South Dakota Resident Tuition for Veterans and Military Families

The twelve-month durational residency requirement in 13-53-24 is what makes out-of-state tuition stick to a family that has just moved. Two sections take veterans and military families out of it entirely. Section 13-53-29.1 classifies four groups as resident students without meeting the twelve-month requirement: any person who is a veteran as defined in 33A-2-1 or 33A-2-2, any active duty member of the armed forces, the spouse or child of a veteran who has established residency in the state, and the spouse or child of an active duty member. Because 33A-2-1 is the state's broad definition, this reaches a former Guard member who served out an obligation without ever deploying. Note where the two limbs differ. The active duty member's spouse and child are covered without any residency condition attached to the member. The veteran's spouse and child are covered only where the veteran "has established residency in this state", so a family that arrives ahead of the veteran does not get there on this section. Section 13-53-29.2 covers the rest. Any person living in the state receiving veteran's educational benefits under chapters 30, 31 or 33 of Title 38, as of January 1, 2019, is classified as a resident student without the twelve-month wait. That is the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the Montgomery GI Bill and Veteran Readiness and Employment, and it reaches a dependent using transferred entitlement as well as the veteran, because it turns on who receives the benefit rather than on who served. The section's list reads "chapters 30, 31, and 33", with "and" where only "or" makes sense, since nobody draws all three at once. Federal law makes the point moot and reaches further. 38 U.S.C. 3679(c) requires every public institution, as a condition of VA approval, to charge the resident rate to a covered individual living in the state and using Chapter 30, 31, 33 or 35 assistance, or Chapter 1606 Selected Reserve assistance for academic periods beginning on or after August 1, 2026 under Public Law 119-55. A Chapter 35 survivor or dependent and a Chapter 1606 drilling reservist are therefore owed the resident rate at a Regents university or technical college although 13-53-29.2 does not name them. The federal rule has had no window after discharge since August 1, 2021 (Public Law 116-315, section 1005), and like the state rule it requires the student to be living in the state. A separate and narrower rule sits in the National Guard chapter. Section 33-6-8.1 deems a nonresident member of the South Dakota National Guard a resident for tuition purposes at any Board of Regents institution, so a Guard member living across a state line pays the resident rate and the state tuition benefit is calculated against that rate. These are classification rules, not waivers. They set the rate charged. What pays the rate is a separate question answered by 13-55-2, chapter 33-6, or the federal entitlement.