Bill to Support Children Of Military Parents Passes Assembly Appropriations Committee

A bill to enshrine a program that helps military families identify schools that specialize in providing support for the unique challenges military children face under state law passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee on Thursday.

Senate Bill 920, authored by Senator Kelly Seyarto (R-Murrieta) would specifically require the State Department of Education to establish a nonmonetary California Purple Star School Designation Program to reduce the burden on military-connected pupils and their families and to publicly recognize and designate public schools that meet certain requirements related to supporting military-connected pupils and their families’ unique needs. The bill would require the department to develop an annual application process and adopt application criteria for the California Purple Star School Designation Program, as specified, and require schools that earn the award to apply for recertification every 3 years.

The Purple Star School program itself was established in California in 2021 following the passage of ACR 53. Under ACR 53, the new law established and managed a program designating schools that support military-connected pupils as Purple Star Schools and use the Military Child Education Coalition for resources and information regarding the Purple Star School Program. 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.

The schools provide things that help ever transitioning military families, including specialized mental health support, specialized transcript and graduation tracking support, and direct support to the military parents and their spouses. According to Senator Seyarto’s office “Military children can be expected to move six to nine times between Kindergarten and 12^th 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.”

SB 920 moves up

Seyarto wrote the bill for those reasons, as well as 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. Since being introduced earlier this year, SB 920 has managed to pass every Committee and vote unanimously, including a 37-0 Senate vote in May in which only three Democrats abstained. This streak continued on on Thursday, where the bill passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee 14-0.

“These are meaningful victories,” said Senator Seyarto in a statement on Friday. “These bills deliver long-overdue justice, essential support to those in need, protection for the vulnerable, transparency, and assistance to our veterans. These are the goals we are here to achieve.”

Those representing military families were also pleased with the bill on Friday, as the Purple Star program has proven to help military families in California, as well as the 38 other states where it has been implemented.

“Making the Purple Star program permanent in a heavily military state like California is very important,” said high school teacher Helena Deere to the Globe on Friday. “Military brats always have it hard, but get used to the way of life. My students with dads and moms in the military always say things like they spent a year in Connecticut, six months in Virginia, two years in Florida, two years in California, a year at a different place in California, and so on. They need a lot more support to succeed, as do parents to help their children.

“You can’t help them socially, as moving will still be constant, but at the very least this will help them with academic achievement, as well as helping them mentally. You’d have to be crazy to vote against a program like this, which thankfully in California, no one has done.”

SB 920 is expected to pass the Assembly later this month.