Education & Employment

A state-endorsed high school diploma, including after death, for an honorably discharged veteran of World War I, World War II, Korea or Vietnam who left a New Jersey high school to serve.

World War I, World War II, Korea or Vietnam service after leaving a New Jersey high school. N.J.S.A. 18A:7C-4.1(b).

Every New Jersey licensing board must license a military spouse transferred here by endorsement or with a one-year temporary courtesy licence, teachers get a 180-day temporary certificate, boards must credit equivalent military training toward a veteran's licence, and Gold Star family members pay no licence fee.

On military orders, federal law treats the existing licence as valid. 50 U.S.C. § 4025a, as amended by Pub. L. 118-159: no equivalence or prior-practice test and no one-year limit, with a temporary licence if the board needs more than 30 days.

Since January 2026 the Law Against Discrimination protects a person's service in the Armed Forces, not only liability for future service, in employment, housing, public accommodations and other areas. Firing or blocking a Guard or reserve member from work because of membership is a crime with a $2,500 minimum fine.

A veteran in the Public Employees' Retirement System or the Teachers' Pension and Annuity Fund can retire at 55 with 25 years, or at 60 with 20, on 54.5 percent of the best 12 months' pay, a far richer formula than an ordinary service retirement. Veteran status for pensions uses a wartime test.

Veteran status determined by the commissioner under a wartime test. N.J.S.A. 38A:21-12 and 43:15A-6; department page for pensions.

Two Vietnam-era programs, the Veterans Tuition Credit Program and Vietnam veterans tuition assistance, are still in the statutes and still advertised, but their application windows closed decades ago. The state's own guide and the Army benefits library describe them as available.

Application window closed: eight years from separation or March 3, 1976, and five years from April 9, 1985. N.J.S.A. 38A:22-4(c) and 38A:22-5(e).

A licensing board must issue a license within thirty days to a service member, military spouse or dependent child, or veteran who holds a current license from another state or the military, and charge no licensing fee for the first three years. Teachers get the same under the Public School Code.

A current license from another state or the military. NMSA 1978, § 61-1-34(A)(2), as amended by Laws 2023, ch. 190.

A local school board may give a high school diploma, even after death, to an honourably discharged veteran who left a New Mexico high school to serve in World War II, Korea or Vietnam.

World War II, Korea or Vietnam windows only. NMSA 1978, §§ 22-5-4.9, 22-5-4.10 and 22-5-4.14.

Resident tuition for Guard members and their families, a Guard scholarship programme, state hiring preference while serving, fifteen days of paid military leave for public employees, reimbursed SGLI premiums, state group insurance, and state protection for Guard members on state active duty that mirrors the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act and USERRA.

Serving members of the New Mexico National Guard. NMSA 1978, chapter 20, article 4.

Since May 2024 military status is a protected class under the New Mexico Human Rights Act, in employment, housing, credit and public accommodations. It covers veterans with no discharge test, current members of the armed forces and state defense force, and their spouses and children.

Veteran or member, with no discharge test, and their spouse or child. NMSA 1978, § 28-1-2(EE).

A veteran eligible for federal education benefits pays resident tuition at every public college, as do the spouse and children of a veteran who are eligible for GI Bill benefits, Guard members and their families, and the families of active duty members stationed here or killed in service.

Eligible for federal veterans education benefits. NMSA 1978, § 21-1-4.5(A) and (H).

A certified resident veteran business or contractor with up to $6 million in annual revenue is treated as bidding ten percent lower, or gets ten percent of the evaluation points, on state and local public contracts, against eight percent for other resident businesses. The Department of Veterans' Services still describes it as five percent on top of five.

Majority veteran-owned, resident, under $6 million in revenue. NMSA 1978, §§ 13-1-21(B)(2), 13-4-2(B)(2) and 13-1-22(C) and (E).

Five points for an honourably discharged veteran and for a serving Guard member, ten for a veteran with a service-connected disability of any percentage, added to the passing score for a classified state job. Residency points can add up to ten more for anyone who has lived in the state five years.

Classified state jobs only, on the passing score. NMSA 1978, § 10-9-13.2 and 1.7.5.11(D) NMAC.

The $1,000 employer credit for hiring a recently returned veteran was repealed with effect from July 1, 2023. The Department of Veterans' Services and the Army benefits library still advertise it.

Tuition, required fees and a book allowance at a state college, for undergraduate or graduate study, for a resident veteran who entered service from New Mexico or has lived here ten years and holds a Vietnam campaign medal or a campaign or service medal for any armed conflict since August 1990. Money goes first come, first served.

A qualifying campaign or service medal and an honourable discharge. NMSA 1978, § 21-21E-3(E).

The City waives the application fee on every civil service exam, as often as needed, for a veteran honorably discharged or released under honorable conditions after full-time active duty. A veteran's spouse or domestic partner gets one waived exam. The State's veterans credits are claimed separately and must be asked for before the list is set.

Honorable discharge or release under honorable conditions after full-time active duty. The fee waiver needs no rating. The disabled veteran credit, a separate State benefit, needs a rating of 10% or more.

