The Department of Education posted an electronic announcement to IFAP yesterday dealing with veterans' education benefits. In this guidance, ED answers a number of questions concerning the exclusion of VA benefits from estimated financial assistance (EFA) and the construction of cost of attendance (COA) figures for veterans.
In the Q&A, ED clarifies that the institutional share of the Yellow Ribbon component of the new chapter 33 Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits is considered part of the VA benefit for purposes of the EFA exclusion.
The new chapter 33 veterans' education benefits cover several categories of costs for veterans: there are "basic" benefits for tuition and fees, housing, and books. All of these basic benefits are to be excluded from EFA.
The exclusion for veterans' education benefits applies even in the case of a spouse or child who is receiving the benefit. For example, an individual may, under specified conditions, transfer his or her chapter 33 benefits to a spouse or child. Those benefits are excluded from the spouse's or child's EFA.
A student's cost of attendance is not reduced to reflect the excluded benefits, nor may professional judgment be invoked to do so. Veterans' education benefits are not included as income in the formula used to calculate the expected family contribution. (ED notes that there is a separate statutory provision that does reduce the COA for aid applicants who live on base in military housing or in housing for which a military housing allowance is received. These allowances are not part of veteran benefits and are not to be confused with the EFA exclusions.)
Further details and explanations are included in ED's Q&A.
NASFAA has also received the following Q&A from the VA's Education Service, based on a question asked during last month's NASFAA Annual Conference:
Q: Can a school put a deadline in their first-come first-serve policy for Yellow Ribbon (YR) because of fiscal operating years?
A: Yes. The school can put a deadline in. If a student comes after that deadline, the school would not have to permit YR access. The school should make the deadline clear to its students and in its policy.
Posted 08/14/09 to www.NASFAA.org. Redistribution to non-NASFAA institutions is prohibited. Please submit Web site questions or comments to Web@NASFAA.org.
