North Dakota Dependent Tuition and Fee Waiver

Section 15-10-18.3 lets a qualifying dependent obtain a bachelor's degree or certificate of completion at a North Dakota state institution of higher education free of any tuition and fee charges. Fees are included, which is a real difference from the tuition-only waivers common in this catalog. The one carve-out is aviation flight charges and expenses, which are never covered. Who is a dependent is set by 15-10-18.2 and it is a child, stepchild, spouse, widow or widower of a veteran who was killed in action, died from wounds or other service-connected causes, died from service-connected disabilities, was declared a prisoner of war, was declared missing in action, has a one hundred percent service-connected disability, or has an extra-schedular rating to include individual unemployability resulting in payment at the one hundred percent rate. Unemployability is in the operative text, not in a policy. There are then three residency routes, which is where most applications turn. The veteran may be a resident veteran. Or the surviving spouse, or the child's other parent, may have been a North Dakota resident and been one at the time of the veteran's death or of the determination of total disability. Or that person may establish North Dakota residency and maintain it for the five years immediately preceding enrollment. A fourth route covers a widow or widower receiving Dependency and Indemnity Compensation. The three protective clauses in 15-10-18.3 are the humane part of the section and they are easy to miss. Once an individual qualifies, they may not be disqualified because the prisoner of war returned, because the individual missing in action returned, or because the veteran through whom the benefit was obtained had a one hundred percent service-connected disability at the time of death. A family does not lose a child's education because the news turned good, and does not lose it because the veteran died. The benefit runs for as long as the dependent is eligible, to a bachelor's degree or certificate. The North Dakota Department of Veterans Affairs and the campus financial aid office administer it between them, and the first step is normally the county veterans' service officer. A separate and wider provision may matter more to a family that does not fit this one. Section 15-10-19.1 makes a veteran, a serving member, a Guard or reserve member, and their spouses and dependents resident students for tuition purposes with no waiting period at all, so the fallback to in-state rates is immediate.