California’s military children deserve schools that are ready for them
As published in the Sacramento Bee · May 2, 2026
The Purple Star School Designation costs nothing — and signals everything.
Every school day, somewhere in California, a child walks into a new classroom carrying the weight of a parent’s deployment orders. They left behind their friends, their team, their teacher who finally understood them. They arrive in your district with a backpack full of records from a different state, a different curriculum, and a different set of expectations — and they are hoping someone on the other side of the enrollment counter is ready.
Most of the time, we are not.
California is home to more than 213,000 active-duty service members and National Guard and Reserve personnel — the largest concentration in the nation. Their children attend our public schools. And because military families receive relocation orders with little warning, these students can expect to change schools six to nine times between kindergarten and graduation — three times more often than their civilian peers. Each move means re-proving themselves. Each move means starting over.
There is a straightforward, no-cost way for California’s public schools to say to these families: we see you, and we are ready. It is called the Purple Star School Designation.
Established in California law in 2024 under Senate Bill 920 and administered annually by the California Department of Education, the Purple Star program publicly recognizes schools that have taken four concrete steps: designating a military family point-of-contact on staff, providing professional development on military-connected students’ needs, maintaining a dedicated web page with family resources, and running a transition program — which can be student-led — to welcome incoming military students socially and academically.
That’s it. No new funding required. No new mandate. Just intentionality, formalized — and then recognized.
In 2025, only 179 California schools held this designation. In a state with more than 10,000 public schools, that is a fraction of one percent. Forty-four other states have Purple Star programs. Florida alone has more than 450 designated schools. California, with its enormous military population and its longstanding commitment to equity in education, should be leading this movement, not trailing it.
I serve as a trustee on the Roseville Joint Union High School District Board, and I am proud that our district recently became the first in Placer County — and among the first in greater Northern California — to achieve Purple Star designation at four school sites. We did not do it because it was required. We did it because a military family should never have to wonder whether their new school is prepared for their child.
The research bears this out: the practices that serve military-connected students — structured transition protocols, designated liaisons, culturally aware staff — benefit every student. When schools get better at welcoming newcomers, all newcomers benefit. This is not a niche program. It is good schooling.
I am calling on school districts across California to act. Apply for Purple Star designation in the next application cycle, which typically opens in fall 2026. Spend the spring and summer getting ready: identify a staff liaison, build the web page, and start a student-led welcome program. The investment is modest. The return — in belonging, in continuity, in a student’s belief that this new school actually wants them there — is profound.
Military families don’t ask for much. They serve, they move, and they hope. The least we can do is be ready when they arrive.
Pete Constant is a Trustee on the Roseville Joint Union High School District Board of Trustees and an Associate Professor of Public Policy at Jessup University in Rocklin, California. Read how RJUHSD earned the Purple Star →
If you want a board that shows up for every family — including the ones who serve — add your name.