May 26, 2025 • 19 mins
If you are a Foreign Service family, and you're about to send your kiddo off to university, you might have some questions about how that travel can happen, and if there are allowances that support that. As a matter of fact, there are! The allowances are not always easy to understand and are open to interpretation by your Finance and Management Officers, so be sure to have that conversation with them so you fully understand their interpretations.
Plan ahead, have your kiddo get their items ready, and let's prepare for a successful send-off to university!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:04):
Hi, everyone.
Thanks so much for listening.
I am Susie Churs-Brown, and I amhere with Healthy Expat Parent.
And I am going to talk to youtoday about specifically for
Foreign Service families, we'regoing to talk a little bit about
(00:26):
education travel for youruniversity kid.
Well, first of all,congratulations on successfully
getting your child accepted intoa university.
I hope that there wasn't a lotof drama involved and your child
is super excited and ready to gooff on their new education
(00:49):
adventure.
It is one of the most proudexperiences and scary thoughts
of parent faces getting theirchild ready to launch from their
nice warm embrace of the familylife and then off on their own
(01:13):
where they will be mostlyresponsible for themselves,
which is a little intimidating.
So congratulations parents, youdid it.
I am going to talk to you todayabout the education travel
allowance.
This is not, there are severaldifferent kinds of allowances
(01:33):
that are related to educationthat often get kind of confused.
And so I just want to quicklyclarify what we are not talking
about.
So we are not talking abouteducation allowance, which is
the bucket that would cover thesort of thing such as away from
(01:54):
post school allowance.
So like if your child ispotentially going to go and
attend a boarding school, or ifyour child needs any sort of
tutoring or learning supportassistance, that would all fall
into the education allowance.
(02:16):
That is not what this is.
is specifically for kids pre-Kthrough grade 12.
And that is something thatsupports their learning at post
or at their boarding school.
The other thing that we are nottalking about today is the SNEA,
(02:36):
which is the Special NeedsEducation Allowance.
That is overseen with thesupport of med and in tandem
with your school and learningprofessionals will support your
child's learning needs.
This is an amount that'sdetermined, an allotment and
(02:59):
allowance that's determined byyour health unit together with
your RMO.
Oftentimes the RMLP is involved.
Again, that is pre-K through 12,not university.
So we are not talking aboutthat.
So what we are talking abouttoday is education travel.
Education travel will get youruniversity child to and from
(03:25):
your, all the way to and all theway back from your child's
university one time per 12months.
And that's really important toremember because that is
different than the other traveloptions that are available for
you to utilize to get your childto and from.
An education allowance will takeyour child, regardless of what
(03:51):
your home leave address is, theywill take your child to their
university.
The other thing that's reallyimportant to remember about
education travel is that it isbecause it is going to get your
child all the way to university,it doesn't necessarily only have
to be on an airplane.
So maybe this might involve atrain ticket or it might involve
(04:17):
potentially a rental car, butthat is open for interpretation.
I should...
I should also preface this with,this is for foreign service
families who are servingoverseas.
Even if you are a foreignservice family and you are
(04:38):
serving in a stateside post,this is not an allowance that
you can use to get your child toand from university.
It is only for families that areserving overseas.
So if your child is in theiruniversity, and they are
starting their third year, forexample, and you move overseas
(04:58):
at that point, then you canstart tapping into this
allowance.
However, those first two years,it is not available to you.
So this, again, is for foreignservice families that are
serving overseas.
And I should also say, and it'sreally, really important to
remember this, that while thisis an allowance that is written
into the FAM, it is open tointerpretation at your post.
(05:22):
So your management counselor andyour finance officer will
interpret how these FAMallowances are available to you
and how you can tap into them.
So they're not trying to rip youoff.
They're just trying to followtheir best interpretation of
(05:45):
what is written in the FAM.
And it's not 100% clear what iswritten in the FAM.
So have a little patience asyou're having these discussions.
And plan in advance because itcan be really, really, really
hard to book tickets,especially, for example, if your
child is coming back in Decemberand it's holiday travel season.
