Vermont Armed Services Scholarship

Title 16, sections 2537 through 2541 pay tuition for the family of a service member who died. The student is the child, stepchild, or spouse; the scholarship is not a veteran benefit and no rating is involved. Three separate populations are covered and their dates differ, which is where most accounts go wrong. Children and spouses of members in good standing of the Vermont National Guard who since 1955 have been killed, or who since January 1, 2001 have died, while on active or inactive duty. Note the two verbs. For a Guard death before 2001 the statute asks that the member was killed; from January 1, 2001 a death while on duty is enough. Children and spouses of members in good standing of the active Reserve Forces of the United States who since January 1, 2001 have died while on active or inactive duty and who were Vermont residents at the time of death. Children and spouses of members of the active Armed Forces of the United States who since January 1, 2001 have died while on active duty and who at the time of death were Vermont residents, nonresident members of the Vermont National Guard mobilized to active duty, or nonresident active Reserve Force members of a Vermont-based reserve unit mobilized to active duty. A child or spouse of a deceased nonresident reservist is ineligible if they are eligible for a death benefit from the deceased's last state of residence that helps finance attendance at a postsecondary institution in that state. Inactive duty is defined to include unit training assemblies, training periods, military flight periods, equivalent duty, and State duty on order of the Governor. A death on a drill weekend or on a Governor's state active duty order is inside the program. What is paid is set by section 2538 and it is tuition only, at a Vermont postsecondary institution eligible for Title IV student assistance funds and leading to an undergraduate certificate or degree. At UVM it is the actual tuition UVM charges. At a Vermont State College it is the actual tuition that institution charges. At any other Vermont institution it is the lesser of the actual tuition or what the scholarship would have paid at UVM. The cap is 130 academic credits for an undergraduate certificate or degree. The federal Army benefits library describes the benefit as up to 18 credit hours per semester up to a maximum of 130 credits; the per-semester figure is not in section 2538, which states only the 130-credit ceiling. A Pell Grant comes off first. A person eligible for and applying for the scholarship must apply for a federal Pell Grant, and the scholarship is the remaining tuition after the Pell Grant is received. And section 2538(d) is a hard stop: a person who has obtained a bachelor's degree is not eligible. The application route depends on which service the deceased was in. For a child or spouse of a Vermont National Guard member or an active Reserve Force member, the Vermont Adjutant General verifies eligibility. For a child or spouse of a member of the Armed Forces of the United States, the Office of Veterans Affairs verifies it. Either way the funds go from the Armed Services Scholarship Fund to the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation, which verifies enrollment and disburses to the institution. Renewal is annual and requires written endorsement from the institution that the holder has maintained satisfactory scholastic standing. Space Force is named in the definition of Armed Forces of the United States, and "child" includes a natural, adoptive, or stepchild, as amended by 2023 Act 85 (Adj. Sess.), section 34, effective July 1, 2024.