Montana War Orphans Tuition Waiver

A child aged 25 or under whose parent served on active duty in the United States armed forces and was killed in action, or died as a result of a combat-related injury, disease or other disability, may have undergraduate tuition waived at a Montana University System campus. The parent must have been a Montana resident at the time of entry into service. The gap in this waiver is the list of conflicts. Board of Regents Policy 940.13 and the University System's published criteria both limit it to a parent who served during World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, or the Iraq or Afghanistan conflicts. Nothing else is named. A child of a Montana service member killed in the Gulf War in 1991, in Beirut, Grenada, Panama, Somalia, or in any of the operations after Afghanistan, does not appear on that list. The underlying statute at 20-25-421(2)(c)(iv) is wider and says only that the parent "served with the armed forces of the United States in any of its wars", so the narrowing is the Board's rather than the Legislature's, and a family in that position has something to argue about with the Commissioner rather than a closed door. The waiver requires the approval of the Commissioner of Higher Education, which is unusual; the other waivers are administered at campus level. The limits are tight. It is undergraduate only, it does not waive any fees, and it cannot be combined with another tuition waiver. It runs only while the student is 25 or under and maintaining satisfactory academic progress under the campus financial aid standard. The student must be a Montana resident for tuition purposes and must apply by the third week of the first semester for which it is requested. A separate waiver covers the surviving spouse or child of a Montana National Guard member killed on state active duty, and that one has different conditions.