Vermont High School Diploma for Wartime Veterans

Title 16, section 563(25) tells a school board of a school district that maintains a secondary school that it shall, upon request, award a high school diploma to any Vermont resident who served in the military in World War II, the Korean War, or during the Vietnam era, was honorably separated from active federal military service, and does not hold a high school diploma. The State Board develops and makes available the application form. Three things about that sentence are worth pausing on. It says shall, not may. The Office of Veterans Affairs application form, printed in 2007, says school boards "are authorized to award" the diploma and directs the applicant to choose from a list of schools on the back of the form. The statute obliges every board of a district maintaining a secondary school, and it is worded as a duty owed on request. It does not require that the veteran left school to serve. Most state programs of this kind are written for veterans who dropped out to enlist. Vermont's is not. Any qualifying veteran without a diploma can ask, whatever the reason they never finished. It does require Vermont residency now, not residency at the time of service. "Any Vermont resident" is present tense. A veteran who moved to Vermont afterwards qualifies; a Vermonter who left does not. The date ranges are on the application form rather than in the statute. World War II is December 7, 1941 to December 31, 1946. The Korean War era is June 27, 1950 to January 31, 1955. The Vietnam War era is August 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975 for a veteran serving outside Vietnam, and February 28, 1961 to May 7, 1975 for a veteran serving inside Vietnam. Those Vietnam dates are the federal ones and the statute does not adopt them. Title 16 says "during the Vietnam era" without defining it, and the only Vermont definition on the books, 20 V.S.A. 1701, sets the term of the Vietnam War era at July 1, 1958 to May 15, 1975, which is wider at both ends. Section 1701 says it applies "for purposes of the Veterans' Affairs archives", so it does not obviously govern a Title 16 diploma. A veteran who served in, say, 1962 outside Vietnam, or in the week after May 7, 1975, falls in the gap between the form and the statute, and should apply rather than assume. The applicant proves their own military service. The Office of Veterans Affairs notes that the State holds the discharges of most veterans who entered the military from Vermont, but recommends attaching a copy of the discharge to speed processing. Approved applications are forwarded to the selected high school; disapproved ones are mailed back. No disability rating is involved.