Summary
SB-920 codifies the Purple Star School Program currently being administered by the Department of Education within California.
Background
ACR-53 (2021) by Assemblymember Ward requested that the State Department of Education would establish and manage the Purple Star School Program within California in accordance to the national effort by the Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC) and its standards.
MCEC envisioned and created the Purple Star School Program to help military families identify schools that specialize in providing support for the unique challenges military children face. This would include specialized mental health support, specialized transcript and graduation tracking support, and direct support to the military parents and their spouses.
In the two years of implementation, California now has 91 schools that identify as Purple Star Schools and approximately 3 out of 4 military children throughout the state are able to participate in one of these schools. That is roughly 48k children currently enrolled in school and another 40k that will be school age in the next few years. This places California with 38 other states across the country that are trying to grow support and recognition of this program for the military families currently serving and who may be reassigned a duty-station within their state.
Military children can be expected to move six to nine times between Kindergarten and 12th grade, resetting their lives and personal support networks with each move. This, in addition to the added stress of their parent or both parents serving, places additional stresses that are unique to military children. In 2019, as many as 813 to 993 California immediate family members were affected by a military or veteran suicide, children included. The need for stable and specialized support is extremely important to give families the best chance at success, and it starts with a stable, specialized, and codified school program that military families can rely on.
Proposal
SB-920 will enshrine under state law the Purple Star School Program, to ensure that its existence and support does not fall away and is instead a program that military families can rely and count on in years to come.