West Virginia Tuition Waiver for Families of Members Killed in the Line of Duty

West Virginia Code 18B-10-7 requires every state institution of higher education to waive tuition and fees for the child or spouse of a person killed in the line of duty. The section covers several public-safety occupations, and subsection (b) covers military service. Two military routes are in subsection (b). A National Guard member or a member of a reserve component of the Armed Forces who is a resident of West Virginia and is killed in the line of duty. The statute defines that: death resulted from performing a duty required by orders or by a commander while in an official duty status, other than on federal active duty, authorized under federal or state law. This is the state-duty and training-duty case. A person on federal or state active military duty who is a resident of West Virginia and is killed in the line of duty, where death resulted from performance of a duty required by orders or by a commander while in an official duty status. There is no semester limit in this section. That is worth stating plainly because the limit is easy to import from the neighboring section: the eight-semester cap belongs to 18B-10-10, the Medal of Honor and Purple Heart waiver, and published summaries have carried it across to this one. The conditions in 18B-10-7(c) are about admission, aid, and academic progress, and none of them is a count of semesters or a bachelor's degree ceiling. The conditions that do apply are five. The recipient may attend any undergraduate course if classroom space is available. The recipient has applied and been admitted. The recipient has applied for and submitted the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The recipient has exhausted all other sources of student financial assistance dedicated solely to tuition and fees, excluding student loans, which makes this a last-dollar waiver but one that ignores loans rather than counting them against you. And renewal depends on continuing to meet the institution's academic progress standards. The classroom space condition is the one with teeth in practice. Subsection (e) lets governing boards make rules for determining the availability of classroom space, so a full course can be closed to a waiver student. Register early. Institutions may still charge special fees, including laboratory fees, where those are required of every other student taking that course, and may still charge parking fees. Subsection (f) lets a governing board extend any other rights or privileges it considers appropriate. Families who would have looked to the old War Orphan program should read this section, because it is the surviving statutory waiver. Article 19 of chapter 18, which carried the war orphan benefit, was repealed in 2025 and has its own entry here.