Illinois MIA and POW Scholarship

105 ILCS 5/30-14.2 (as amended through P.A. 104-852, effective August 21, 2026), the Deceased, Disabled, and MIA/POW Veterans' Dependents scholarship, pays tuition and mandatory fees at a State-controlled university or public community college for the equivalent of 4 years of enrollment, including summer terms. Whose dependants. An "eligible veteran or serviceperson", including an Illinois National Guard member on active duty or a training assignment, whom the U.S. Department of Defense or the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has declared a prisoner of war or missing in action, or who died as the result of a service-connected disability, or who has "a permanent disability from service-connected causes with 100% disability". The Department of Veterans' Affairs' page reads the last as a 100% permanent and total rating, by the schedule or for unemployability, and also names a death in active service. Residence. The veteran must have been an Illinois resident on entering service, or within 6 months after, or be an Illinois resident at the time of application who has lived in Illinois for at least 15 consecutive years since entering service; the Department takes a Secretary of State driving record abstract, tax records or W-2s as proof of the 15 years. Who. The spouse; a natural child; a child adopted under 18; a step-child under 18 at the time of the marriage; and a minor under a court-ordered guardianship for at least 2 continuous years before applying. A spouse or child may use it "without regard to his or her age". If the surviving spouse remarries, or the veteran and spouse divorce, the benefit ends at the end of the term then under way. How it is counted. The Department counts the award in points by credit hours, 120 at most, which part-time study uses proportionally; the 120 points expire 12 years after enrolment begins. A spouse or child with a physical, mental or developmental disability may instead use the same value toward a therapeutic, rehabilitative or educational facility (subsection (b)). A separate Educational Opportunity Grant of up to $250 a year covers the children of the same veterans while they are 10 to 18; see that entry. Apply online through the Illinois Student Assistance Commission's student portal with the documents the Department lists; the Department of Veterans' Affairs determines eligibility.