Children from military families can have a whole set of worries that may never manifest in civilian households, such as separation from parents or the constant worry that the parent could be seriously hurt or killed.
In December 2006, the Military Child Education Coalition, a Harker Heights organization with a global reach, laid the foundation in Bell and eastern Coryell counties for a program known as Living in the New Normal, which helps adults who work with children from military families who have to deal with those types of issues.
Judy Picot, director of guidance services for the Killeen Independent School District, was at the first meeting in 2006.
The district implemented its program at the beginning of the 2006-07 school year and has seen the program in KISD blossom.
“We wanted to create an awareness, resources and information that would help all of who deal with our children to just be more cognizant of the problems and situations of what kids are going through,” Ms. Picot said. “Just so they can listen with a little more of an empathetic ear.”
Living in the New Normal (LINN) is a program that teaches those unfamiliar with aspects of military living how to help children deal with issues.
The program was developed through collaboration with experts in the fields of trauma and grief, resiliency, health care and child development.
It’s a program that is vitally important to an area like KISD, especially with such a large number of students and teachers with ties to Fort Hood.
Ms. Picot said about 50 percent of the student body in KISD is affiliated with the military.
In nearby Copperas Cove the situation is nearly the same, with school district officials citing about 40 percent of the students in Copperas Cove ISD being associated with Fort Hood and, as a result, they are working to develop their own LINN program.
CCISD spokeswoman Carol Rogers is responsible for presenting the program to military parents in the district.
Ms. Rogers, who is on that same committee with Picot, said the school district met last year in Killeen to discuss the best way to present the program.
“We looked at bringing in schools, medical personnel, business people and government agencies together to see what we could do to support families who deal with repeated deployments,” Ms. Rogers said.
Each of the communities in Bell County and into Copperas Cove formed committees to see how the LINN program could work in their area, Ms. Rogers said.
“It had kind of a slow start; it’s hard to take an idea like that and actually put it into action,” she said.
In Belton, where the military population in the schools hover around 12 percent, helps comes from Craig Pearson, the minister of business administration for the First Baptist Church.
His role is two-fold since he also serves on the city council.
Pearson and others in Belton enlisted the help of people in the community and school district, civic leaders and church leaders to jump start those efforts because, Pearson said, it’s just a good way to look out for your neighbors.
“It’s a very big deal in Belton,” Pearson said. “We recognize that this is a big deal to military families.”
As a retired Army pilot who commanded an Apache battalion during the first Gulf War, Pearson said Living in the New Normal is an all-too real term, especially when so many soldiers and their families are dealing with multiple deployments overseas.
“We were only there for nine months and we only had to go once,” he said. “Some are on their fourth deployment.”
To learn more about the LINN program in Bell County, contact the Military Child Education Coalition at (254) 953-1923 or visit their Web site at www.militarychild.org.
