Q. I am a military member and a single parent of four children. I am about to PCS to Quantico, Va and am looking for some streamline checklists. I have never had to plan a move before (my X-wife normally did that) and now I realize just how much goes into the plan and execution. Help! I am a single military member moving for the first time with kids!
Your site has been very helpful especially the PCS checklist that breaks down items to do on a timescale. All of it does seem very daunting though could use your expertise if available to assist. Thank you, Dennis
Sure, just let me know what questions you have. I am assuming you already have your orders? The first thing to do would be to either contact housing in order to get into base housing or find housing off of the base. Especially with children, you don’t want to scramble to find housing at the last-minute. My next stop would be to contact transportation so you can set up a time for them to come out and pack/move your items. You will want to schedule this as early out as you can because dates can fill up, especially during summer months when they are the busiest.
If your children are school age your next stop, after contacting housing and transportation should be to contact your children’s current school. Give them a heads up that you are moving along with the date so they can make sure to have their transfer paperwork ready for you as well as all grading is done if it’s towards the end of the school year. Also, (assuming you know where you will be living) contact the new school to find out what requirements they have and what paperwork they need. If you’re moving from one state to another, a lot of the time you will find that the new state has different immunization and medical requirements. When we moved to Maryland from Georgia I had to get a lead test done on my children before they could enter Maryland schools or a letter signed by a doctor stating that they did not grow up in a home that was built before 1970 (I believe).
Those are the first 3 things that I always make sure I do. We do have a printable PCS list here that should help you as well.
I hope this helps to give you an idea of where to start the daunting PCS checklist. Let me know if I can be of any further assistance or if you have any questions!
Leave me a Comment =)