So it can be really hard to getthat ticket for your kid.
(06:09):
It is also only available touniversity students who are on
your orders.
If your university students arenot on your orders, then they
are not going to be allowed toget this allowance.
So this university student hasto be on your orders.
You have to be serving overseasand they need to be pursuing
(06:35):
their undergraduate degree.
It is not for...
graduate degrees.
If your child is going to bepursuing, for example, a year
abroad, then you can talk aboutthis interpretation with your
finance officer and theeducation travel allowance may
(06:57):
very likely be allowed to beused to get your child to their
university where they're havingexchange year.
But Let's talk a little bitabout the education travel.
So as I said, it is an allowancethat gets your child from your
post to their university.
(07:17):
So for us, that meant comingfrom where we are posted now,
which is on the other side ofthe planet from where my child
attended university, and he flewall the way to DC, and then he
took the train down to hisuniversity.
Both of those legs were paid forwith this allowance.
(07:42):
We could have flown him a littlecloser, and then we could have
submitted the receipt for theUber from the town that was a
little closer, but for us, himflying to DC was just fine.
The return ticket, which has tobe used within 12 months, is
(08:04):
from the same point So forexample, if your child flies to
DC, they have to fly back fromDC.
If your child flies to Richmond,they have to fly back from
Richmond.
So it's really important toremember that particular
allotment.
There are other travel optionsavailable to your child to get
(08:27):
to and from university.
And they maybe have a little bitmore flexibility, but they may
also, not allow as much options.
So for example, you might beable to use an R&R ticket or a
home leave ticket.
But remember that those, whilethose can be cost constructed,
(08:51):
your finance and GSO and traveloffice will have specific
restrictions that they can do onyour cost construct.
And there is no requirement forthat child to be able to get all
the way to post.
So for example, if you use yourR&R and your travel office is
(09:12):
very strictly interpreting yourR&R ticket, they may only pay to
get your child to D.C.
and then you are out of pocketfor the train ride to wherever,
for example.
There are a couple other thingsthat go along with Actually,
(09:33):
before we move on to what elseyou can include in this travel,
education travel amount, thereare a couple other things that
you might wanna consider whenyou're getting your child to and
from.
And it also depends on how muchtime you want to spend with your
child during the academic year.
I can't imagine having theholiday season without all of my
(09:56):
kids around me.
So what we did was we used thetravel allowance to get to
school.
So that would be his Augustticket.
And then he returned on histravel ticket, his education
travel ticket in December.
And then in January, when hereturned to post, he used an R&R
(10:16):
ticket.
So again, there's a little bitdifference and nuances on what
is allowed and what is notallowed, especially with cost
construction.
But the education travel is allthe way there, all the way back.
You can also, as I said, useyour home leave ticket, but then
some travel offices verystrictly interpret where you can
(10:41):
fly your home leave ticket to.
So they may say only to yourhome leave address.
We used to have a lot moreflexibility, it felt like, for
cost constructing our home leavetickets, but our recent
experience has not been superflexible.
So again, this is just really,really open to interpretation.
(11:02):
And I hope that you can bepatient and flexible with your
travel office and your financeoffice and your management.
With the education travel, whattypically is allowed, and again,
this is very much based onnegotiations with your travel
(11:22):
office.
We do not have a travel officehere at Post.
We use a contracted traveloffice out of Dubai.
And I believe a lot of theregional posts do also use this
travel office.
And we don't have any likesweetheart deals or special
(11:44):
agreements with any airlines.
There are some posts that dohave allowances or agreements
with airlines.
So they may have...
for example, an extra bag thatall US government passengers may
be able to take, or easierupgrades.
Or we recently just were allowedto fly more than just at 2
(12:07):
o'clock in the morning, so we'reall very excited about that.
But other airlines have a lotmore flexibility.
But often what the educationtravel will include is two bags
and then they will pay for onemore bag.
So then that child would havethree bags to travel with.
(12:29):
Or you can get a unaccompaniedair baggage shipment of 250
pounds.
