In January of 2009, the Department of Defense decided that military spouses would be given a weight allowance of 500 lbs. for their professional gear which wouldn’t be counted against the regular household weight allowance for a move. As many of you know, military members have been receiving a pro-gear weight allowance for many years. While some changes have taken place over the years for military member pro-gear, it wasn’t until this new bill was put into effect in April 2009 that spouses were given their own weight allowance.
What does that mean for homeschoolers? What, if anything, can be claimed as pro-gear by homeschooling military spouses?
First, let’s take a closer look at the changes to the JFTR regarding the special weight allowance for dependent military spouses:
PROFESSIONAL BOOKS, PAPERS, AND EQUIPMENT (PBP&E) FOR A MEMBER’S DEPENDENT SPOUSE. (Also called PRO or PRO-Gear). (NOT APPLICABLE TO AN EMPLOYEE’S DEPENDENT SPOUSE). HHG in a spouse’s possession needed for the member’s spouse employment or community support activities at the next or a later destination. The following items are PBP&E:
1. Reference material,
2 Instruments, tools, and equipment peculiar to technicians, mechanics, and members of the professions;
3. Specialized clothing such as diving suit, flying suits and helmets, band uniforms, nurse uniforms, chaplains’ vestments, and other specialized apparel not normal or usual uniform or clothing; and
4. Personal computers and accompanying equipment used for business or community support activities (i.e., CPU, monitor, keyboard, mouse, 1 printer, 1 set of small computer speakers).
NOTE: Excluded from PBP&E are commercial products for sale/resale used in conducting business, sports equipment, and office, household, or shop fixtures or furniture (such as bookcases, study/computer desks, file cabinets, and racks) of any kind even though used ICW the PBP&E.
So now that we see what’s included and what isn’t included, we can now determine how this applies to a homeschooling military spouse. {Please note: I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one online. I am only giving information based upon my own personal experience and research. I have also talked to individuals at DMO (formerly TMO) regarding these matters.}
As homeschoolers, one of our biggest concerns during a move is the weight of all of those books. They’re not light, and their weight adds up quickly. Thankfully, with the new spouse pro-gear, you can now claim your teacher’s manuals and other reference materials as pro-gear. The gray area comes in when you start talking about living books as these may or may not fall under the professional gear category. Do you help with homeschool co-ops or homeschool groups? Are these materials needed for those activities? If yes, then they can definitely be counted as pro-gear. The same can be said about a computer and printer. Notice that the computer/printer only count if they’re used for a community support activities. (While not directly homeschool related, take into consideration boy scouts, girl scouts, 4-H, church groups… when thinking about the community support activities.)
School supplies such as paper, pens, arts & crafts, desks, book cases… can not be counted as pro-gear. The general consensus is that regular children’s books can not be counted as pro-gear.
So, now that you know what can be counted as spouse pro-gear, how are you going to make sure that these items are not counted against your regular weight limit? The DMO (and the moving company) usually recommend separating pro-gear from regular household items. You’ll need one area for your spouse pro-gear and one area for the military member pro-gear. To make things easier for myself, I usually just go ahead and box up the pro-gear and label it with His or Her pro-gear labels. (Note: if you box up a computer and/or printer, the box will need to be labeled with the computer and/or printer information including the serial number(s).) I tend to go a little crazy with labels when it comes to moving time, but you can just write on the boxes if you’re not label crazy like me. lol!
When you start the move process, you will be asked to quote approximate weights for your pro-gear in addition to the rest of the house. I recommend, at least for the spouse pro-gear, to just state the full 500 lb. limit unless you know for a fact that you’ll be under. Later, you’ll want to verify with the movers that they did note the pro-gear, so that won’t be counted against your weight limit for the move.
If you’re a homeschooler who also works outside of the home or who has a home-based business, make sure you add your job related items to your spouse pro-gear. Even if you know that you’re going to go over your limit, it doesn’t hurt to have all of the pro-gear labeled as such. When you’re packing up those supplies/books, make sure the boxes are labeled well and don’t just say books. It helps to have a more detailed labeling when you need to find something after the move.
Next month, I plan on talking about homeschooling during a move. Let me know if there is anything in particular that you’d like to see addressed.
About Heather Lammers
We PCSed in 2010, and was gratefully able to claim a good portion of our homeschool materials as my pro gear. Being a homeschool family, we tend to have lots of books (unless I’m a wierd homeschooler…LOL) and books are HEAVY!!! I claimed every literature, reference and otherwise educational book, as well as all of our arts & crafts & science materials. If it wasn’t for that pro gear allowance, I’m sure we would have been over weight. We hadn’t PCSed in over 12 years, and had NO idea what our allowances were.
I hear you. The pro-gear allowance really saved us during our last move. I’ve only met a handful of homeschoolers who don’t have an over abundance of books. lol! I thought it was normal to have bookcases all over the house. **grin**
I was thinking of the labels, too. Using them particularly on my storage buckets & electronics because the movers (language issues for this move) usually don’t want to write what I want written down. They like generic. Your labels are different than the Avery shipping labels I was able to find. Do they stick well? I was figuring they’d have to tape the labels on the outside of the boxes/packages in order to keep them on. What has been your experience?
These are just printed on standard Avery address labels. They’ve always stuck well for us. In fact, I still have labels on some boxes from 2 moves ago. The only time that I might use packing tape over them is if I put them on Rubbermaid bins and feel they are not getting proper adhesion, but normally, they stick quite well even to those. The movers won’t put the labels on for you, so it would be up to you to do that if you want them.