A New York-resident veteran, or a surviving spouse or domestic partner, can get a City General Vendor license without joining the closed waiting list and without the license fee. A veteran disabled by service can apply for the Citywide and Midtown specialized licenses, which open block faces closed to other vendors.

Honorable or qualifying discharge, and New York State residence. The General Vendor license needs no rating. The specialized licenses need a physical disability from injuries in service, which the rating filter cannot test.

Ten points added to an open-competitive civil service exam score for a veteran rated 10% or more, five points for other veterans. Promotion exams get half that. The credits can be used once in a career, and using them is a decision worth timing.

A rating of 10% or more doubles the credits. Every qualifying veteran receives credits. A disability rated 10 per centum or more, with entitlement to disability payments, raises the award from 5 points to 10 on an open-competitive examination and from 2.5 to 5 on a promotion examination.

A New York high school diploma for a New York resident veteran with a satisfactory discharge who never finished high school, on any active-duty service (Education Law 305(29) to (29-c)); bring the DD-214 to any New York school that issues diplomas, with no fee and no need to have attended school in New York.

Active-duty service, no high school diploma, New York residence. The gates are active-duty service, a satisfactory discharge, New York residence and no high school diploma (an equivalency diploma does not bar it). No disability rating is involved, so the rating filter never hides this benefit.

A New York State employee who served in a combat theater or combat zone gets up to five paid workdays a year, charged to no leave credit, for health care related to that service (Military Law 242(5)(b)); a city, county or other public employer may give the same by local law or resolution. Every public employee gets up to 30 days or 22 workdays a year of paid military leave.

Combat service and New York State employment. The gates are documented service in a combat theater or zone, shown by a DD-214 or Defense Department documentation, and employment by the State (or by a local employer that has adopted the same leave). No disability rating is required, so the rating filter never hides this benefit.

Up to 500 State positions in the noncompetitive class, filled without an examination by disabled veterans (a compensable VA rating, 10% or more) or by veterans the Department of Civil Service's employee health service certifies as disabled but able to do the job; combat-wounded Purple Heart veterans get priority.

Service-connected disability rated 10% or more. The disability test is a service-connected disability rated 10% or more. A veteran below that does not qualify on the rating path.

State certification that opens a 6% statewide goal for participation on New York contracts. Needs a service-connected rating of 10% or more, 51% ownership, real day-to-day control, small business status, and a genuine New York presence.

Service-connected rating of 10% or more. At least one owner has to hold a service-connected disability rating of 10% or more from VA, or from the New York State Division of Veterans Affairs for a National Guard veteran. A veteran with no rating cannot certify.

A New York resident who was honorably discharged and served in a war or overseas, or that veteran's surviving spouse, can get a free licence from the county clerk to sell goods on the streets of the county, or across the whole city where a county lies within one. A veteran physically disabled by service gets further rights against local vending limits.

Honorable discharge with war or overseas service, and New York residence. The licence is free. The extra rights under sections 35 and 35-a need a physical disability from injuries received in service, which the rating filter cannot test.

Pays tuition up to the SUNY rate at a New York college or approved vocational program, for a veteran with four years of active duty or qualifying combat service. Four years of full-time undergraduate support, and it can be used for graduate and vocational study too.

Vietnam, Persian Gulf or Afghanistan service, four years of active duty, or an expeditionary medal. The gates are New York residence, a discharge under honorable conditions (general included), and one of the service routes in Education Law § 669-a(1). No disability rating is required and the rating filter never hides this benefit.

The Commonwealth is one of two U.S. territories with no National Guard. Residents who want to serve join the Guam National Guard, which leaves them outside Guam’s residency-gated veteran benefits.

No territorial Guard, so no Guard-linked benefit. The Commonwealth has no National Guard and no Guard tuition assistance, education waiver, or state active duty programme. Only American Samoa is in the same position among the permanently inhabited territories.

In-state tuition rates for active duty members stationed in North Carolina and their dependents, for every National Guard member regardless of residence, and for a veteran using VA education benefits while living in the state, with no limit on time since discharge.

Assignment to North Carolina, Guard membership, or VA education benefits while living here. The paths are active duty assignment to a North Carolina installation and dependents of such a member, membership in the North Carolina National Guard, or use of covered VA education benefits while living in North Carolina under 38 U.S.C. 3679(c), with no limit on time since discharge since August 1, 2021. No disability rating is involved, so the rating filter never hides this benefit.

State law expressly allows a private employer to prefer a veteran for employment without it counting as unlawful discrimination. It also covers the spouse of an honorably discharged veteran with a service-connected permanent and total disability.

Veteran status, for the employer to apply a preference. The statute authorizes rather than requires a preference, and it tests veteran status rather than any disability rating. The rating filter never hides this entry.

Year-for-year credit for military service toward the experience a state job requires, up to four years of credit for unrelated service, and 10 preference points where a numerical score is used. Since October 1, 2026 every veteran discharged other than dishonorably qualifies, with no wartime test, and so does the spouse of an active-duty service member.