In the UAB, so the unaccompaniedair baggage, you can, as I said,
250 pounds, and you can includein that clothing or seasonal
items or furnishings or, I mean,what have you, maybe toiletries,
(12:57):
et cetera.
It's only 250 pounds, but youcan very wisely use 250 pounds
and make that really work foryou.
So, That is just a one time.
The UAB is one time per year topost.
(13:17):
And then at the end of theacademic year, you can do a UAB
back to post.
Or you can also, instead of theUAB back to post, so at the end
of the academic year, the childis returning home with all of
their belongings, et cetera,which might be a little silly if
you know that child is going tobe attending that school again.
(13:39):
The other thing that you can usethat travel allowance for is to
pay for storage.
So you can have your childorganize a storage unit and then
you submit those receiptsagainst that travel allowance.
(14:01):
Again, with the airlineagreements, you may, when you
have the education allowance,there are less strict
interpretations oftentimes ofthe city pair So you might be
able to, especially depending onwhere your child is going to
school.
So for example, maybe your homeleave address is somewhere,
(14:25):
let's say Cleveland, Ohio, butyour child is going to school in
Hawaii.
The education travel will takethem all the way to Hawaii and
all the way back to your post.
It doesn't matter what your homeleave address is.
And that Hawaii airfare willprobably include a leg or two
(14:45):
that is not necessarily on acity paraphrase.
But if you then, for example,send your child back on a home
leave or an R&R ticket, thenyou'll have to remember all of
these requirements andrestrictions that will be
definitely enforced by yourtravel office.
UNKNOWN (15:08):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (15:09):
I'm trying to think what else I might need to
include for you to rememberabout this travel allowance.
This is a very importantconversation for you to have
with your finance office, withyour travel office slash GSO,
and with your managementcounselor.
And just know that a lot ofthese accommodations are,
(15:37):
definitely open tointerpretation.
We found that our previousfinance officer was
significantly more flexible andwilling to try and make things
work for us.
But he had kids and college agekids, whereas our current
(15:57):
finance officer does not haveany kids.
And so he has a much more strictinterpretation of what these
allowances are and are notavailable for.
So just be patient and don't tryand break the law, but do know
that these interpretations ofthese FAMs and these allowances
(16:21):
can be a little bit, they're notwritten in a very clear manner.
So it can be very confusing totry and figure out what is and
is not allowable.
Definitely have the conversationbeforehand Don't just start
submitting receipts for thingsbecause that won't necessarily
work out in your favor.
And also know that with the RNRand home leave tickets, I mean,
(16:48):
every foreign service officer inbetween posts will have a home
leave ticket.
But if you're serving at anon-RNR post, like for example,
most of the EUR, Most EU postsdo not have any R&R options, but
the education allowance, maybethe best option is to have your
(17:11):
child trained to and from theiruniversity if they are going to
school somewhere in Europe aswell.
The other thing that may be opento interpretation and a
conversation worth having ispotentially, for example,
especially in the you live inEurope and your child is
(17:32):
attending university in Europeconversation.
Strictly speaking, the ticketshould be one way to university
and one way back to post.
Potentially, it may cost lessfor your child to instead get a
(17:52):
Eurorail pass and they may beopen to, that sort of
arrangement instead.
So then your child could havethe year-long Eurorail pass, and
then you can add on extra stops.
All of these are importantconversations to have.
So again, thank you so much forlistening.
(18:14):
What we talked about today wasthe education travel allowance,
getting your child to, youruniversity child to and from
their undergraduate university.
This is an allowance that'savailable for foreign service
officers serving overseas.
It is not a part at all of thepre-K through 12 education
(18:43):
conversation.
It is not at all.
a part of the conversation forany sort of special needs
support.
This is only getting kids to andfrom their university, their
undergraduate degree.
I do hope that this was helpful,if not for anything else than to
(19:03):
start your list of questionsthat you can go and make an
appointment with your financeand management counselor and
have a conversation with them onwhat you're, child can and
cannot do on their way touniversity.
