Can My Child Go to College Free? State Tuition Benefits for Veteran Families

Let's be real for a second. You have spent years with the mission first in mind early mornings, long deployments, missed holidays and constant moves. What will be the advantages of that service? They're not handouts. They're yours. You earned them.
Why are thousands of dollars in education money going to waste each and every year by so many military and veteran families?

It is dedicated to you in case you have a spouse or a child who is considering college. Since there is a high probability that they might go to a state university with no or minimum tuition fees, and most families are even unaware that this is an option.

The Big Picture: What Free Tuition Really Means.

Before we get down to it, it is best to straighten our expectations. When states discuss providing military dependents with free tuition, they mean an almost exclusive reference to tuition waivers in state colleges and universities. That will generally include tuition and compulsory charges which, of record, is normally the largest charge on any college bill. What it does not typically cover: housing, meal plans, books or personal expenses. You should know that, but that should not put you down. The reason is as follows, as the cost of a state tuition waiver is stacked on top of federal programs, such as the Post-9/11 GI Bill or Chapter 35 Dependents Educational Assistance (DEA), the additional cost can be often subsidized as well. More on that in a minute.

States Leading the Pack

All states are not created equal as far as veteran education benefits are concerned. However, a few are particularly notable in the services they provide to the military dependents.

Texas — The Hazlewood Act

The state of Texas has one of the most popular programs. Service men who are eligible may get up to 150 hours of tuition exemption at Texas colleges. Better still, with the Hazlewood Legacy provision, the unused hours may be transferred to a dependent child. And you in Texas, who have not investigated same, put a halt to what you are about, and look it up today.

California — CalVet College Fee Waiver

The program offered by California enables the qualifying plans to ensure that eligible dependents of disabled or deceased veterans can enroll at UC campuses, Cal State schools and community colleges, where tuition is totally waived. Some of the factors to eligibility are disability rating, income level (in some plans), and California residence.

North Carolina — School of War Children Scholarship

North Carolina needs an extra mention here since their program covers more than tuition. The dependents who are qualified can be covered on their tuition, fees and, in a few instances, room and board. Such level of assistance is not common in the state level and it could potentially make a tremendous impact in families.

Virginia — Military Survivors and Dependent Education Program

Virginia does provide tuition and compulsory charge waivers in state establishments to spouses and youngsters of those service members who have been killed in a service mission, and to dependents of permanently and totally disabled veterans. The program is applicable in state agencies that are in the form of public colleges and universities.

Florida — Scholarships for Children and Spouses of Veterans

Florida offers scholarship tuition and some fees to the dependents of veterans who died in service or have service-related disabilities that are qualifying. The state also has good in-state tuition safeguards that are extended to military families.

Illinois — Illinois Veteran Grant and Dependent Programs

Illinois also has full tuition benefits on state schools to eligible veterans in the Illinois Veteran Grant. There are other state programs of dependents of disabled or deceased veterans, which are subject to the residency and service requirements.

These states show the effectiveness of state level education advantages. Although the majority of the programs cover tuition and mandatory fees, some such as the one in North Carolina can cover assistance with housing. With military families, it is possible to increase the amount of education funding significantly by just knowing the residency requirements of the state, as well as the coordination of these benefits with other federal programs such as the GI Bill.

Who Qualifies? Here's the General Framework

Each state elaborates its regulations, yet the majority of the veteran-dependent education programs have a similar outline:

• The former should have been discharged with honor.

   

• The veteran must also be at least 100 percent permanently and totally disabled because of a service connected condition or death in service, death because of service connected disability or MIA or POW.

   

• They normally have dependent children of any biological, adopted or stepchildren, and in most instances, unmarried spouse.

   

• The students are generally required to take admission at a state-owned institute located in-state and must satisfy the residency.

   

• Adequate academic performance and timely credit hour restrictions might be a condition to remain under the benefit.

   

This is the reason why it is so important to plan ahead. In other states, disability status, residency or approval is required before a student attains a certain age. Failure to meet a deadline does not imply a loss of some money instead it could result in complete loss of the benefit.

The Miss of Move Most Families: Stacking State & Federal Benefits

This is where the actual financial leverage is provided, and to be honest, most of the military families are leaving the largest amounts of money behind.

Federal GI Bill benefits and state tuition waivers are not an either/or. They are made to cooperate. A state waiver will erase tuition, the biggest of the expenses, and the Post-9/11 GI Bill will come in to pay the housing and living expenses. With the combination, a dependent would be able to get through four years of college at no out-of-pocket expense.

And the next thing even most veterans will not think about is that when tuition is paid at the state level, federal benefits need not be incinerated on tuition. It implies that they can be saved to graduate school, future career credentials or even sold to finance the education of another child in future.

This is a matter of $32,000 to $60,000 saved in tuition in four years, not including housing assistance. Such financial freedom alters life paths.

Few Things Worth Doing Right Now

It is not necessary to have everything sorted out now, but a handful of clever actions now will save your family an incredible amount of agony (and money) down the line:

1. Visit your state veteran education benefits portal, the majority of states have a veteran affairs office that has up to date program information.

2. Get in touch with the veterans office at your target school, they address this daily and would be able to explain to you what specifically would be applicable to your case.

3. Check residence eligibility prior to relocating, this is not as simple as most of the people think particularly active duty families since they move around regularly.

4. Plug in the entire academic line of your course of study, look further than year one, as credit hour requirements and eligibility requirements can influence the long-term plan.

5. Compare to the eligibility of GI Bill, it is important to know how your federal and state benefits relate to each other to get the most of either.

Your Service Keeps Giving, Slack To You!

Military life demands a lot. It requires you to give up on time, comfort, and normalcy in a manner that not many people will ever appreciate. The education benefits that come along with that service are a minor yet significant attempt to recompense something in return by the system.

However those advantages are not self-driven. The families that benefit most on them include those that take an hour or two to learn what is out there and plan it. That's it. A simple research, some few phone calls and the right questions at the right time can be the difference between your child walking out of school with a mountain of debt and walking out of school with no debt.

This is where my question to you comes in, did your state have tuition benefits available to military dependents prior to reading this? Write a comment below - I would like to know how many families are just discovering what programs they have been able to access all along. And should you have been helped by it, send it to some other veteran or military family. This is precisely the type of information that is buried and it should be on the center stage.