ever take place;
Such schools serve students whose parents can be deployed for long periods of time and often with short notice; and
Teachers and counselors working in schools serving military installations are trained to work with military children and their classmates when there is a service-related incident or death.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said that schools serving military installations “play a central role in the lives of children whose needs are unique. As they adjust to their parents being deployed around the world defending America, the sacrifice that these children and their families make is enormous. And how fitting that we recognize that and that we recognize the teachers and the administrators who work with them each and every day.”

Rep. Susan Davis (D-CA) agreed. “Every one of us can surely recall how difficult it is to concentrate on our work when our lives are disrupted,” she stated, adding, “For children, the anxiety of a parent leaving for the battlefield for an indeterminate amount of time is especially traumatic. Having a loving teacher who understands that a child may be tense or anxious or unable to concentrate because he has just said good-bye to a parent is important, not only to that child, but also to the parents.”