Congrats again on, you're almostthere, ready to launch your
kiddo.
And congrats on having theseconversations early.
(19:28):
And I hope that you have a supergreat send-off for your child.
Thanks again for listening.
And I will have anotherrecording soon.
Hi, everyone.
Thanks so much for listening.
I am Susie Churs-Brown, and I amhere with Healthy Expat Parent.
And I am going to talk to youtoday about specifically for
Foreign Service families, we'regoing to talk a little bit about
(00:26):
education travel for youruniversity kid.
Well, first of all,congratulations on successfully
getting your child accepted intoa university.
I hope that there wasn't a lotof drama involved and your child
is super excited and ready to gooff on their new education
(00:49):
adventure.
It is one of the most proudexperiences and scary thoughts
of parent faces getting theirchild ready to launch from their
nice warm embrace of the familylife and then off on their own
(01:13):
where they will be mostlyresponsible for themselves,
which is a little intimidating.
So congratulations parents, youdid it.
I am going to talk to you todayabout the education travel
allowance.
This is not, there are severaldifferent kinds of allowances
(01:33):
that are related to educationthat often get kind of confused.
And so I just want to quicklyclarify what we are not talking
about.
So we are not talking abouteducation allowance, which is
the bucket that would cover thesort of thing such as away from
(01:54):
post school allowance.
So like if your child ispotentially going to go and
attend a boarding school, or ifyour child needs any sort of
tutoring or learning supportassistance, that would all fall
into the education allowance.
(02:16):
That is not what this is.
is specifically for kids pre-Kthrough grade 12.
And that is something thatsupports their learning at post
or at their boarding school.
The other thing that we are nottalking about today is the SNEA,
(02:36):
which is the Special NeedsEducation Allowance.
That is overseen with thesupport of med and in tandem
with your school and learningprofessionals will support your
child's learning needs.
This is an amount that'sdetermined, an allotment and
(02:59):
allowance that's determined byyour health unit together with
your RMO.
Oftentimes the RMLP is involved.
Again, that is pre-K through 12,not university.
So we are not talking aboutthat.
So what we are talking abouttoday is education travel.
Education travel will get youruniversity child to and from
(03:25):
your, all the way to and all theway back from your child's
university one time per 12months.
And that's really important toremember because that is
different than the other traveloptions that are available for
you to utilize to get your childto and from.
An education allowance will takeyour child, regardless of what
(03:51):
your home leave address is, theywill take your child to their
university.
The other thing that's reallyimportant to remember about
education travel is that it isbecause it is going to get your
child all the way to university,it doesn't necessarily only have
to be on an airplane.
So maybe this might involve atrain ticket or it might involve
(04:17):
potentially a rental car, butthat is open for interpretation.
I should...
I should also preface this with,this is for foreign service
families who are servingoverseas.
Even if you are a foreignservice family and you are
(04:38):
serving in a stateside post,this is not an allowance that
you can use to get your child toand from university.
It is only for families that areserving overseas.
So if your child is in theiruniversity, and they are
starting their third year, forexample, and you move overseas
(04:58):
at that point, then you canstart tapping into this
allowance.
However, those first two years,it is not available to you.
So this, again, is for foreignservice families that are
serving overseas.
And I should also say, and it'sreally, really important to
remember this, that while thisis an allowance that is written
into the FAM, it is open tointerpretation at your post.
(05:22):
So your management counselor andyour finance officer will
interpret how these FAMallowances are available to you
and how you can tap into them.
So they're not trying to rip youoff.
They're just trying to followtheir best interpretation of
(05:45):
what is written in the FAM.
And it's not 100% clear what iswritten in the FAM.
So have a little patience asyou're having these discussions.
And plan in advance because itcan be really, really, really
hard to book tickets,especially, for example, if your
child is coming back in Decemberand it's holiday travel season.
So it can be really hard to getthat ticket for your kid.
(06:09):
It is also only available touniversity students who are on
your orders.
If your university students arenot on your orders, then they
are not going to be allowed toget this allowance.
