Parent in Military: WISEdata
Parent in Military is a student characteristic indicating the student has a parent or guardian who is a member of the armed forces on active duty, serves full-time National Guard duty, or is a traditional member of the National Guard or Reserve. *See the Points to Note section for expanded definitions of terms referenced in the questions.
Parent in Military is a self-reported data element from a student's parents. They can indicate 'No' to all questions even if they are in the military, and they can indicate 'Yes' if they are not. School staff must not alter the values that are self-reported by the family even if they believe the values to be different. If the student meets one or more of the qualifications by answering Yes to at least one of the following questions, the student should be submitted as true for Parent in Military.
If a family chooses to change what is self-reported, they can do so at any time. However, DPI recommends schools collect this data element only once at the initial registration of a student and recollect once annually at the start of each school year during the student's educational career.
Schools should ask the following three questions exactly as written to ALL students.
-
Is either parent or guardian on active duty in the military?
-
Is either parent or guardian a traditional member of the Guard or Reserve?
- Is either parent or guardian a member of the Active Guard/Reserve (AGR) under Title 10 or full time National Guard under Title 32?
You can enter the optional fields for Begin and End Date, but they are not required for the characteristic. The characteristic will display in the student record when the value is submitted as true. This data element applies to public schools only. It is for 2018-19 moving forward and will not require users to retroactively modify prior year data.
USES: Parent in Military will be reported for EDFacts as ‘Military Connected Student Status’ in conjunction with Assessment information (Forward, DLM, and ACT results for English/Language Arts, Mathematics and Science) and with CTE Participant and Concentrator enrollment.
FAQs, Details, and Points to Note
-
Whom to Report: Starting in the 2018-19 school year, Parent in Military data is required for ALL public school students in all grades. If you have already begun pre-registration or registration for the next school year, you will need to circle back to obtain this data from registered students.
-
Parent Definition: The term ‘‘parent’’ includes a legal guardian or other person standing in loco parentis (such as a grandparent or stepparent with whom the child lives, or a person who is legally responsible for the child’s welfare.
-
Armed Forces Definition: Armed forces include the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard (10 U.S.C. 101(a)(4)).
-
Active Duty Definition: Active Duty means full-time duty in the active military service of the United States, including full-time training duty, annual training duty, and attendance, while in active military service, at a school designated as a service school by law. Active duty does not include full-time National Guard duty (10 U.S.C. 101(d)(1)).
-
Full-time National Guard Duty: Full-time National Guard Duty means training or other duty (except inactive duty) performed by a member of the Army National Guard or Air National Guard in the member’s status as a member of National Guard of a state or territory, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or District of Columbia for which the member is entitled to pay or for which the member has waived pay (10 U.S.C. 101(d)(5)).
-
Why is this a required field? The Parent in Military field was added when the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was reauthorized in late 2015, as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). All public school districts are expected to report the status of students with a parent in the military for students who are in tested grades, according to section 1111(h)(1)(C)(ii) of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Student achievement on state assessments need to be disaggregated by “status as a student with a parent who is a member of the Armed Forces (as defined in section 101(a)(4) of Title 10, United States Code).”
-
Educational Opportunities for Military Children: For more information, see the Educational Opportunities for Military Children webpage.
-
Pupil Services/Military Children Connection: View the Commissioner for the Wisconsin Council of the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunities for Military Children, Shelley Joan Weiss's, webpage.
See also:
- Military Child Education Coalition
- Military Student Identifier flyer
- Understanding ESSA, Military-Connected Student Tag article results
If you need further assistance, please submit a Help Ticket.
To provide feedback, click the "Submit Feedback" button.