North Carolina Scholarship for Children of Wartime Veterans

North Carolina's scholarship for the children of wartime veterans has awarded more than 20,000 scholarships. It is set out at General Statutes 143B-1223 through 1227 and administered by the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs with the State Education Assistance Authority. The award is eight academic semesters, and the recipient has eight years from the start to use them. The child has to be under 25 years old when applying, and the school has to be in North Carolina. Residency runs through either the parent or the child. Either the veteran parent was a North Carolina resident at the time of entering military service, or the child was born in North Carolina and has lived there continuously since. The veteran parent's qualification is sorted into classes by statute, and the Department's page summarises them. The parent must have served in active federal service during a period of war and been separated under honorable conditions (or be in a second or later enlistment). Class I-A: the parent was killed in action, died of qualifying causes while serving in wartime, or died of service-connected conditions from wartime service. Class I-B: the parent is, or was at death, compensated for a 100 percent wartime service-connected disability. Class II, competitive: a wartime service-connected disability of at least 20 percent but less than 100, or a Purple Heart. Class III, competitive: certain other circumstances, including a specified permanent and total non-service-connected disability, a deceased veteran and qualifying combat or campaign service. Class IV: prisoner of war or missing in action. The 20 percent floor is unusually low for a survivor scholarship and the path most often missed. Session Law 2026-1, section 2.4, raised the Class II and Class III limits from 100 to 200 children each for 2026-2027, with $10 million a year from the Escheat Fund; the Department's page now prints 200 for both. The applicant must also be a domiciliary and resident of North Carolina when applying, finish high school or its equivalent first, and meet Selective Service rules. The funding caveat is real and current. The scholarship draws on an appropriation rather than an entitlement. Session Law 2025-72, section 6 (Senate Bill 118, approved July 9, 2025), set the scholarship statute aside for 2024-2025 and 2025-2026: the Secretary could fund new Class I-A, I-B and IV awards before Class II and III, cut room and board and private-institution allowances, and pay pro rata, and every award notice must say the scholarship is contingent on available funds. Spring 2026 awards were cut before Session Law 2026-1 (approved April 30, 2026) added $1 million to restore them. That act, section 2.5, extended the rules to 2026-2027, and Session Law 2026-41, section 8A.6 (the base budget, approved July 7, 2026), extended them to 2027-2028. For both years new awards go only to applicants who are enrolling as undergraduates and qualify as residents for tuition purposes under G.S. 116-143.1, the Authority sets a standardized payment schedule and may cut awards to it, and for 2027-2028 the Department must open new applications by April 1, 2027 with a priority period closing May 1, 2027. A graduate student or a child who does not qualify for in-state tuition cannot win a new award in those years, though renewals continue. This entry therefore does not print a dollar figure: ask the Department for the amount for the term you are applying for. Apply through the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. A county veterans service officer will help assemble the parent's service and disability documentation, which is usually what holds an application up.