FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

If I live on post, which school will my child attend?

Families that live in post housing send their children to Ft. Rucker Primary School for grades Pre-K through First and Ft. Rucker Elementary School for grades Second through Sixth. Families with youth in grades Seven through Twelve who live on post may choose any one of the four school systems off post. These are (alphabetically) Coffee County, Daleville, Enterprise and Ozark.

Is there bus transportation from on post housing to all of these Schools?

Daleville, Enterprise, and Ozark City Schools provide bus transportation. Coffee County Schools do not. School Buses stop at the Bus Stop Shelters provided in the housing areas.

Ft. Rucker Primary School provides bus transportation for all of its students. Pre-K students riding buses must be met at the bus stop by a parent or guardian.

Ft. Rucker Elementary School students who live more than a mile from the school are bused. Those living closer may walk or ride a bike away from vehicle traffic on the many bike and walking trails.

CYS afternoon bus transportation

If you work on post and you live in Enterprise and your child attends an elementary school in Enterprise, Child and Youth Services provides afternoon bus service from most of the elementary schools in Enterprise to the Youth Center on post so that your child will be cared for after school until you get off work. Soldiers, Civilian Employees and Contractors are all eligible for Child and Youth Service membership and this service.

Ft. Rucker Schools release early on Wednesdays for staff training. The Primary School is out at 1:45 and the Elementary is out at 1:15. This schedule is observed every Wednesday unless the school notifies the parents.

How can I get a copy of the school calendar?

There is a copy of the Combined School Calendar for the five school systems that serve Ft. Rucker for School year for 2010-11. The Calendar for the next school year is added to this web site when it becomes available from the schools, usually in the spring.

What age must my child be to enroll in school?

Alabama law requires all children who have reached their sixth birthday on or before September 1st to enroll in the first grade. In addition to the above there is a part day Pre-K program for four year olds who reside on post only. All of the local schools offer kindergarten to children who are five years old on or before September 1.

What information do I need to have to enroll my child? You will need:

	Student’s Birth Certificate
	Student’s Social Security Number
	Alabama Certificate of Immunization from Lyster Army Clinic Immunization Clinic (local schools can not use a shot record)
	Report Card or withdrawal grades
	Legal Documents if needed (Court Custody Papers, etc.)
	Proof of Residency/Military Orders, Letter from Housing
	Local Emergency Contact Information
	Special Needs children will need a copy of their IEP

What is required for High School Graduation?

The requirements vary by several Carnegie units from school system to school system. The absolute minimum number of credits for graduation is twenty-four Carnegie units. For detailed information, please, check below. In addition to amassing the required credits, students who graduate from high school with an Alabama Diploma must pass the AHSGE. For details about this examination, please, visit:  Alabama High School Graduation Exam www.alsde.edu/general/Great_Expectations.pdf

Beginning in the tenth, grade students have six opportunities to pass this exam. The last opportunity to pass the exam is in March of a student’s senior year.

Definitions:
One Carnegie Unit equals 140 clock hours of instruction.

One Block equals five approximately 94 minute classes in one week for eighteen weeks or one semester. Thus, both semesters’ work is accomplished in one semester for one year’s credit. Only three subjects are taken in each semester.

Traditional six period day equals six hour long classes taught five days a week for 36 weeks

I am transferring to a high school in Alabama in the spring of my senior year, how do I pass the AHSGE, how do I avoid losing credit?

Basically, you will not have a chance to take the AHSGE after it is administered in early March until after normal graduation time in May. There are some other options for graduating on time. Please contact the School Liaison Officer at (334) 255-9812 for an explanation.

All of the local high schools except Coffee County High School in New Brockton are on block scheduling. A senior transferring from a six or seven period day to a block schedule will lose a considerable amount of credit at a school with block scheduling. A senior may chose to commute by POV from Ft. Rucker to New Brockton High School, a Coffee County School, in New Brockton, AL. If a Family chooses to live in another local community they may request that the local school and Coffee County Schools allow the senior to attend New Brockton HS.

The above transfer is by request and is not automatically granted. Check with the School Liaison Officer before purchasing a home if this will be an issue for your Family.

Are there new student welcoming programs at the schools?

Yes, Daleville, Enterprise, Fort Rucker DDESS and Ozark City Schools are all signatories of the Military Child Education Coalition, School and Education Transition Support, Memorandum of Agreement. As signatories, they have agreed to provide students to welcome new students to their schools. Please, ask for this service when you enroll your child in any of these schools.

How can I find information on school performance?

Under the requirements of No Child Left Behind legislation all public schools publish an online report card annually. The instructions for looking up each of the local school’s report card are by the entry for that school system. The Fort Rucker DDESS Schools belong to the US Department of Education and are not subject to No child Left Behind legislation, however they exceed national norms on the Terra Nova tests used by the US Department of Education for comparison.

Statistics are not the best way to determine the school in which your child will do best. Statistics only show how students did on one day under ideal conditions. A much better way is to visit each school in which you might consider enrolling your child, with your child if possible. The statistical difference between any of the local schools is insignificant compared to the importance of the support a child receives at home. Basically, you cannot make a bad choice of schools near Ft. Rucker. They all perform near or above the national average. They are all staffed by highly qualified teachers. It is important to select a school where your child will be comfortable and can succeed to their highest potential.

Will my child be safe in local schools?

To the extent that past performance is a guide for predicting the future, your child will be safe. School administrators are required to list the times an incident at school has resulted in punitive action by school administration on their annual on line report card for their school under Safety and Discipline. This does not list every tussle and shoving match. In junior high and high school it is unusual to have no actions. By multiplying the number of students in a school times the number of school days (181) then dividing by the number of reported incidents it is possible to get a usable figure for comparison. Local schools have hundreds of thousands of student days between incidents. Drugs and gang activity are heavily suppressed. This means that drugs and gangs, admittedly, still exist but your child is most unlikely to be effected.