The Department of Defense Education Activity’s Educational Partnership Branch is dedicated to every military child’s right to a quality education regardless of their location or how often their family moves.
DoDEA has more than 60 years of experience supporting military students within the DoD system around the world. Today force structure changes have created an urgent and ongoing need to enrich and expand partnerships with military-connected communities throughout the nation.
Today, of the 1.2 million children of military service members, approximately 80,000 -- or less than ten percent -- attend Department of Defense schools. The rest attend public or private schools or are home-schooled.
The Educational Partnership Program promotes quality education, seamless transitions and deployment support for military students through outreach and partnership development. The Educational Partnership Program also has the authority to issue grants for programs that enhance student achievement. The Educational Partnership Program will provide training to Local Education Activities on how to write applications for grants and will serve as a clearinghouse for information on grants that are available for military-connected LEAs.
The Partnership works with the Office of Economic Adjustment, the military services, and the U.S. Department of Education to facilitate DoD’s plan to provide assistance to LEAs that experience growth or loss as a result of force structure changes. The Partnership develops an annual Report to Congress articulating student growth projections, recommendations for appropriate means of assistance, and the DoD plan for outreach.
Working in concert with ED, the Partnership's Outreach Team manages the DoD Impact Aid program (Supplement, Base Realignment and Closure, and Children with Severe Disabilities) funding distributed annually to eligible military-connected school districts nationwide.
The Partnership liaisons with education and military leadership to initiate at the school and district level to (1) gather and share research-based best practices, programs, and tools, (2) assist military parents to become informed advocates of quality education choices for their children, and (3) provide research-based teacher and administer professional development programs in areas of need identified by its partnering military connected school districts.
The Partnership supports military-connected LEAs based on existing school district strengths and identifies gaps with a goal of ensuring a quality educational program. This requires appropriate data collection and analysis to strategically guide partnership efforts.
