The Foreign Service Journal, December 2011

96 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 1 1 S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT E mployees of government agencies assigned overseas are granted allowances to help defray the cost of education for their children in kindergarten through 12th grade, one equiva- lent to that provided by public school sys- tems in the United States. The allowances for a specific post are determined by the fees charged by a school identified as providing a basic U.S.-type edu- cation. Parents may use this allowance to send their children to a different school of their choice, say a parochial or foreign-lan- guage institution, as long as the cost does not exceed that of the “base” school. If the alternative school is more expensive than the “base” model, the difference would be an out-of-pocket expense for the parents. An allowance covers only expenses for those services usually available without cost in American public schools, including tuition, transportation and textbooks. Fees for lunches, trips, computers and school uniforms are not covered, even if required by the school. If a foreign post does not have a secular, English-language school with an American curriculum, or has such a school that goes only through certain grades, an away-from-post or “boarding school” allowance is provided. There are several offices in the Department of State prepared to help you understand how the educational allowances work, and what choices you have for your children. These include the Office of Overseas Schools (www.state.gov/m/a/os), the Office of Allowances (http://aoprals.state. gov) and the Family Liaison Office (www. state.gov/m/dghr/flo/c1958.htm). Although these offices are part of the Department of State, the same allowances apply to most civilian federal employees under chief-of-mission authority overseas. For information or assistance, e-mail FLOAskEducation@state.gov o r call (202) 647-1076. These are excerpts from the article by Pamela Ward, a regional education officer in the State Department’s Office of Overseas Schools, that was published in the December 2009 Foreign Service Journal. The complete article can be accessed onlin e at www. afsa.org/fsj. Fees for lunches, trips, computers and school uniforms are not covered. F ROM THE D ECEMBER 2009 FSJ S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT The ABCs of Education Allowances