Expert: Cynthia Bedell - 8/29/2008

Question
My husband has been in the army for 8 years and we have a 5 year-old autistic child.  In order to not disturb his progress he has made in school and to keep his current doctors, would it be possible for my husband to get a compassion reassignment upon his PCS/ETS date for his current location?

Answer
Dear Tammy --

Please ensure your husband has enrolled your son in the exceptional family member program.  This enrollment will help support any of your requests to stabilize at a duty station in order to continue his treatment and schooling.

Then your husband should request an extension at your current duty station, prior to receiving any PCS orders.  If he is close to ETSing and plans to re-enlist, he should re-enlist with duty station stabilization as his criterion for retention.

Unfortunately, the Army will probably not be able to station your husband where you currently are for an entire career.  Your family will have to make some tough decisions about periods of family separation, if you need to stay where you are, and your husband gets deployed or gets orders to a new duty station later in his career.  There are other Army families with autistic children in similar circumstances.  They have built some online resources to assist each other with information and support.  Please search on Army Knowledge Online, and the Family Support Center, to find many of these resources.

Good luck to you and your family.  Thank you for your service.