# Children in American military families overseas **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 4, 2015, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-in-american-military-families-overseas/729932 "2015-09-04T19:44:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2015, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-in-american-military-families-overseas/729932/1 "2015-09-04T19:44:19Z")
My brother’s daughter got married several years ago and they have two little kids; her husband is stationed in Australia. What provision does the U. S. military make for the schooling of these kids ( who are American citizens) in another country? ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2015, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-in-american-military-families-overseas/729932/2 "2015-09-04T20:32:32Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > My brother’s daughter got married several years ago and they have two little kids; her husband is stationed in Australia. What provision does the U. S. military make for the schooling of these kids ( who are American citizens) in another country? If the service member is assigned “accompanied”, there will probably be a host of family-support stuff at the receiving post. Relevant to your question would be [Department of Defense Dependent Schools.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Defense_Dependents_Schools) I managed to survive having about 1/3 of my elementary education in that system, mostly on Kadena AFB in Okinawa. It’s pretty good public school education, as these things go. That’s the standard arrangement. I don’t know of any others; if dependent children can’t be educated, I’d imagine the assignment would be classified as “unaccompanied” and the family would stay stateside. ETA: I don’t see any signs of DoDEA schools in Australia. Since the locals speak English, I suppose it’s possible the kids could go to school in the local school system. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-in-american-military-families-overseas/729932/3 "2015-09-06T22:20:55Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > If the service member is assigned “accompanied”, there will probably be a host of family-support stuff at the receiving post. Relevant to your question would be [Department of Defense Dependent Schools.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Defense_Dependents_Schools) > > I managed to survive having about 1/3 of my elementary education in that system, mostly on Kadena AFB in Okinawa. It’s pretty good public school education, as these things go. > > That’s the standard arrangement. I don’t know of any others; if dependent children can’t be educated, I’d imagine the assignment would be classified as “unaccompanied” and the family would stay stateside. > > ETA: I don’t see any signs of DoDEA schools in Australia. Since the locals speak English, I suppose it’s possible the kids could go to school in the local school system. Yep, a buddy’s dad was posted to Australia, the kids went to public school 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-in-american-military-families-overseas/729932/4 "2015-09-06T22:40:11Z")
An alternative to DOD schools (in foreign language countries) is what’s called an American School, either as a stand-alone, or in addition to some other entity. American Schools are staffed by American teachers and likely subsidized by the DOD. My kids went to DOD schools in Frankfurt, and to Brussels American School in Belgium. Brussels also had the International School, which was where a lot of the UN kids went. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-in-american-military-families-overseas/729932/5 "2015-09-06T23:04:46Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > An alternative to DOD schools (in foreign language countries) is what’s called an American School, either as a stand-alone, or in addition to some other entity. American Schools are staffed by American teachers and likely subsidized by the DOD. My kids went to DOD schools in Frankfurt, and to Brussels American School in Belgium. Brussels also had the International School, which was where a lot of the UN kids went. DoDDS American schools are subsidized (as in completely funded by) the DoD. There are, of course, American and other foreign entity schools overseas. For example, there is a Canadian school here in Beijing, said school not on a Canadian base nor funded by the Canadian defence department. The on-base US schools are permitted, subject to the restrictions in the Status of Forces Agreement, in countries where the US has bases to accept a certain number of students whose parents are not on “command-sponsored” assignments. AFAIK, those students’ parents pay for their tuition. The command-sponsored students do not pay tuition. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-in-american-military-families-overseas/729932/6 "2015-09-06T23:17:29Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > An alternative to DOD schools (in foreign language countries) is what’s called an American School, either as a stand-alone, or in addition to some other entity. American Schools are staffed by American teachers and likely subsidized by the DOD. My kids went to DOD schools in Frankfurt, and to Brussels American School in Belgium. Brussels also had the International School, which was where a lot of the UN kids went. My sister has a friend who signed up to do this, as a contracted civilian employee. Her first post was at a military base on a lava floe 40 miles outside Reykjavik, Iceland. The only way in or out was by air. IIRC, she did that for a year and then applied for a slightly more appealing location. A few years after that, she was posted to Fort Bragg, and she said that place was the scariest location she’d ever been to. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-in-american-military-families-overseas/729932/7 "2015-09-07T03:59:17Z")
Like others have said, it probably depends on whether or not there’s an official US military base there, or if it’s just some US people stationed on a RAAF base or something. I have a co-worker who grew up in Germany in DoD schools; I saw her yearbook, and it was kind of weird; just like a US high school and everything, only the locations were European. For example, their football schedule had schools like “SHAPE High School Mons, Belgium” or “Heidelberg High School” or “Ramstein High School”. Otherwise, just like a US high school, with the possible exception that everyone’s parents were US military. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-in-american-military-families-overseas/729932/8 "2015-09-07T05:09:05Z")
Career Day must have been pretty monotonous… ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-in-american-military-families-overseas/729932/9 "2015-09-07T09:05:38Z")
As someone who spent the first eight years of his schooling in an Army-sponsored school in Sierra Leone, I can tell you that the big problem is the high turnover of teachers. Many of them only did a six or twelve month tour, so they hardly had time to learn our names. Add to this, three month home leaves, where I had to go to a strange school in England where I was seen as pretty strange, and it wasn’t the greatest start. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-in-american-military-families-overseas/729932/10 "2015-09-07T12:15:45Z")
**bob++** : Which country’s army sponsored that school? IIRC, turnover isn’t a big issue for the US DoDDS as the teachers were also command-sponsored, meaning they were there for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-in-american-military-families-overseas/729932/11 "2015-09-07T12:17:42Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Career Day must have been pretty monotonous… Not really. The students, of course, were quite aware of what the military is. There are also a number of civilian jobs with the Department of Defense. The US embassy and consulate personnel also have their kids attending those schools overseas as those personnel are considered command-sponsored. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/children-in-american-military-families-overseas/729932/12 "2015-09-07T13:17:20Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Not really. The students, of course, were quite aware of what the military is. There are also a number of civilian jobs with the Department of Defense. The US embassy and consulate personnel also have their kids attending those schools overseas as those personnel are considered command-sponsored. Not only that, but military careers are quite varied. Sure, everyone is a “soldier,” but not everyone is a grunt. The guys running the kitchens, the guys repairing Apache engines, and (ahem) the guys making sure that the ground controlled approach radar works all have different, interesting stories to tell. Maybe the 6:30 am P.T. will become redundant stories, but my near miss crossing the touchdown point on the runway is going to be a much different story than the 11B who got bitten by fire ants.