The life of a military family is often unsettled whether in peace or in war. Children change schools. The non-military spouse changes jobs. Paperwork sometimes does not move as fast as the furniture does.

The legislature is nearing approval of a bill making it easier for children to get into school and easier for spouses who are teachers qualify for classroom jobs when they come to Missouri. Napton Senator Bill Stouffer says many students have to wait as much as six months to get the records from previous schools, delaying enrollment. He says some military spouses who are teachers have trouble getting teaching jobs here until they’ve gotten state-certified. He says the bill lets students enroll before their paperwork arrives and lets the teacher-spouses get provisional accreditation if they’re background check is good.

The bill also does things like letting children who don’t meet Missouri age requirements to enter first grade or kindergarten do so anyway if they have completed an accredited pre-kindergarten or kindergarten program in another state. And it creates a scholarship program for the spouses or children of veterans who die or become 80-percent disabled because of combat

Stouffer says the bill could help thousands of people in this state that has two major military bases. And he says it will make Missouri a more "military friendly" state that could pay off the next time a federal commission starts looking at military bases to close.

There’s much more to the bill that we have mentioned in this brief story. If you’d like to see the entire bill as passed by the senate, with an up to date summary, go to:

www.senate.mo.gov/

and do a search for HB1678. The bill was approved by the House in a different form than the bill approved by the Senate. The House can accept the Senate changes and send the bill to the Governor or it can ask the Senate to discuss a compromise