Connecticut Public College Tuition Waiver for Wartime Veterans

Connecticut waives tuition at its public institutions for a veteran, as defined in section 27-103, who performed service in time of war. The community college provision is section 10a-77(d), the Connecticut State University System provision is section 10a-99(d), and UConn has the parallel provision at section 10a-105. Two conditions define the gate. The veteran must have been accepted for admission to the institution, and must be domiciled in Connecticut at the time of acceptance. The statute then says something generous that is easy to miss: for this purpose, domiciled in this state includes domicile for less than one year. A veteran who moves to Connecticut and establishes domicile does not wait out a residency year before the waiver applies. Time spent in attendance at a military service academy does not count as service in time of war for this subsection. That is an express carve-out in the statute. What the waiver covers is narrower than most summaries suggest, though it widened in 2025. The provisions waive tuition, not general fees, and not room and board. At the Connecticut State Universities the statute waives tuition for undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Public Act 25-95, sections 9 to 13 (effective July 1, 2025), added a waiver of the fees for educational extension programs, including summer and winter sessions and intersessions, at the community colleges, the State Universities and UConn, for the same wartime veterans and Guard members. That supersedes the system's older practice of waiving only half of tuition in summer and intersession terms, which some guides still describe; confirm how the bursar applies it. For active Guard members only, Public Act 26-12, sections 69 to 71, extends the waiver to all mandatory fees from July 1, 2027. The interaction with the Post-9/11 GI Bill is the condition that most often surprises people, and it is in subsection (e). If the veteran has applied for Post-9/11 educational assistance, the institution waives only the tuition in excess of the veteran tuition benefit, which the statute defines as the tuition-attributable portion of the federal payment to the school. The waiver fills the gap rather than duplicating the federal benefit. If the veteran certifies that the federal application was denied or withdrawn, the full waiver under subsection (d) applies instead. Any waiver is also reduced by educational reimbursement the student receives from an employer. Three other groups take the same waiver. A dependent child of a person declared missing in action or a prisoner of war while serving after January 1, 1960, who is a Connecticut resident when accepted. A Connecticut resident who is the dependent child or surviving spouse of a person killed in action while performing active military duty on or after September 11, 2001 and who was a Connecticut resident. And an active member of the Connecticut Army or Air National Guard certified in good standing by the Adjutant General and enrolled or accepted on a full-time or part-time basis. Veterans and Guard members taking the waiver register for courses with the same status as students who are not receiving waivers, which the statute states expressly so that waiver students are not pushed to the back of registration. Charter Oak State College, the online college, used to run its own course fee waiver as institutional policy. Public Act 25-95 put a statutory tuition fee waiver for eligible wartime veterans and Guard members at Charter Oak from July 1, 2025, on generally the same terms as the other public institutions. Confirm the details with the college. Federal law adds a residence rule of its own. Under 38 U.S.C. 3679(c), a public institution must charge the in-state rate to a covered individual using chapter 30, 31, 33 or 35 benefits who lives in Connecticut while enrolled, whatever the formal state of residence, and from August 1, 2026 also to anyone using the Montgomery GI Bill Selected Reserve under 10 U.S.C. chapter 1606 (Public Law 119-55). Since terms beginning August 1, 2021 there is no limit on how long ago the veteran was discharged (Public Law 116-315, section 1005). That is a rate rule, not a waiver, and it helps a veteran without wartime service who does not qualify for the waiver.