Other Veteran Educational Benefits

Last week I lauded our nation’s educational benefit for veterans, the Post 9/11 GI Bill. It’s the best thing since sliced bread in my humble opinion and has been a real blessing for our family. I am sure it’s not perfect, but I think this is one thing our government gets right. I hope they don’t find a way to mess it up!

This week, I’ll go a step further and explore educational benefits for those veterans with a disability rating of 100%. While I am not on expert on this particular area, I’m learning quickly. I share the information for one primary purpose; to emphasize the importance for our separating service men and women to give their VA physical and disability claim the utmost attention.

Service in the military is a contact sport and most of us come out of it banged up from when we entered. It is not self-serving as some might think to honestly and accurately report during the VA claim process legitimate health issues. Many veterans will find, they are more banged up than they thought they were, at least according to the VA! Bottom line, a veteran’s service-connected disability rating can be life changing. I am not sure why, but this is something that just doesn’t get talked about while on active duty; even the fairly solid transition programs don’t give it justice in my opinion.

Back to veteran educational benefits for 100% disabled veterans. The VA has Chapter 35 benefits also known as the Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistant (DEA) program that is specifically for survivors and dependents. In general terms, from the VA website, “if you’re the child or spouse of a Veteran or service member who has died, is captured or missing, or is permanently and totally disabled due to a service-connected disability, you may be eligible for the Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance (DEA) program.”

Unlike the GI Bill this educational benefit is for dependents or survivors, not the veteran. Key words in the description above are “permanently and totally disabled”. While most veterans with a 100% disability compensation rating are T&P as it is often called, some are not; important to note the difference. The Chapter 35 benefit provides a monthly payment to enrolled dependents at approved educational institutions, currently set at $1536 per month. It can be used not concurrently with the post 9/11 GI Bill, but consecutively, and the VA can help walk the dependent through the process of transferring over from Chapter 33 to Chapter 35 benefits during the school year. While I’ve only covered educational benefits for our surviving veteran dependents, important to point out that the Chapter 35 benefit and other VA educational benefits such as the Fry Scholarship are available for the survivors of our brothers and sisters who made the ultimate sacrifice.

In addition to the VA educational benefits for 100% total and permanent veteran’s dependents, most states also offer educational benefits for in state schools. These get a little more nuanced as usually there are state residency requirements for when the veteran entered or exited service. Benefits vary but some states will cover 100% in state tuition for disabled veteran’s dependents. Definitely a consideration when determining which state to reside in post military and where to send your kids to school!

These are just a few of the less advertised veteran educational benefits out there, I am sure there are more I’m unaware of! These are things we just don’t talk about enough on active duty, but should. Yet another reason why it is absolutely imperative for our servicemembers to get their exit from the military right; the consequences could be life changing.

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