Megan O'Day, right, School Support Services school liaison officer, welcomes pre-kindergarten children from the South Post Child Development Center to Fort Belvoir Elementary School for a tour April 9. School liaison officers forge partnerships betwe...

Fort Belvoir, Va. (April 24, 2014) - On average, a military child attends six to eight schools before they graduate from high school, according to the Department of Defense.

Their early education can be an unpredictable path that zigzags from state to state, even country to country.

To navigate that path, they need a guide to help them make connections, ease the transition between school systems, and explore the resources available. That's where School Liaison Officers come in.

Megan O'Day and Ena "Wendy" O'Sullivan are the Fort Belvoir area SLOs. They serve about 300 schools in Fairfax County and Prince William County, as well as homeschoolers, as part of Child, Youth and School Services.

"The biggest predictor of academic success is how a child transitions socially or emotionally to a new school," O'Day said. "The idea is … helping prepare young military children for academic success."

Any military-connected child in the area can use the SLO services, regardless of whether they live or go to school on post, O'Sullivan said.

"A lot of (Families) that live off of the installation don't always think they're allowed to call us," she added.

SLOs coordinate with the local school systems, installation commanders and parents to help military children adjust to transitions throughout their childhood education.

"Our role is to help them through the transitions of aging up," O'Day said.

This includes giving pre-kindergartners a tour of kindergarten classrooms, letting parents know about summer educational programs, and telling seniors about college scholarships.

"A lot of it is about education … and simply communicating information to parents," O'Sullivan said.

As military children move through different school systems, it can also be a challenge to achieve any kind of consistency in the lessons they learned or programs they were involved in, like honors classes or extracurricular activities.

The Interstate Compact on Education Opportunity for Military Children is designed to standardize enrollment, placement, eligibility and graduation requirements in different states, and SLOs help educate school personnel on how to implement it. (For more information, visit www.militarychild.org).

"The idea is … to help level the playing field," O'Day said.

SLOs learn about the academic issues military children face and work to solve those issues through the Partners in Education initiative by networking with community stakeholders.

"It's up to the SLO to build a community of partners, whether with partners in education (or) homework groups," O'Day said.

Most of a SLO's day involves speaking with incoming or outgoing military parents, O'Sullivan said, and helping them learn to deal with issues and concerns in a healthy way.

They also attend a variety of Family support group, garrison and school committee meetings.

By listening and reaching out to so many different groups, SLOs can maximize support for military children, O'Day said.

"That truly is our strength," she said. "We build that relationship, that rapport, with parents and maintain that rapport with all our community partners, whatever position they're in."

For more information, call (703) 805-9119 or email belvoirslo@belvoirmwr.com.