Welcome to the Military Education Services section of the website. On this page, you will find resources to help students and their families to connect with these services.

The District's Military Education Coordinator (DMEC) is established in the Arkansas Code. Title 6, Chapter 28, Subchapter 1, Section 116 (Ark. Code Ann. § 6-28-116) creates the position of DMEC. Our district page is located here.

The statute requires that all schools with 20 or more children of military families or school districts with 3,000 students overall must appoint a staff member to serve in this role.

April is the Month of the Military Child!

Military Spouse Day or Military Spouse Appreciation Day is celebrated on the Friday before Mother's Day in the United States. For more information, go here.

While Arkansas school districts are required to report our numbers of military families to ADE, there is no mandate for military families to identify themselves. Therefore, we use any information shared in a professional manner with respect to your family's privacy.

If you are a military family and are willing to help us to know more about you, then we hope to use that information to serve our students and their families more effectively.

With that in mind, we invite you to complete our APSD Military Families' Google Form available here.

The Arkansas Council for Military Children also invites military families to participate in its Military Family Needs Survey available here. While this is not from our district, we will have access to aggregate data for our state and region. According to our Military Family Engagement Advisor at ADE, this survey should only take about ten minutes.

GMS achieved Purple Star School Status in March 2024.

For more information, visit the ADE:DESE webpage about Purple Star Schools (here).

Celebrating the Month of the Military Child (April 2024)

Arkadelphia Public Schools will join other districts across the state in recognition of the military child.

April is designated as the Month of the Military Child; a time to honor the sacrifices made by military families worldwide, with an emphasis on the experience of the dependent children of military members serving at home and overseas. Month of the Military Child is sponsored by the Department of Defense Military Community and Family Policy and supported by many other organizations, including the ADE Division of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and the Military Interstate Children’s Compact Commission.

More than 14,000 Arkansans served in the U.S. Armed Forces. Many serve on active duty while others serve in the reserve forces and in the National Guard. More than 6,100 military children are enrolled in Arkansas public schools. Children of military families face unique academic and social challenges. The sacrifices they make because of their parents’ military service deserves special recognition.

An update and resolution for consideration of the Board of Education will be presented as part of its April meeting.

We also encourage our students, personnel, and community to wear purple clothing as we "Purple Up! for Military Kids Day" on April 19 across the state. This is Arkansas' celebration of the military child and to show their support for children of military families.

Please tag the Military Interstate Children’s Compact Commission at @MIC3Compact (Twitter) or @MIC3.Compact (Facebook) and the Arkansas Council for Military Children at @ArkMilKids (Twitter) and @MIC3Arkansas (Facebook), and the Little Rock Air Force Base school liaison at @LRAFBSchoolLiaison (Facebook).

Military Spouse Day (May 10, 2024)

Arkadelphia Public Schools will join other districts across the state in recognition of the military spouse.

Military Spouse Day or Military Spouse Appreciation Day is celebrated on the Friday before Mother's Day in the United States. Many United States citizens take this day to acknowledge the significant contributions, support, and sacrifices of spouses of their Armed Forces. President Ronald Reagan recognized the profound importance of spouse commitment to the readiness and well-being of military members and declared May 23, 1984 the first Military Spouse Day with Proclamation 5184, dated April 17, 1984. The US Secretary of Defense, Caspar Weinberger standardized the date by declaring the Friday preceding Mother's Day as Military Spouse Day.

The compiled links to resources below are neither operated nor endorsed by APSD.

Program Guidance and Requirements

• Arkansas Military Child School Transitions Act of 2021

• Arkansas Laws Pertaining to Military Families

• ADE: DESE Resources for Working with Military Families

Please visit our district page for pertinent resources (here).

Other resources will be deposited in our Google Shared Folder (here).

Please complete any surveys for any campus and for the district

• APSD Federal Programs Engagement Survey (feel free to provide feedback for any of the pertinent sections)

Please consider volunteering by campus

• Each campus trains its volunteers for the specific roles and/or tasks

Please let us know how we can collaborate with you more effectively