New law allows military families to choose school for children
A bill that passed through the legislature earlier in the session will allow military families to choose where their children will attend school.
House Bill 1341 has already been signed by Governor Tate Reeves and will take effect on July 1st.
The new law says that military families can choose which school district to send their children to, regardless of where they live.
Districts can deny enrollment if their class sizes are too big and parents must provide their own transportation if they live outside the district they choose to send their children.
Seabee Base Commanding Officer Captain Ana Franco said the flexibility relieves some of the stress families have when deciding where to live and where to send their kids to school when coming to a new duty station.
She said Seabee families are fortunate that the districts that surround the Naval Construction Battalion Center are all top-rated in the state. “We recruit individuals, but we retain families and anything we can do to minimize the stressors that the family members are feeling through the course of a service member’s career is a huge win.”
The Seabee Base has more than 1,000 school-aged children among the 5,000 families stationed there.
