....................... Madison City Schools .......................
Central Office staff at Madison City Schools “purple up” for the national #monthofthemilitarychild Purple Up campaign.
Madison schools back military as Purple Star School District
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Madison City Schools is now recognized as a “Purple Star” school district. That should be gold to military families who move often and frequently transition to new schools. The Alabama Purple Star Schools Program was created by a legislative act to help ease the John Peck social/emotional and sometimes Madison City Schools Public Relations Manager academic burden children face from frequent moves. The program set certain criteria that school districts and individual schools must meet to earn “Purple Star” status. Criteria includes such things as having a point of contact at each school for military students and families, hosting a dedicated Purple Star page on its website featuring resources for military families, maintaining a student-led program for peer support for newly enrolled and transitioning students, a strong board reso-
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lution of support, and other actions. Schools that qualify receive a Purple Star emblem to display on site. “I am proud to report that every single school in our district attained Purple Star status,” said Madison City Schools Superintendent Dr. Ed Nichols. “This classification affirms on paper what we have tried to do all along for our military families. Make their transition and school experience as smooth as possible, so service to our country is less of a burden on the homefront.” One of the hallmarks of the Purple Star Schools Program is for every school and/or the school district to have a student peer group led by a faculty advisor that welcomes and orients new students to schools. Every school across MCS has so-called S2S (studentto-student) peer groups that do this. These chapters raise awareness of the needs of all transitioning students, both military-connected and civilian. They do this through socials, special efforts to join newcomers at lunch and school functions, orienting them to the community, and other forms of outreach.
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