The Foreign Service Journal, December 2015

EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT 72 DECEMBER 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Foreign Service families with chil- dren should be well versed in education allowances. State’s Office of Allowances has an excellent Frequently Asked Ques- tions page on its website (www.state. gov/m/dghr/flo/c21944.htm). Each post has different allowances, which include an “at-post” and “away-from-post” education allowance that are subject to change every year. The “at-post” allow- ance may be used at whatever local school parents deem to be best suited for their child. The “away from post” allowance may be used to send a child to a boarding school. While the Department of State gives families the freedom to choose the school that they think is the best fit for their children, there are limitations on the allowances that will be paid for school expenses. For instance, there are certain qualifications (e.g., mileage between the post and the school) that may apply in the computations. Also, no education allowance is available for U.S.-based schooling if one parent resides in the United States, even if the Foreign Service parent is posted abroad. It is the responsibility of families to be aware of these limitations when making school choices for their children. Coming Home Some Foreign Service parents argue that the move from an overseas school to one in the United States is the most difficult transition for their children to make. Although it is natural to expect that bringing children to their home country would be easy, parents are often surprised at the reality: many American- passport-wielding Foreign Service children regularly encounter some difficulty integrating back into their own Foreign Service families with children should be well versed in education allowances.