Under Chapter 35, Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance (DEA or Chapter 35) program, eligible spouses and children of Veterans or service members who have a permanent and total service-connected disability, were missing in action or captured, died on active duty, or died from a service-connected condition receive a stipend while they attend educational programs.
Currently, beneficiaries can use the benefit to attend high school for pre-requisite classes to a college degree.
However, Public Law 117–328 statutorily changed the definition of “educational institution” by deleting “secondary school” and replacing it with “post-secondary school.” This means that using DEA benefits for secondary education, such as high school coursework, GED level training, tutoring or academic remediation is no longer allowed for any program starting on or after Aug. 1, 2026.
Students who start a secondary program prior to Aug. 1, 2026, will continue to receive DEA benefits through the end of the academic term. VA cannot continue DEA benefits for subsequent secondary academic terms even if required for graduation.
VA is contacting beneficiaries and schools who are affected by the change. Beneficiaries who have questions about their benefits may submit inquiries through Ask VA.
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By Congress deleting “secondary school” from the Chapter 35 DEA, my sophomore daughter will no longer receive tuition assistance for her private school. This is VERY unfair! This is a benefit we should be able to use for private high school in lieu of delaying it until college. Congress please reevaluate this language and add “secondary school” back to the Chapter 35 DEA benefit.
If the government feels that helping the future of our children achieve higher levels of education and to better our nation to compete worldwide tomorrow ,then it’s a waste of money. Thanks to this administration will never know what could of become of our country’s future investing our taxpayer money in other programs less productive.
Israel needs the money ?
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