Military Family Links      

Kansas Exceptional Family Member Program/Special Needs

• Fort Riley's Exceptional Family Member Program (EFMP)
  7264 Normandy Drive
  Custer Hill, Building 7264, Normandy Drive
  Fort Riley, KS 66442-6421
  Phone: 785-239-9435
  Fax: 785-239-9548
  DSN Voice: 856-9435
  DSN Fax: 856-9548
   Website

• Fort Leavenworth's Army Community Service Exceptional Family Member Program  

  615 Mc Clellan Ave.
  Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027

  Phone: (913) 684-2800
  Phone: (913) 684-2871
  Fax: DSN 552-2859
  Website

• Special Needs Identification Program (SNI)
  57950 Leavenworth Street
  Building 250
  McConnell AFB, KS 67221-3606

  Phone: 316 759-5768
  DSN Voice: 743-5768

Other Resources

• The Department of Defense (DoD) Special Needs Parent Tool Kit contains 110 pages of comprehensive information and tools geared towards helping military families with special needs children navigate the maze of medical and special education services, community support and benefits and entitlements.  Each module contains valuable resources and important facts; record keeping tools and sample letters have also been incorporated.  The Tool Kit is divided into six colorful modules that can be easily downloaded and printed or saved on to a CD.

• Specialized Training of Military Parents (STOMP)

- With a population of 1.5 million active duty military members, each day around the globe, there are an estimated 540,000 active duty sponsors each caring for a family member with special medical or educational needs. STOMP is the only National Parent Training and Information Center for military families providing support and advice to military parents without regard of the type of medical condition their child has.

• Advice For Step Parents When Their Spouse is Being Deployed - Deployment of a spouse often means that the spouse who stays home has to assume a number of new tasks and responsibilities. For stepfamilies, this can be even more challenging because of the ambiguous legal relationship between stepparents and stepchildren. Generally, for example, stepparents have no legal authority to make decisions or even to get information about their stepchildren's medical care or education.

• Planning and anticipating problems can make the transition easier. A volunteer lawyers group has prepared a Family Member Pre-Deployment Checklist. This checklist is designed for all families and includes record-keeping questions related to medical care, finances and so forth. (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader )

• Army Community Service - If you are a military person and intend for your dependents to receive military benefits, whether you are engaged in active duty, are a retiree, or upon your death, keep in mind that income from military programs may be part of an estate established for a child with a disability.

• The Benefit Eligibility Screening Tool (BEST) is a tool to find out if you or a loved one could be eligible for benefits from any of the programs Social Security administers. This tool will give you eligibility information based on answers you give to the questions on the site.

• Caring For Kids After Trauma and Death

• Educator's Guide to the Military Child During Deployment

• New CAP Video Communication Products - The Federal Relay Services now provides free Federal Video Relay Services (FedVRS, http://www.fedvrs.us/) for anyone who uses sign language for basic communication and who needs video relay interpreters to make telephone calls. To use FedVRS, you will need to have specific internet-standard video compliant equipment and high-speed internet access. The Department of Defense's Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program (CAP) provides eligible beneficiaries with a web camera for  a PC or a video phone and a maximum size of 16" TV monitor for customers who require acess to Federal VRS. Click here to access equipment specifications and technical paper on the web cameras and video phones. To make your request for a web camera or video phone on CAP's easy and fast on-line process please click here

• Military Benefits

• EFMconnections - Over 100,000 military families have members with special needs. These include spouses, children, or dependent parents who require special medical or educational services. These family members have a diagnosed physical, intellectual or emotional condition. We invite you to explore the Special Needs module to learn about and find the resources that will support your family.

• Family Member Checklist - Spouses manage the family during their sponsor's absence; therefore, it is important that both of you sit down together to answer and discuss the questions in this checklist.

• Lifelines Services Network

• MilitaryHOMEFRONT's Special Needs/EFMP module - the official Department of Defense website for quality of life information as it pertains to troops & their family members with special needs, Leadership and Service Providers. Please browse the navigation links on the left to connect relevant topics, such as our Family Connections Forum for families with special needs, State Resources, A-Z Disability Resources and Family Stories.

• The Military Home Schooler - Serving American military homeschoolers around the world

• Military Lifestyle.com

• Military OneSource (Disability) - Military OneSource Online provides you with useful information and resources to help you balance your work and family life.

• Militarystudent.org

• Military Resources

  Mother and Soldier: Raising a Child With a Disability in a Low-Income Military Family -This article presents the results of a study of six low-income women, each of whom is raising a child with a suspected or diagnosed disability while also serving as an active member of the armed forces. Their experiences as they attempt to strike a balance between the highly demanding work role of the military and their role as a mother of a child with disabilities are examined. This article also discusses the personal strengths these women display, the barriers they confront, the strategies they use to negotiate competing demands, and the impact of this effort on their personal and professional lives. Practice and policy implications are drawn for early intervention and family support programs.

