Q: What is Month of the Military Child, and how does Naval Station Everett mark it?
A: Month of the Military Child is a national observance every April that recognizes the children of U.S. service members. Designated by Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger in 1986, 2026 marks its 40th anniversary. At Naval Station Everett, the observance is anchored by the base’s Child and Youth Programs, the School Liaison Office, Fleet and Family Support Center, and community partners like the Lake Washington & Everett Council of the Navy League. Purple Up Day — when the Navy, Marine Corps, Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Space Force communities all wear purple to represent every service branch — fell on April 15 this year.

Month of the Military Child Turns 40: How Naval Station Everett Supports Navy Kids in 2026

April is Month of the Military Child, and in 2026 it is a milestone observance — 40 years since Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger first designated April as a dedicated month to recognize the children of U.S. service members. For Naval Station Everett and the Navy families who live on base and throughout Snohomish County, that 40-year anniversary hits differently than a typical April.

Navy kids move an average of six to nine times before they graduate from high school. They say goodbye to a parent for a deployment that often stretches past seven months. They change schools, lose friends, and start over — and then do it again. Month of the Military Child exists because somebody, four decades ago, recognized that the sacrifice inside a military household is not carried by the sailor alone.

Here is what the observance looks like at the Naval Station Everett level in 2026, and where Navy kids and the parents who love them can plug into local support.

Why April, and Why Purple

The designation of April as Month of the Military Child goes back to 1986, when Caspar Weinberger — then Secretary of Defense under President Reagan — formalized the observance. The choice of the color purple came later and has stuck because purple combines the traditional colors of every military branch: Army green, Marine Corps red, Navy and Coast Guard blue, Air Force blue, and Space Force grey all blend into one. When everyone wears purple on Purple Up Day, it is a visual way of saying: the military child belongs to every service, not just one.

Purple Up Day in 2026 landed on Wednesday, April 15. Schools across Snohomish County that serve military-connected students — the Mukilteo, Everett, and Marysville school districts in particular — mark the day with purple shirts, purple ribbons, and classroom activities that let military kids be seen for the specific thing they are.

Naval Station Everett Child and Youth Programs

The hub of base-level support for Navy kids at NAVSTA Everett runs through the installation’s Child and Youth Programs office. Three pieces matter most to families:

The Child Development Center

The Everett Child Development Center provides center-based care for children ages six weeks through five years. The CDC is primarily structured around full-time care for working Navy families — a critical need when one parent is underway and the other is holding the line at home. Availability at CDCs across Navy Region Northwest has been tight for years, and Everett is no exception. Families relocating to the area are encouraged to put their names on the waitlist the moment they receive orders.

Youth Programs

For school-age kids, Youth Programs runs a monthly calendar that covers classes, 4-H, field trips, special events, sports clinics, and summer camp. During Month of the Military Child, youth programming typically leans into themes of resilience, connection, and celebration — giving Navy kids a space where everyone in the room understands what a duty station change or a deployment countdown actually feels like.

The School Liaison Office

Perhaps the most underused resource at NAVSTA Everett is the School Liaison Office. The School Liaison serves as the subject-matter expert on K-12 issues for the installation commander and, more importantly, for every Navy family that has to navigate a school transfer mid-year. The office helps with inbound and outbound school transfers, information on local school district boundaries, Individualized Education Program (IEP) continuity across state lines, and the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children — the legal framework that protects military kids from losing credits or being forced to retake coursework when they move.

The School Liaison office is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., by appointment. Families can follow @EverettFFR on Facebook and Instagram for updates.

Fleet and Family Support Center: The Parent-Facing Half

Month of the Military Child focuses on kids, but the reality is that military kids do well when the parent at home is supported too. The Fleet and Family Support Center (FFSC) at NAVSTA Everett carries that weight through programs that serve the whole household: Family Employment Readiness, deployment readiness, new-parent support, counseling, and relocation assistance.

FFSC is reachable at 425-304-3735. For a spouse arriving in Everett for the first time with two kids in tow and a sailor about to go underway, that phone number is the single most useful thing in this article.

The Community Side: Navy League, School Districts, and Local Partners

Naval Station Everett is not an island. The Lake Washington and Everett Council of the Navy League of the United States is one of the most active community partners supporting sailors, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, merchant mariners, and their families across the region. The council’s advocacy and education work touches Month of the Military Child each year through ship sponsorships, school programs, and public events that connect the civilian side of Snohomish County to the Navy families who live here.

