The Pupil Personnel Guide for Supporting Students from Military Families

While it is true that children from military families live unique and interesting lives, it is also true that they face many challenges and special circumstances that civilian children and families don't experience. These can include gaps in school attendance and learning due to frequent moves, being separated from a parent who has been deployed, and a sense of isolation in the midst of a civilian community.

This comprehensive, evidence-informed guide introduces pre- and inservice school counselors, psychologists, and social workers to this population and provides the necessary tools to create one-on-one and school-wide practices to support military students. Written in an engaging style by experts in the field, this guide includes:

• A primer on military culture
• Research highlighting how frequent school transitions and parental deployments affect the education of military children
• Guidance for creating school transition rooms for acclimating incoming students and parents.
• Examples of creative and effective projects designed to celebrate military children and support them through frequent school changes, a parent's deployment, or traumatic experiences.

All royalties from the sale of these books are being donated to military children's educational causes.

Prepublication Reviews:

“Military-connected students often pay a high price in their schooling experiences due to the realities of military life. Thus, these guides are invaluable tools for parents, schools, and educator-preparation programs that want to provide rich academic, social, and emotional support to this vulnerable population of children. Preparation programs should consider these guides as key components of their curriculum to prepare incoming teachers, counselors, principals, and others to work effectively with military-connected students.”
—American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education

“I am grateful to the USC Building Capacity team headed by Ron Avi Astor for developing this exceptional resource and attuning it specifically to the needs of the professional service provider who supports our nation’s military-connected children. The content and accompanying strategies provide practical, experience-based insights that are well-supported by good science. This truly is a sensitive and reliable source.”
—Mary M.Keller, Ed.D., President and CEO, Military Child Education Coalition

“As an adult who spent most of my youth in military-connected schools in Virginia, I know too well what happens when adults in schools did not understand the unique experiences of being from a military family. Thus, as a scholar, educator, and military child, I am thrilled to be able to endorse these guides because they will educate adults about ways to be helpful through evidence-based prevention and intervention.”

—Dorothy L. Espelage, Ph.D., Professor & University Scholar, Department of Educational Psychology, Child Development Division, University of Illinois