So this university student hasto be on your orders.
You have to be serving overseasand they need to be pursuing
(06:35):
their undergraduate degree.
It is not for...
graduate degrees.
If your child is going to bepursuing, for example, a year
abroad, then you can talk aboutthis interpretation with your
finance officer and theeducation travel allowance may
(06:57):
very likely be allowed to beused to get your child to their
university where they're havingexchange year.
But Let's talk a little bitabout the education travel.
So as I said, it is an allowancethat gets your child from your
post to their university.
(07:17):
So for us, that meant comingfrom where we are posted now,
which is on the other side ofthe planet from where my child
attended university, and he flewall the way to DC, and then he
took the train down to hisuniversity.
Both of those legs were paid forwith this allowance.
(07:42):
We could have flown him a littlecloser, and then we could have
submitted the receipt for theUber from the town that was a
little closer, but for us, himflying to DC was just fine.
The return ticket, which has tobe used within 12 months, is
(08:04):
from the same point So forexample, if your child flies to
DC, they have to fly back fromDC.
If your child flies to Richmond,they have to fly back from
Richmond.
So it's really important toremember that particular
allotment.
There are other travel optionsavailable to your child to get
(08:27):
to and from university.
And they maybe have a little bitmore flexibility, but they may
also, not allow as much options.
So for example, you might beable to use an R&R ticket or a
home leave ticket.
But remember that those, whilethose can be cost constructed,
(08:51):
your finance and GSO and traveloffice will have specific
restrictions that they can do onyour cost construct.
And there is no requirement forthat child to be able to get all
the way to post.
So for example, if you use yourR&R and your travel office is
(09:12):
very strictly interpreting yourR&R ticket, they may only pay to
get your child to D.C.
and then you are out of pocketfor the train ride to wherever,
for example.
There are a couple other thingsthat go along with Actually,
(09:33):
before we move on to what elseyou can include in this travel,
education travel amount, thereare a couple other things that
you might wanna consider whenyou're getting your child to and
from.
And it also depends on how muchtime you want to spend with your
child during the academic year.
I can't imagine having theholiday season without all of my
(09:56):
kids around me.
So what we did was we used thetravel allowance to get to
school.
So that would be his Augustticket.
And then he returned on histravel ticket, his education
travel ticket in December.
And then in January, when hereturned to post, he used an R&R
(10:16):
ticket.
So again, there's a little bitdifference and nuances on what
is allowed and what is notallowed, especially with cost
construction.
But the education travel is allthe way there, all the way back.
You can also, as I said, useyour home leave ticket, but then
some travel offices verystrictly interpret where you can
(10:41):
fly your home leave ticket to.
So they may say only to yourhome leave address.
We used to have a lot moreflexibility, it felt like, for
cost constructing our home leavetickets, but our recent
experience has not been superflexible.
So again, this is just really,really open to interpretation.
(11:02):
And I hope that you can bepatient and flexible with your
travel office and your financeoffice and your management.
With the education travel, whattypically is allowed, and again,
this is very much based onnegotiations with your travel
(11:22):
office.
We do not have a travel officehere at Post.
We use a contracted traveloffice out of Dubai.
And I believe a lot of theregional posts do also use this
travel office.
And we don't have any likesweetheart deals or special
(11:44):
agreements with any airlines.
There are some posts that dohave allowances or agreements
with airlines.
So they may have...
for example, an extra bag thatall US government passengers may
be able to take, or easierupgrades.
Or we recently just were allowedto fly more than just at 2
(12:07):
o'clock in the morning, so we'reall very excited about that.
But other airlines have a lotmore flexibility.
But often what the educationtravel will include is two bags
and then they will pay for onemore bag.
So then that child would havethree bags to travel with.
(12:29):
Or you can get a unaccompaniedair baggage shipment of 250
pounds.
In the UAB, so the unaccompaniedair baggage, you can, as I said,
250 pounds, and you can includein that clothing or seasonal
items or furnishings or, I mean,what have you, maybe toiletries,
(12:57):
et cetera.
