Purple Star Award Application

What is the Purple Star Award

The Purple Star Award recognizes counties and schools committed to supporting military children and their families for a period of three years. Military-connected children transition between schools on average six to nine times during their K-12 educational experience. Purple Star Schools and Purple Star Districts are uniquely focused on meeting the needs of students experiencing deployments by creating an inviting and caring culture. This allows soldiers to focus on complex missions conducted in the best interest and defense of our nation.

Requirements for Schools

To become a Purple Star School, the school must:

• Identify a trained military family point of contact
• Provide a link to the Common Ground Partnership page on its website
• Provide a plan for how the school will support military children and their families
• Celebrate Purple Up Day during the month of April annually
• Host two qualifying military support activities in the current year, then two annually

Requirements for School Districts

To become a Purple Star School District, the district must:

• Identify a trained military family point of contact at the county level
• Provide a link to the Common Ground Partnership page on its website
• Pass a resolution or take action to publicize district support of military-connected families
• Ensure all schools within the district qualify for the award recognition

Apply for 5th Class of Purple Star Award Recipients

Common Ground partners review entries. Then, the WVDE awards schools that meet certain requirements. Follow these guidelines to earn this special honor for your school or district.

The deadline to submit an application is April 25, 2025.  Awards will be announced in May.

Note: Only public, charter, Mountaineer Challenge Academies, and accredited private schools may apply.

Initial Purple Star Award

• Identify a military family point of contact, who successfully completes this year’s required training on supporting military children and their families.
  • Public schools, please complete the Military Point of Contact training available on Instructure (requires a @k12.wv.us account)
  • Private schools and Mountaineer Challenge Academies (MCA), please complete the Private Schools, Charter Schools and MCA Training/Quiz.
• Provide a link to the Common Ground Partnership, which features a wide variety of useful resources for military families, on the school’s website.
• Describe a local plan for the school to support military children and their families.
• Commit to annually celebrating Purple Up Day, on a day of the school’s choice, during the month of April (the Month of the Military Child).
• Submit evidence of conducting two qualifying military support activities in the current school year.

If your school is a public school and has never received the award, please fill out the Purple Star Award Initial Award Application form to apply. If your school is a private, charter or MCA school that has never received the award, please e-mail Robert Mellace for the application.

Renewal of Purple Star Awards for Schools of the 1st and 2nd Class

• Meet requirements of the initial award, except renewal schools may simply identify two types of qualifying military support activities the school participates in and provide the official date(s) of those activities within the current school year.
• Complete the Purple Star Award Statewide Research Survey (required) to participate in research on the award’s impact so that we may continuously improve this initiative.

If your school received an award during the 1st or 2nd Class, please fill out the Purple Star Award Renewal Application form to apply.

Purple Star Districts (Initial or Renewal)

• Identify a military family point of contact at the county level, who successfully completes this year’s Military Point of Contact training (available on Instructure, requires a @k12.wv.us account) on supporting military children and their families.
• Provide a link to the Common Ground Partnership on the school district’s website.
• County school board passes a resolution or takes documented action publicizing information about the school system’s support for military-connected students and their families (must take place on or after July 1, 2022).
• All schools within the county receive a Purple Star Award on or after July 1, 2022. 1st and 2nd Class Purple Star Schools must successfully renew their award status.

The county’s military family point of contact may submit an e-mail to Robert Mellace at rmellace@k12.wv.us and Carrie Clendening at carrie.clendening@k12.wv.us with evidence of meeting all criteria to qualify.