  National Guard/Reserve Health Care

  National Military Family Association

  National Respite Locator

  Navigating Military Health Care - Active duty families who are unfamiliar with navigating the military health care system may find themselves facing unanticipated expenses as the result of not using their health care resources appropriately. This can be avoided by understanding how the military health care system works.

  Official TRICARE Management Activity Extended Care Health Option (ECHO) Fact Sheet!! - ECHO, a supplemental TRICARE program, provides financial assistance to eligible active duty family members (ADFMs) who have a qualifying mental or physical disability.  The program offers services and supplies beyond the basic TRICARE benefits covered in Prime, Extra and Standard.  The ECHO benefit also provides a monthly government cost share of $2,500 per eligible family member, a $1,500 increase over the Program for Persons with Disabilities’ (PFPWD) cost share.  Additionally, some beneficiaries may qualify for ECHO Home Health Care (EHHC).  EHHC provides medically-necessary skilled services to eligible homebound beneficiaries.

  Parent's Guide to the Military Child During Deployment and Reunion

  PCSing? Pointers for Families of Children with Disabilities - Transfers are a part of every military member’s career. For some families these transfers can occur as frequently as every 18 months. For all families there is an enormous amount of work involved with the transition but for families with a child with special needs there are even more things to consider, remember and arrange. Frequently it can take families between 6-12 months to get all their usual services going once they relocate. Being informed about where you are going and what and who is there to help you is key. Planning ahead, starting the networking process before you start the journey and asking the right questions can aid a smoother transition and enable the process to move along more quickly once you arrive at your new home. (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader )

  Preparing to Relocate - preparing for the move checklist (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader )

  Preparing to Relocate - reassuring your children checklist (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader )

  Preparing to Relocate - during the move checklist (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader )

  Preparing to Relocate - after the move communicating with children checklist (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader )

  Preparing to Relocate - after the move reassuring with children checklist (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader ) .

  Preparing to Relocate - moving to a different country checklist (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader )

  Program for Persons with Disabilities - The Program for Persons with Disabilities (PFPWD) provides financial assistance to reduce the effects of mental retardation or a serious physical disability. It is not a stand-alone program; subject to certain restrictions, it may be used concurrently with other TRICARE medical programs. The PFPWD is not an enrollment program.

  Program for Persons with Disabilities - The Program for Persons with Disabilities (PFPWD) will be replaced by the Extended Care Health Option (ECHO) in regional phases over the course of the year 2004. The following information regarding PFPWD pertains to areas where ECHO has not yet become effective. PFPWD is designed to provide financial assistance to family members of active duty service members in order to treat and/or reduce the effects of mental retardation or serious physical disability. PFPWD is not a stand-alone program and has no enrollment; subject to certain restrictions, it may be used concurrently with other TRICARE medical programs. The PFPWD serves persons with two types of serious disabilities: moderate or severe mental retardation and/or significant physical disability.

  Tricare - TRICARE Online is a Department of Defense (DoD) computer system. Use of this site is governed by multiple DoD policies and terms outlined in the center area. Many of these policies are designed to protect the privacy of your personal information. We encourage you to review these policies.

  Tricare Handbook - The TRICARE Handbook explains the TRICARE health care benefit. Numerous updates have been made to the TRICARE program, and they are reflected in this version so you can access up-to-date information. As you use this handbook, you might want to cross-reference information with the TRICARE Fact Sheets, News Releases, and Policy and Guidance. This handbook does not cover all details and special rules of TRICARE.  Check with the appropriate contractor, local TRICARE Service Center (TSC), a Beneficiary Counseling and Assistance Coordinator (BCAC)/Health Benefits Adviser (HBA) if you have questions.

  Tricare & Part C - This guide was developed by the Federal Interagency Coordinating Council (FICC), which advises the Secretaries of Education, Defense, and other federal agencies, on coordinating federal programs and policies affecting services to children ages birth to three with disabilities. At the request of the FICC, the Department of Defense (DoD) task force developed this document to address questions about the interface between the DoD military health system and the Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities program (Part C) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader )

  TriWest - TriWest Healthcare Alliance is a Phoenix-based corporation that partners with the Department of Defense (DoD) to provide access to cost-effective, high quality health care for our nation's active and retired uniformed services members and their families. These individuals are eligible for the DoD's regionally managed health care program for the military, called TRICARE. TriWest is under contract with the DoD to manage and administer TRICARE throughout the 21-state TRICARE West Region.

  Military Spouse Support Network - Welcome to the Military Spouse Support Network! We're glad to have you join us! This site was started to offer support, comfort, advice, and friends to military spouses whose significant others are away on duty.  However, we would love to have you join us even if you're lucky enough to have your loved one at home!  So just sit back, relax, put your feet up and enjoy.  Remember to bookmark this page & come back often!

Contact the Families Together Center near you for more information