Arkansas Heroes Scholarship for Spouses and Children

Act 340 of 2025, the Arkansas ACCESS Act, created the Arkansas Heroes Scholarship in a new subchapter 25 of chapter 82 of Title 6. It took the place of the Military Dependents Scholarship and of the law enforcement dependents scholarship, whose subchapter the act repealed. Who is a military hero. Section 6-82-2503 lists a disabled veteran, a prisoner of war, a recipient of the Medal of Honor or Purple Heart, a person declared missing or killed in action, and a person killed on ordnance delivery, meaning in an experimental or test aircraft. A prisoner of war, missing or killed person must have been an Arkansas resident at entry into service or have an official Arkansas residence, and a death in service counts only on active duty or state active duty. The wider disabled veteran. Paragraph (3) defines "disabled veteran" as a person awarded either "United States Armed Forces disability retirement benefits" or VA compensation for "service-connected, one hundred percent (100%) total and permanent disability". The first route is new. A veteran medically retired by the military, at any disability retirement percentage, is a disabled veteran for this scholarship on the words of the statute. The Division of Higher Education's program page describes only the 100 percent permanent and total route. The Purple Heart gap. The Medal of Honor and Purple Heart are named among Arkansas heroes, but the separate definition of "United States Armed Forces dependent" in paragraph (15), which drives the application rules, lists only dependents of disabled veterans, prisoners of war and the missing, killed in action and killed on ordnance delivery. The Division of Higher Education's program page, re-read 2026-10-24, now lists the spouses and children of "recipients of a Medal of Honor or Purple Heart" among those eligible, so the division reads paragraph (1)(D) in; a Purple Heart family refused on the narrower definition should point to the division's own page. Residence is one route, not a requirement. Section 6-82-2505, subsection (a) requires one of three things: a year of Arkansas residence before applying, being born before the hero's death or disability, or being in utero at that time. The division's page says every student must have been a legal Arkansas resident for at least one year. The statute does not. What it pays. Tuition, fees and other charges for the first bachelor's degree at a public or private nonprofit Arkansas college, for eight semesters, up to four of them at a technical institute, but only the part that exceeds what federal Survivors' and Dependents' Educational Assistance pays. The division's page says it deducts three months of DEA each semester and covers housing only "in on-campus facilities". Books and supplies are excluded. A dependent must apply for DEA first and show acceptance or refusal. It is paid from an appropriation, not guaranteed. Section 6-82-2507, subsection (h), funds the scholarship from money appropriated to the Higher Education Grants Fund Account and says that if more students qualify in a year than that appropriation covers, the excess awards are paid from net lottery proceeds left over only after the Academic Challenge and Workforce Challenge scholarships are funded at the previous year's levels. Subsection (g) caps a student's whole aid package, this scholarship included, at the recognised cost of attendance at a state-supported institution. Apply early; the statute describes an award, not an entitlement that survives a funding shortfall. Limits. A child is covered until 26. A spouse loses it on remarriage, at the end of the semester in progress. Stepchildren must have been claimed as dependents for five years before the death or disability, or five of eight years if 19 or older. A 2.0 grade point average and 24 semester hours a year keep it. Once a dependent qualifies, nothing, including the parent's return from captivity, takes it away. The deadline is July 1. The old law is still on the books. Act 340 repealed subchapter 5, the law enforcement scholarship, but it amended rather than repealed section 6-82-601, the Military Dependents Scholarship statute, and the Code of Arkansas Rules still carries the Military Dependents' Scholarship rules effective October 31, 2024. Both describe the same families; the Division of Higher Education's page is for Heroes.