As thousands of Schofield Barracks soldiers begin returning to Hawai'i and happily rejoining their spouses and children, some schools are also preparing to help ease the stress that can follow the reunions.

While family reunions following a long deployment are usually a joyous occasion, school and military officials say soldiers and their families also have to readjust to life together. And that process is not always easy.

Household routines and disciplinary rules children have grown accustomed to during the 12- to 15-month deployment will likely require adjustments when a parent returns home. Soldiers and their families have changed while they were apart. Soldiers may be grappling with emotions from being in a war zone.

"Yes, it is a happy time, but there are things that they will have to work out," said Linda Yoshikami, principal of Samuel K. Solomon Elementary School at Schofield Barracks. Solomon Elementary has been working with Tripler Army Medical Center for more than two decades on a program to support Army families.

The majority of the school's 822 students have a parent who has been deployed, Yoshikami said.

This week the school will begin a pilot program involving afterschool activities geared at helping recently returned soldiers play and reconnect with their child. The spouse who has been home during the deployment would also be involved in the voluntary program; the school will work with the spouse on math activities so the family may do them at home.

The goal is "creating situations where now they can do something as a family yet in the name of education," Yoshikami said.

"One of the things we've noticed in the past with the deployments has been where dad or mom may look like they're the same person, but they've been through a lot of things and they've seen a lot of things," she said. "Sometimes they just want to be kept alone, and it's difficult. Also ... the child is not the same child — they're a year older. So their needs are different and the adjustment on both sides takes a while."

Hale Kula Elementary, also on Schofield Barracks, has a voluntary after-school deployment workshop that involves parents and families, said principal Jan Iwase.

Like other schools, Hale Kula is trying not to generate too much attention to the soldiers' return, in part because they won't be all returning at once.

"We don't want to make a big deal of it because for every child whose father or mother is coming home, there are other children whose parents are not coming home yet," Iwase said.

Also, while 7,000 Schofield soldiers are returning this month and next from Iraq, an additional 4,000 Stryker brigade soldiers from Schofield will deploy to Iraq later this year.

"It's going to be a constant come and go," Iwase said. "This deployment is going to be something that we're going to have to regularly address in our school."

Major Sheldon Wheeler Elementary School has put together grade-level homework packets, anticipating that some students will miss school to go on a family trip when their parent returns.

"We think it's important to allow that to happen," said principal Joe Lee. "There is some impact to learning, but I think the social-emotional tradeoff is much more valuable."

Wheeler Elementary staff recently went through training with a child psychiatrist from Tripler Army Medical Center and Military Family Life Consultants to prepare for the reunion. The school also created a third counselor position for academic counseling to help its two grade-level counselors focus more on "the social-emotional well-being of the students."

Above all, Lee said he's making sure the school provides a sense of stability that children can count on.

"We are one of the only places where they have consistency," he said. "So we really don't want to have these ups and downs. We want to keep it as static as possible for the kids, so they have a safe place that they know the routine, that they're comfortable."

The Army has worked with schools to help prepare them for certain student behaviors or situations that may crop up in the classroom, officials said.

In some cases children may act out or be withdrawn, they said.

The homecoming is a happy time, "but there can be some acting out whenever mom or dad comes back because there's some new person in the equation again and there are a lot of adjustments," said Scott Kennedy, family life chaplain at Schofield. "So I think whatever patience and understanding that the teachers can have for those kids would be helpful during the transition."

The Army also has a myriad of programs — some of which are mandatory for active-duty soldiers — and faith-based and other support for soldiers and families before, during and after the deployment, officials said.

For example, before soldiers return, family members may attend reunion classes, and chaplains talk to active-duty soldiers about what to expect when they return, including behavior changes they may see in their children, said Sandra Crocker, Army Community Service mobilization and deployment program manager.

The Army also has classes that returning soldiers and family members attend together. Officials talk to them about the signs and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Basically what's happening is we're having a reunion of intimate strangers," Crocker said. "We have married couples who no longer really know each other in certain ways because they have been separated."

But officials emphasized the resiliency of the families and said the focus is not just on dealing with any negative symptoms but using challenges in the reunion process as an opportunity to strengthen relationships.

Wheeler Elementary counselor Kim Vincent said after the return of soldiers from the previous deployment to Iraq there was some — but not a substantial — increase in referrals to counselors.

"It all varies with every child, but any kind of disruption in a child's routine is going to cause a reaction," she said. "So when one soldier leaves, they fall into a new pattern, a new routine at home, and I think things kind of settle down. And then the dad or mom comes home and it's a readjustment again.

"It's hard. But overall I'd say the children and the families here are just amazingly resilient," Vincent said. "They adjust, and it takes some time, but they do it. They're really strong."

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com.