It's only 250 pounds, but youcan very wisely use 250 pounds
and make that really work foryou.
So, That is just a one time.
The UAB is one time per year topost.
(13:17):
And then at the end of theacademic year, you can do a UAB
back to post.
Or you can also, instead of theUAB back to post, so at the end
of the academic year, the childis returning home with all of
their belongings, et cetera,which might be a little silly if
you know that child is going tobe attending that school again.
(13:39):
The other thing that you can usethat travel allowance for is to
pay for storage.
So you can have your childorganize a storage unit and then
you submit those receiptsagainst that travel allowance.
(14:01):
Again, with the airlineagreements, you may, when you
have the education allowance,there are less strict
interpretations oftentimes ofthe city pair So you might be
able to, especially depending onwhere your child is going to
school.
So for example, maybe your homeleave address is somewhere,
(14:25):
let's say Cleveland, Ohio, butyour child is going to school in
Hawaii.
The education travel will takethem all the way to Hawaii and
all the way back to your post.
It doesn't matter what your homeleave address is.
And that Hawaii airfare willprobably include a leg or two
(14:45):
that is not necessarily on acity paraphrase.
But if you then, for example,send your child back on a home
leave or an R&R ticket, thenyou'll have to remember all of
these requirements andrestrictions that will be
definitely enforced by yourtravel office.
UNKNOWN (15:08):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (15:09):
I'm trying to think what else I might need to
include for you to rememberabout this travel allowance.
This is a very importantconversation for you to have
with your finance office, withyour travel office slash GSO,
and with your managementcounselor.
And just know that a lot ofthese accommodations are,
(15:37):
definitely open tointerpretation.
We found that our previousfinance officer was
significantly more flexible andwilling to try and make things
work for us.
But he had kids and college agekids, whereas our current
(15:57):
finance officer does not haveany kids.
And so he has a much more strictinterpretation of what these
allowances are and are notavailable for.
So just be patient and don't tryand break the law, but do know
that these interpretations ofthese FAMs and these allowances
(16:21):
can be a little bit, they're notwritten in a very clear manner.
So it can be very confusing totry and figure out what is and
is not allowable.
Definitely have the conversationbeforehand Don't just start
submitting receipts for thingsbecause that won't necessarily
work out in your favor.
And also know that with the RNRand home leave tickets, I mean,
(16:48):
every foreign service officer inbetween posts will have a home
leave ticket.
But if you're serving at anon-RNR post, like for example,
most of the EUR, Most EU postsdo not have any R&R options, but
the education allowance, maybethe best option is to have your
(17:11):
child trained to and from theiruniversity if they are going to
school somewhere in Europe aswell.
The other thing that may be opento interpretation and a
conversation worth having ispotentially, for example,
especially in the you live inEurope and your child is
(17:32):
attending university in Europeconversation.
Strictly speaking, the ticketshould be one way to university
and one way back to post.
Potentially, it may cost lessfor your child to instead get a
(17:52):
Eurorail pass and they may beopen to, that sort of
arrangement instead.
So then your child could havethe year-long Eurorail pass, and
then you can add on extra stops.
All of these are importantconversations to have.
So again, thank you so much forlistening.
(18:14):
What we talked about today wasthe education travel allowance,
getting your child to, youruniversity child to and from
their undergraduate university.
This is an allowance that'savailable for foreign service
officers serving overseas.
It is not a part at all of thepre-K through 12 education
(18:43):
conversation.
It is not at all.
a part of the conversation forany sort of special needs
support.
This is only getting kids to andfrom their university, their
undergraduate degree.
I do hope that this was helpful,if not for anything else than to
(19:03):
start your list of questionsthat you can go and make an
appointment with your financeand management counselor and
have a conversation with them onwhat you're, child can and
cannot do on their way touniversity.
Congrats again on, you're almostthere, ready to launch your
kiddo.
And congrats on having theseconversations early.
(19:28):
And I hope that you have a supergreat send-off for your child.
Thanks again for listening.
And I will have anotherrecording soon.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.