Board of Contract Appeals
                General Services Administration 
                     Washington, D.C. 20405
                                


                      ______________________

                          March 17, 2006
                      ______________________


                         GSBCA 16782-TRAV


                 In the Matter of REBECCA MILLER


     Rebecca Miller, APO Area Europe, Claimant.

     Robert Schildkraut, Assistant General Counsel, Education Activity, Department of
Defense, Arlington, VA, appearing for Department of Defense.

PARKER, Board Judge.

                            Background

     Rebecca Miller is a teacher at Butzbach Elementary School in Germany and an
employee of the Department of Defense Dependent Schools - Europe (DODDS-E).  On
October 24, 2005, Ms. Miller received notice that her mother had passed away the previous
evening.  On the same day, she requested Emergency Visitation Travel (EVT) for herself
and her nine-year-old son so that they could attend the funeral in Texas.  Ms. Miller received
orders only for herself, however, and had to purchase an airplane ticket for her son at a cost
of $700.  She has asked the Board to review DODDS-E's decision that she is not entitled
to reimbursement for the cost of her son's ticket.

                            Discussion

     DODDS-E properly interpreted the applicable regulations.  The Department of
Defense's Joint Travel Regulations (JTR) provide for EVT to allow employees who are
stationed overseas, and in some cases their eligible family members, to travel to the United
States in family emergencies, including instances of serious illness or injury, or death, of an
immediate family member.  JTR C6679-A(1).  The regulations also provide:

     Ordinarily, only one member of a family may travel at Government expense on
     EVT.  However, in exceptional circumstances, such as critical injury to a
     dependent child . . . attending school away from PDS [permanent duty station]
     that requires the presence of the employee and/or eligible family member(s),
     or the death of a dependent at the PDS which for compassionate reasons
     requires the employee and eligible family member(s) to accompany the remains
     to interment, EVT for more than one family member may be
     authorized/approved.

Id. C6679-A(3).

     Although the death of Ms. Miller's mother clearly was the type of serious family
emergency that entitled her to EVT, there was no issue of a critically-ill child attending
school away from Ms. Miller's PDS or the death of a dependent at her PDS that required
family members to accompany the remains to interment.  Under the circumstances, as
profoundly sad as the death of her mother may have been, DODDS-E reasonably decided that
Ms. Miller's situation was not an exceptional circumstance, as defined in the regulation.  The
claim is thus denied.



                                   __________________________
                                   ROBERT W. PARKER
                                   Board Judge