Aiken County became the 399th community to sign the U.S. Army Secondary Education Transition Study on Tuesday.
Col. Glenn Kennedy, Fort Gordon garrison commander, and Dr. Beth Everitt, Aiken County school superintendent, penned the action at the Aiken County Board of Education office.
"They understand the goal of developing and implementing policies to assist in the transitioning of our military students," said Kennedy after the signing.
There are about 200 children who are dependents of active duty military plus the community has many who serve in the South Carolina National Guard.
Mary Crowder, chief of Child, Youth and School Services, said her organization looks forward to working with the school system.
She said they will be working with the Aiken County community relations staff to become more involved in the schools and provide information as needed.
Crowder and Kennedy provided information on programs that might be of help to the students such as the Survivor Outreach Services (SOS) program.
"They are going to be good to work with," said Kennedy.
SETS was introduced in 2001 and piloted in eight schools with the goal of helping high school students adjust to the numerous moves and changes they encounter with a parent in the military.
Some of the initial results of SETS included "allowing parents to hand carry student records from one school system to another; developing virtual orientation tours of schools for posting on school and installation web pages; posting current and accurate extracurricular activities on school and installation web pages; communicating high school requirements for enhanced or alternate diplomas, options and opportunities for earning graduation credit, information about required state testing and opportunities available to senior students in transition to graduate from the sending high school through reciprocity and modeling what should be in a student portfolio," according to an archived news release from the Military Child Education Coalition.
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