Schools get new resource to help with students from military families

A new resource is available to schools to help educators better understand what life is like for military members and veterans and their families.

This is a great way to help the school systems across Canada know what to expect when they receive military children.- Col. Dan Harris

School Counsellors Working with Military and Veteran Families was created by the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association, in partnership with the Canadian Military and Veteran Families Leadership Circle.

The bilingual publication was unveiled Thursday morning at the Sheraton Hotel in St. John's, Newfoundland, and is supposed to help schools increase their military literacy and help support and better include students of military families in the social, academic and athletic life of the school.

Unique needs of military children

It's the second in a series of books related to professions working with military and veteran families, with the first being a resource for doctors that was released in November.

Col. Dan Harris, director of Military Family Services with the Canadian Armed Forces, said the resource will be helpful because students from military families have unique circumstances that affect their school life.

Frequent geographical moves, long separations from their loved ones and the risk of the profession are all addressed in the book.

"Those things make it a little more difficult for the military family, and in particular the children, who are often posted from province to province and out of country," Harris said.

"So this is a great way to help the school systems across Canada know what to expect when they receive military children being posted from one province to another."