Congress has also initiated investigations by the Pentagon’s inspector general and the Government Accountability Office .
In one victory for the Pentagon, a requirement the Senate passed that bases share control over cases with local civilian authorities was watered down to only asking the service branches to explore such a change and report back.
The law will most immediately impact the Pentagon’s network of schools in seven U.S. states and 11 other countries.
New positions are being created to coordinate responses to sexual assault reports. Disciplinary files will follow students when they switch schools. And the commander of a base will also be expected to keep track of incidents at schools.
By the end of March 2019, the Department of Defense Education Activity, as the school system is known, must establish policies that grant its students the same legal protections afforded those in public schools under a federal law known as Title IX.
Public school districts have operated for years under specific guidelines from the U.S. Education Department on how to handle student sexual violence and comply with Title IX. The Pentagon’s system gave principals little training and direction. In one case at a base school in Germany , parents of several first grade-girls said they were not informed about alleged assaults until months after the principal received reports.
The Pentagon school system plans to roll out reforms to its complaint-review process in September, according to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Pentagon spokeswoman Maj. Carla Gleason wouldn’t comment on other requirements in the law, saying the military was reviewing how to meet them.
One former Pentagon school parent, who has pushed reforms for several years, said the new law was just the first step in resolving issues of sexual assault among military kids.
“It will just be a piece of paper,” said Susan Roeder, “and it has to be implemented to schools across the world on a very personal level.”
___
If you have a tip, comment or story to share about child-on-child sexual assault on U.S. military bases, please email: schoolhousesexassault@ap.org. See AP’s entire package of stories here: https://www.apnews.com/tag/HiddenVictims
___
Pritchard reported from Los Angeles, Dunklin from Dallas. Contact the reporters at https://twitter.com/lalanewsman and https://twitter.com/reesedunklin
Article Appeared @http://www.ktvu.com/news/under-new-law-military-kids-get-sex-assault-protections-1