Nevada Graduate Degree Fee Waiver for a Veteran

NRS 396.5446 is narrow, conditional and worth knowing about because graduate study is where state veteran education benefits usually stop. Subsection 1: "The Board of Regents may grant a waiver of not less than half of the total registration fees and other fees for a veteran who is a bona fide resident of this State if" two conditions are met. "Not less than half" is a floor rather than a cap, so the Board may waive more, and the section leaves the actual proportion to the Board. "May grant" makes it discretionary. A veteran should treat this as a programme to apply to rather than an entitlement to assert. Condition one, paragraph (a): "The veteran has completed a bachelor's degree and is enrolled in or plans to enroll in a graduate degree program within the fields of science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics or health science designated as a critical need occupation by the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation pursuant to NRS 232.932". Two separate filters there. The field must be within science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics or health science, and the occupation must be designated a critical need occupation by the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation under NRS 232.932. A graduate programme in a listed field whose occupation is not on the current critical need designation does not qualify. That designation is an administrative list maintained by an executive department and it changes, so the answer to "does my programme qualify" is a current-list question rather than a statutory one, and it is the first thing to check. Note the inclusion of arts alongside the usual science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Nevada's list is STEAM rather than STEM, which is unusual in a statute of this kind. Note also what the condition does not require: no minimum grade point average appears, no age limit, no discharge characterisation, and no disability. Condition two, paragraph (b): "The veteran or a third party will pay the remainder of the registration fees and other fees of the graduate degree program." That is a funding-assurance condition rather than a means test. The veteran must show that the unwaived balance will be paid, by the veteran or by someone else, which includes an employer, a scholarship or federal educational benefits. A veteran with Post-9/11 entitlement remaining is well placed to satisfy it. "Bona fide resident of this State" is required here, unlike the Purple Heart waiver in NRS 396.5443, which imposes no residency test on the veteran's own claim. Funding for the programme is addressed separately. NRS 396.5447 gives the Board of Regents authority to defray the cost of granting waivers of fees to veterans enrolled in graduate degree programmes, so the cost does not fall wholly on the institution granting the waiver. That is the provision that makes the discretion in NRS 396.5446 exercisable in practice, and its existence is a reason to expect the programme to be running. How this fits with federal entitlement. Post-9/11 entitlement can be used for graduate study, so a veteran with months remaining may not need this waiver. Its value is to the veteran who has exhausted federal entitlement, or who wants to stretch it: taking the state waiver for half the fees and paying the balance from federal entitlement covers more semesters than federal entitlement alone. Unlike the Purple Heart waiver in NRS 396.5443, this section is not drafted as last-dollar, so there is no provision requiring federal benefits to be credited first, which is what makes that stretching possible. Confirm the treatment with the campus financial aid office, because the interaction is a matter of institutional practice rather than of statute. Nevada also gives certain veterans priority in admission to nursing programmes and to teacher education programmes, under separate sections in the same chapter, which is a different kind of benefit and worth asking about alongside this one.