The Senate released its National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Executive Summary on the June 10th. The summary included references to standardizing EFMP. The exact language appears below:
“Standardizes and improves the Exceptional Family Member Program, which supports military families with dependents with special needs during their assignment, and establishes requirements for the Office of Special Needs to develop and update individualized services plans”
FY2021 NDAA Executive Summary – Senate Armed Services Committee
While this is excellent to see, we still need to ensure the final NDAA the House and the Senate submit to President Trump includes a GAO study and the following legislative items featured in our White Paper that we believe will best support our EFMP families:
- Directing a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study that identifies school district usage of 7003(d) impact aid funds
- Ensuring remote school enrollment for all military families
- Tasking DoD to provide annual report to Congress on special education challenges facing military children
- Allowing families to maintain IEPs at the gaining duty station after a PCS for up to 6 months
- Requiring parental consent to all IEP changes before changes can be implemented
- Providing special education attorneys and advocates across all service branches in densely populated EFMP locations
- Instructing State Education Agencies and the U.S. Department of Education to gather and provide data on special education disputes involving military children
To ensure these items are included in the final version of the NDAA contact your representatives! Our partner MOAA has developed an easy to use form that will help make reaching your representatives even easier.
