Louisiana Title 29 Tuition Exemption for Dependents at 90%

This is the most valuable thing Louisiana offers a veteran's family, and its rating floor of 90 percent is low for a benefit of this size. It runs on R.S. 29:288 and Louisiana calls it Title 29. More than 4,200 dependents are using it. What it pays. A child of a qualified veteran, not less than 16 nor more than 25 years of age, may attend any public postsecondary education institution in the state without paying tuition, matriculation, registration, laboratory, athletic, medical, and other school-imposed fees, "including but not limited to nonresidency and other special fees." That last clause is worth its own sentence: the waiver reaches out-of-state fees, so a child living outside Louisiana is not paying the nonresident differential. Who counts as a qualified veteran depends on whether the veteran is living, and this is where the statute splits in a way the agency's summary compresses. For a child of a living veteran, the veteran must be rated 90 to 100 percent service-connected disabled by VA on evaluation of the rating schedule, or determined unemployable as a result of a service-connected disability, and must have been a Louisiana resident for at least 12 months before the child's admission into a program of education at a public postsecondary institution. For a child of a deceased, missing, or captured veteran, the paths are: killed in action, died in active service from other causes, missing in action, prisoner of war, died as a result of a service-connected disability incurred during a wartime period as defined in R.S. 29:251.2, or rated 90 to 100 percent or determined unemployable prior to death. The residency test on that second group has three alternatives and the third is easy to miss: a Louisiana resident for at least 12 months immediately preceding entrance into service, or for at least 12 months prior to death, or the veteran "had been permanently assigned and reported for duty to an active, National Guard, or Reserve installation or assignment in the state of Louisiana." A tour at Fort Johnson, Barksdale, or Belle Chasse can substitute for residency entirely. Spouses are narrower than children, and this catches people. Under subsection B the qualifying paths are all death, missing in action, or prisoner of war. A spouse of a living veteran rated 90 percent is not eligible; only the children are. A spouse or surviving spouse who does qualify must use the benefit within ten years from the date of eligibility, so the clock is real and it is not tied to the veteran's death date but to eligibility. One bar that appears in no summary. Subsection C provides that the institution shall not grant these benefits if the student has received or is receiving the benefits provided under R.S. 17:1686. If a student is drawing another Louisiana tuition waiver, ask the veterans assistance counselor whether it is that one before counting on Title 29. Title 29 can be used together with GI Bill benefits, which is the combination that gets a dependent through a degree with the housing allowance intact. Apply through a parish veterans service office. The veterans assistance counselor determines eligibility and approves or denies, sends the certificate to LDVA headquarters for processing, and the certificate is mailed to the student, who takes it to the school office that handles Title 29. Start early; it is a three-step chain with mail in the middle. The statute was expanded recently, by Acts 2023, No. 46 effective June 1, 2023 and Acts 2024, No. 74, so guidance written before mid-2024 understates who qualifies.