SACRAMENTO – Assembly Member Lori Saldaña (D-San Diego) has introduced legislation aimed at easing the problems of school-age military dependants faced with transferring to California schools.

Assembly Bill 2102, also known as the School Age Dependants Act, would require the California Department of Education to establish a formal liaison between the United States Department of Defense and School Districts that enroll military dependents to establish guidelines for school credit transfer and procedures to help military dependents in meeting local graduation requirements.

Saldaña, who is herself the daughter of a career Marine, said that many of the approximately 98,000 school-age military dependants in California face significant high school graduation obstacles, including losing up to twenty-five percent of their course credits due to multiple school transfers from out-of-state and out-of-country.

“These families are already faced with difficulties: frequent transfers, lengthy separations and deployments, making new lives in unfamiliar places. They shouldn’t have to worry about transferring to new schools with different graduation requirements,” Saldaña said. “I think as a state, we can do better.”

“This bill is intended to effect better coordination between the Department of Defense, the California Department of Education and local districts and make transfer into the state’s schools much smoother for military families in California.”

The bill would also provide assistance, such as early entry transfer and pre-transcript evaluation, to aid school-age military dependents meeting local school district graduation requirements. Currently, the bill has been assigned to the Assembly’s Committee on Education for consideration.  

Saldaña represents the 76^th Assembly District, which is home to several military installations and includes one of the nation’s largest concentrations of military housing.