Mukilteo School District, which serves the largest share of NAVSTA Everett’s school-age kids, is a Purple Star-designated district — a Washington State designation that recognizes schools going above and beyond to support military-connected students. Everett Public Schools and Marysville School District also serve significant populations of Navy families.

What a Navy Kid Actually Deals With

The statistics behind Month of the Military Child are worth sitting with. A military child’s school day is not the same as a civilian child’s. Deployments, duty-station moves, and the constant background hum of a parent’s underway schedule layer an extra weight on top of the normal stuff kids have to handle — friendships, grades, growing up.

The upside is that Navy kids — military kids generally — grow up with a kind of resilience and worldliness that is hard to replicate. They know how to walk into a cafeteria full of strangers on day one. They know airports. They know how to make friends fast, because the alternative is to not have friends at all. But that resilience is not free; it is built on top of real loss, and it takes a village of programs, teachers, school liaisons, youth directors, and neighbors to make sure the weight does not become too much.

Month of the Military Child, at its 40-year mark, is the moment each year when the country is invited to notice.

How Everett Residents Can Show Up

For civilian neighbors in Everett and broader Snohomish County who want to do something concrete this April, a few practical options:

Wear purple — even after Purple Up Day. Ribbons on mailboxes, purple porch lights, and purple-themed local business promotions are simple visible signals.
Support the Lake Washington and Everett Navy League Council — membership and volunteer work directly funds programs for military families.
Check in on a Navy family you know — especially one with a sailor currently underway. An offered meal, a ride for the kids, or a Saturday of childcare in April is worth more than a social media post.
Thank a teacher who serves military kids. School counselors, classroom teachers, and school liaison personnel carry a lot of this weight invisibly.

The 40-Year Thread

When Weinberger designated April as Month of the Military Child in 1986, the Cold War was not yet over, the Navy’s destroyer force looked nothing like it does today, and Naval Station Everett did not yet exist as a commissioned base. Forty years later, the fleet has changed, the missions have changed, and the ships homeported at Everett have rotated through generations of crews.

What has not changed is the kid waiting at the pier with a hand-lettered sign. Or the teenager who transferred in mid-semester and has not figured out where to sit at lunch yet. Or the six-year-old drawing a picture of a destroyer to mail to a parent who is somewhere they cannot be named. Those are the kids this month belongs to.

Forty years in, and the work is not finished.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is Purple Up Day in 2026?

Purple Up Day for Month of the Military Child in 2026 was Wednesday, April 15. The designated day varies slightly year to year but consistently falls in mid-April.

What is the School Liaison Office at Naval Station Everett, and how do I contact it?

The School Liaison Office serves as NAVSTA Everett’s expert on K-12 school issues for military families. It helps with inbound and outbound school transfers, IEP continuity across state lines, and the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children. The office is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., by appointment. Follow @EverettFFR on Facebook or Instagram for updates.

How do I get on the Everett Child Development Center waitlist?

Families should contact NAVSTA Everett Child and Youth Programs as soon as orders are received. The Child Development Center provides care for children six weeks through five years, and demand exceeds capacity across Navy Region Northwest, so early waitlist placement is important.

What does the Fleet and Family Support Center do for military families in Everett?

The FFSC at NAVSTA Everett runs programs covering spouse employment, deployment readiness, new-parent support, counseling, and relocation assistance. Contact: 425-304-3735.

Why is the color purple used for Month of the Military Child?

Purple combines the traditional branch colors — Army green, Marine Corps red, Navy and Coast Guard blue, Air Force blue, and Space Force grey — into one unified color that represents every service branch. It signals that military children belong to every branch of the armed forces, not just one.

Which local school districts serve Naval Station Everett families?

Mukilteo School District serves the largest share of NAVSTA Everett’s school-age children and is designated a Purple Star district by Washington State. Everett Public Schools and Marysville School District also serve significant populations of Navy families in Snohomish County.

How can civilians in Everett support military children in April?

Wear purple, support the Lake Washington and Everett Council of the Navy League, check in on neighboring Navy families (especially those with a sailor deployed), and thank teachers and school staff who support military-connected students.