I 

108TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 3779

To amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to prevent the disruption 

of the education of children who change residence based on the military 

service of their parents. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 4, 2004

Ms. SLAUGHTER (for herself and Ms. GINNY BROWN-WAITE of Florida) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 

A BILL

To amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to prevent 

the disruption of the education of children who change 

residence based on the military service of their parents.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Safeguarding School5 children of Deployed Soldiers Act of 2004’’. 
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1 SEC. 2. RELIEF FOR SCHOOLCHILDREN CHANGING RESI2 DENCE BASED ON MILITARY SERVICE OF 

3 PARENT. 

4 (a) UNINTERRUPTED ATTENDANCE AT SCHOOL.—

5 Title VII of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 

6 U.S.C. App. 501 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end 

7 the following new section: 

8 ‘‘SEC. 707. ATTENDANCE AT SCHOOL OF CHILDREN WITH 

9 PARENTS IN MILITARY SERVICE. 

10 ‘‘(a) ATTENDANCE FOR SCHOOLCHILDREN.—For the 

11 duration of the military service on which a child’s change 

12 of residence is based and at the request of a child’s parent, 

13 a State educational agency or local educational agency 

14 shall, for purposes of enrollment (including tuition, fees, 

15 and costs) in elementary or secondary school, treat a child 

16 who changes residence based on the military service of one 

17 or both of the child’s parents as if the child has the resi18 dence the child had before the change of residence, and 

19 the child shall be deemed, for all other purposes relating 

20 to enrollment, to have the residence the child had before 

21 the change of residence. 

22 ‘‘(b) NO PROVISION OF TRANSPORTATION.—No 

23 State educational agency or local educational agency shall 

24 be responsible for the transportation of a child described 

25 in subsection (a) to or from school by reason of subsection 

26 (a). 
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1 ‘‘(c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the terms ‘child’, 

2 ‘elementary school’, ‘local educational agency’, ‘parent’, 

3 ‘secondary school’, and ‘State educational agency’ have the 

4 meanings given those terms in section 9101 of the Ele5 mentary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 

6 7801).’’. 

7 (b) TRANSITIONAL PROVISION.—Not later than 30 

8 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, a State 

9 educational agency or local educational agency that serves 

10 the area where a child is deemed to reside pursuant to 

11 section 707(a) of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, as 

12 added by subsection (a), shall facilitate the re-enrollment 

13 of the child if such re-enrollment is necessary to be in com14 pliance with such section. 

15 (c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 

16 in section 1(b) of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act is 

17 amended by adding at the end the following new item:

‘‘707. Attendance at school of children with parents in military service.’’.

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