The Foreign Service Journal, December 2007

88 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 7 S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT ing or psychological challenges may need an individual psychoeducational evaluation done by a licensed diagnos- tician. This can be arranged through the Employee Consultation Service, but is usually done in the U.S. Again, advanced planning is necessary. • Send in the school application well in advance. Note that the appli- cation fee is not covered by allow- ances, even if the student later attends that school. • Arrangements should then be made to have supporting documents, such as the transcript from the cur- rent school and recommendations, sent. • Schedule an interview, if neces- sary. Sometimes a telephone inter- view or a meeting with a traveling admissions representative can be arranged for overseas families. • Now the waiting begins. Unless a school has rolling admissions, mean- ing they make a decision as soon as a file is complete, acceptances are sent out in the spring, usually March or April. A deposit, required upon acceptance, can be refunded to a par- ent once the student enrolls. Vouch- ers and receipts are submitted at the parent’s post of assignment. The Adventure Begins The decision has been made and the deposit sent. Now it is time to embark on the new adventure called boarding school. Here is very good news for families: as of July 22, 2007, students attending boarding school are allowed a shipment of 250 pounds of unaccompanied air bag- gage sent from post to school and back yearly. This allowance can be used for storage at school over the summer in lieu of shipment. There is still no allowance, however, for a parent to accompany a student to school the first time to get settled, so many families choose to plan their home leave or other vacation so that they are around to help a new board- ing school student get settled. The first few weeks at school can Continued on page 91 Continued from page 86