As citizens of the sending country, foreign service children have the right to receive an adequate education equal to that of any other citizen, and should not be disadvantaged in their education simply because they accompany a foreign service officer on posts abroad. However, foreign service children typically move internationally every few years, requiring them to change schools with each move. Local schools abroad are often linguistically inaccessible and/or do not satisfy all the requirements in the home country to qualify for higher-level education. While international schools are more likely to meet their curricular needs, they are not always financially accessible to foreign service families without additional support from their MFA. Students with additional educational needs or medical issues often have significant difficulties finding schools which meet their needs abroad, forcing parents to either find ad hoc solutions, or let their children’s needs go unmet. Good support and access to quality education is therefore essential – not only for foreign service families, but also for Ministries of Foreign Affairs that must be able to recruit and retain qualified staff and to post them wherever they are needed.
EUFASA has produced a guide for foreign service families on raising third-culture kids (read the guide here), and a detailed booklet with tips, information and resources for foreign service families with children who have additional needs (read the document here).