Thanks to a new grant, families with current or previous-deployed soldiers can rest easier knowing their loved one is fighting overseas.

Boca Raton-based nonprofit Family Readiness Team and Broward’s Student Support Department pocketed a $75,000 grant from Dade Foundation aimed at launching a support program for students and families of American soldiers preparing for deployment, already overseas or recently returned from Iraq or Afghanistan.

The largesse provides individual and group counseling, community outreach, home visitations, tutoring, training and educational opportunities, plus sporting and family events courtesy of local Family Readiness Groups.

District estimates tally Broward, Palm Beach and Martin county’s active-duty military personnel targeted for deployment in late-2009 at roughly 23,000. There are 80,000 servicemen, 42,000 military spouses and 33,000 children of military personnel living in Florida alone.

Among those, two to three percent of children are students enrolled in Broward County schools, according to Student Support Department statistics.

For more information, call department director Laurel Thompson at 754-321-2490, or visit www.broward.k12.fl.us/studentsupport.