South Dakota Tuition for a Dependent of a Prisoner of War or Person Missing in Action

Sections 13-55-9.1 to 13-55-9.7 run a small program that nothing else in the state matches on one point: it covers mandatory fees. Every other South Dakota tuition benefit is tuition only. The wartime veteran entitlement in 13-55-2 waives charges for tuition and leaves course and school fees payable. Section 13-55-9.2 entitles a dependent of a prisoner of war or a person missing in action to eight semesters or twelve quarters "free of tuition and mandatory fees, other than subsistence expenses", full or part time. At a South Dakota public institution the mandatory fees are a large enough share of the bill that the difference is not academic. Who is a dependent. Section 13-55-9.1 defines it as any child born before or during the period the parent served as a prisoner of war or was declared missing in action, any child legally adopted or in the legal custody of the parent before and during that period, or the spouse, if not legally separated. There is no age ceiling, unlike the two other dependent programs in the same chapter. Who is a prisoner of war or missing in action. A person who was a resident of South Dakota at the time of entering United States armed forces service, or whose official residence is in South Dakota, and who while serving has been declared a prisoner of war or a person missing in action as established by the secretary of defense after January 1, 1940. The federal offset works differently here as well. Section 13-55-9.3 says no benefit accrues if equal or greater benefits are available under an act of Congress, but that state benefits are available to supplement any lesser federal benefit. That is a top-up rule, not the exhaustion rule of 13-55-2: a dependent receiving a smaller federal benefit draws the difference rather than waiting for the federal entitlement to run out. Section 13-55-9.6 provides that the benefits are not lost if the parent returns or dies, which is the provision the program exists for.