Troops are returning to business as usual, but their children are largely left in limbo due to a patchwork approach to K-12 education and child care options. As a result, military spouses are feeling the stress as many must also return to work or college this fall.
Military Spouses Adapt, Overcome Pandemic Related K-12 Education Obstacles
Military spouses are concerned about how much they are shouldering and the sacrifices they are making due to the evolving pandemic crisis.
“I just had to make the tough decision to leave my job teaching preschool,” Becky, located on the East Coast, shared. “I love my job, but taking care of the needs of my (kids) in this uncertain time is more important.”
While military spouses are used to career and education fluctuations due to PCSing and the needs of the military, balancing their professional pursuits while also existing in a crisis state has compounded the impact. Several military spouses shared that they needed to make hard decisions about their careers and small businesses.
Katie S., a military spouse with a deployed husband, has also seen her small business change in radical ways due to the pandemic.
“I have had to take a giant step back from my business and allow my team to take over some areas I wasn’t planning on stepping away from for a few more years,” she said. “There is simply not enough time in the day, so something had to give. This is a business that I have built from the ground up over the past 3 years. It has grown beyond my wildest dreams and it is incredibly sad to step back and slow such massive growth, but my family comes first.”
Sam, who is stationed OCONUS, needs to take a step back from pursuing her college degree due to uncertainty of child care and K-12 education this fall.
“I’m in college and have switched to only online courses this fall,” she explained. “I will only be able to do 9 credits so I am not considered full time and will most likely take me longer to obtain my degree in accounting. I may end up dropping a class because there’s not enough time in the day.”
However, all military spouses shared that they were making personal and professional sacrifices to better support their families during an uncertain time.
Through a PCS, Amanda, who moved from Germany to Colorado this summer, has had to make major decisions without knowing exactly what her options would be.
“We started the Pandemic at Ramstein, Germany,” she said. “We are now in Colorado. We are learning by the day how the pandemic will impact the school year. It is very uncomfortable to return to a new school under these conditions.”
Varied Education Decisions Lead to Uncertainty for Parents
Military spouses who responded were located around the US and the world. Sam, who is living OCONUS, is relying on local day care options combined with DODEA. Katie has children enrolled in DODEA schools stateside, but must look to state-level education decisions to drive her planning for the fall. Becky also lives in the US in a region where many school districts are beginning the school year remotely, with future plans to consider returning in-person. Amanda, who recently moved back to the US, has four children with three in elementary school and one is middle school.
Sam has two children in DODEA schools, ranging from first grade to middle school, with her third child attending a local preschool. Right now, she is torn between the needs of her children in K-12 schools that conflict with her own college education and her preschooler. Sam also has a two-year-old child who is receiving services from EDIS.
“(W)e do not know how it will affect our morning routine and if I will need my four-year-old to not return to Youchien,” she said. “If my 6-year-old needs to be on the computer at 8am, I won’t be able to take my four-year-old to school for an 8:30 drop off.”
Right now, neither of her children have a firm schedule of classes and expectations. Instead, they have a general outline of their school day, which falls between 8:00 am and 3:00 pm. However, she does not know when her children will need to be “live” online or when they can work independently.
Becky knows that her older child will be attending high school online through winter break, but her younger children in elementary and middle school may return to in-person or hybrid learning sometime after October.
“The uncertainty of the kid’s schedules–virtual school for the older two until after winter break, virtual start for the elementary school child with a possibility to attend with a hybrid plan after October, a delayed start to preschool, no update to the IEP for services yet or what those schedules will look like–was too much to try to coordinate with a to-be-determined preschool schedule.”
Katie opted to pull both of her children from traditional classrooms in order to homeschool this year.
“After our experience this spring we have decided homeschool would be the best fit for our son out of the options given so I will be homeschooling him and our PreK daughter while working from home,” she shared.
Due to her PCS, Amanda has made the decision for in-person schooling if and when it’s available.
If we stayed in-place, we would have chosen virtual learning,” she explained. “My kids thrived learning at home. They were able to work at their own pace and take breaks when needed. We have no connections here. My kids will need school to help build those connections. Then maybe we will choose to return to virtual learning. But only after they’ve made connections to their teachers and built a friendship base.”
IEPs Major Driver of Education Uncertainty, Decisions for Parents
Two of the four military spouses we spoke with have children with IEPs. None are certain that their IEPs will be implemented correctly or effectively this fall. In part, their feelings are driven by their experiences with virtual learning in spring 2020.
Becky, as of mid-August, had not hear about how IEPs would be implemented. Her concern is compounded due to the fact that her child is also making the transition between middle school and high school.
“My oldest child has an emotional disability and many of his services were postponed” Becky said. “I worry about him starting high school without that last quarter of middle school to help him grow and prepare. I also worry about how overwhelming online high school will be.”
Katie’s decision to homeschool was largely influenced by her experiences of IEP assessments and services during virtual learning this spring.
“My first grade son is autistic and virtual school this spring was a disaster for us. The lack of structure and routine made it extremely hard for him to focus on his school work.”
Many children with ASD, or autism spectrum disorders, thrive with a steady routine and schedule.
In addition to receiving a disability diagnosis, Katie’s son was also stuck in IEP no-man’s-land as assessments were requested just before COVID-19 forced her child’s school to close. This paused his testing and left him without a clear education plan in place.
“He not only did not make forward progress in his education, but we noticed a drastic decrease in previously mastered skills,” Katie explained. “His autism diagnosis was made in February, we requested his IEP evaluation within a week or two of diagnosis but due to COVID we did not even begin the evaluation process prior to school closures. Due to this he had no additional help or accommodations to help him through the virtual learning process. This was all on our plates as parents to sort out on our own.”
Making the Best with the Hand They are Dealt
While Katie is powering through homeschooling and running her how business while her husband is deployed, she also acknowledges that schools are in a tough spot.
“I feel they did the best with the hand they were dealt,” she explained. “The schools are forced to work with the guidelines set by the state and had to wait until those guidelines were decided before they could make their game plan.”
As a teacher, Becky is in a unique position to understand pandemic education decisions as a parent and as an educator.
“I have significant concerns about the quality of the content that will be taught and the accountability, not because of a lack of faith in the teachers, but because this is new for everyone,” she explained. “Teachers are in a unique and challenging position planning new content and delivery and I hope we are able to support them on our end for a successful first semester!”
Amanda, also an educator and co-author of Seasons of My Military Student, is hopeful and excited about possible innovations that improve learning for the future.
“While the pandemic is a horrible reason to cause schools to shut down, I hope leadership really takes advantage of the amazing new opportunities available to schools,” she explained. “The new access to technology, learning platforms, virtual field trips, hybrid or virtual options. Let’s embrace the positive aspects of this crisis and use it to build amazing programs for kids.”