Active duty other than training, discharged other than dishonorably. G.S. 126A-5-14, from October 1, 2026: any veteran discharged under other than dishonorable conditions, the spouse of a disabled veteran, a deceased veteran's surviving spouse or dependant, an eligible Guard member, or the spouse of an active-duty service member. No rating is needed, so the rating filter never hides this benefit.

An honorary high school diploma for a veteran who left school to serve in the Second World War, Korea or Vietnam. It may be awarded posthumously.

Left high school to serve in one of three named wars. The veteran must have left high school before graduating to serve in the armed forces during World War II, the Korean War or the Vietnam War. Later conflicts are not on the list.

Twenty paid workdays a year for a public employee, and thirty paid days for a mobilization or emergency state active duty. Reemployment carries a year of protection from discharge except for cause, and a violation is an infraction.

Twenty paid workdays a year, thirty for a mobilization. A state or political subdivision employee who was employed immediately before the leave gets twenty workdays a calendar year without loss of pay. A leave necessitated by a full or partial mobilization or by emergency state active duty is without loss of pay for the first thirty days, less other paid military leave already taken that year.

A 35 percent tuition waiver at state schools, a 25 percent waiver plus a grant at private ND schools, and a grant of up to 100 percent for out-of-state and online study. All of it depends on the appropriation holding.

Thirty-five percent at a state-controlled school. Section 37-07.1-03 entitles a qualifying Guard member at a state-controlled school to a thirty-five percent waiver of tuition. Published guidance that says twenty-five percent is describing either an earlier version or the separate private-institution provision.

A board that does not decide within thirty days must automatically issue a provisional licence, free of charge, valid up to two years. Boards must ask about military status on every application and act immediately.

Thirty days of silence issues the licence. Section 43-51-11.1(5) requires a board that has not granted, denied or provisionally licensed within thirty days of a completed application to issue a provisional licence or temporary permit automatically, valid until the board finally acts.

A private employer may prefer a veteran in hiring, and may prefer the spouse of a veteran with a permanent and total service-connected disability. The statute says this is not an equal employment violation.

Permission for the employer, not a right for the applicant. The section authorises a private, nonpublic employer to prefer a veteran, and to prefer the spouse of an honorably discharged veteran with a service-connected permanent and total disability. It requires nothing and creates nothing an applicant can enforce.

A veteran, a serving member, a Guard or reserve member, and their spouses and dependents are resident students for tuition purposes immediately. There is no waiting period and no requirement to have lived in the state.

No waiting period for the military limbs. A full-time active duty member, a national guard member, an armed forces reserve component member, and a veteran as defined in 37-01-40 are resident students immediately. The twelve-month and three-of-six-years rules that apply to other students do not apply to them.

Outside a competitive system a qualified veteran must be hired unless the agency documents justifiable cause in writing. The remedy on appeal is the job itself, with backpay, and the agency carries the burden.

A qualified veteran must be hired, absent written justifiable cause. Outside a competitive personnel system the employing authority must employ a qualified veteran, disabled veterans first, unless it documents justifiable cause in writing. Justifiable cause must be something specific to that individual that renders them unsuitable for the position.

The North Slope Borough’s personnel rules must give a veteran of the First World War, the Second World War, Korea or the Vietnam era (to November 7, 1975) employment preference, with five points added to a passing merit-exam grade, ten for a veteran VA rates at least 10 percent disabled, and preference to stay on when a position is cut and qualifications are equal.

Veterans of the listed service periods; ten points at a 10 percent VA rating. The preference turns on service between 1917 and 1975 and an honorable discharge; the ten-point step needs a 10 percent rating, which the rating filter does not test, so it never hides this benefit.

In every Northwest Arctic Borough department and on all borough public works, veterans are preferred for appointment and employment. A veteran here is anyone honorably discharged after 181 days or more of active service, or after six years in the Alaska Territorial Guard or Alaska National Guard, or a current Guard member credited with two years.

Honorably discharged veterans and qualifying Alaska Guard members. The preference turns on service and discharge, not a rating, so the rating filter never hides this benefit.

A veteran who passes an Ohio classified civil service exam gets 20% of the grade added, and a Guard or reserve member who has finished initial training gets 15%. The same credit applies to county and city classified jobs.

Honorable discharge or Guard and reserve service. Twenty per cent for an honorably discharged Ohio resident or a reservist with more than 180 days of federal active duty; fifteen per cent for a reservist who finished initial training. No rating is needed.

Tuition help for a child, age 16 through 24, of a deceased veteran or of a veteran disabled at 60% or more service-connected, who served in a covered war period. For 2025-2026 the award was 77% of public tuition and fees, or $6,330 at a private college.

Parent rated at least 60% service-connected. The living-veteran disability path is a service-connected rating of 60% or more. A deceased parent, a permanent and total nonservice-connected disability for which VA pays benefits, and a parent declared a prisoner of war or missing in action are separate paths that need no rating.

The Okaloosa County Tax Collector exempts from the county business tax a majority owner who is an honorably discharged veteran, a veteran's spouse or unremarried surviving spouse, or an active-duty member's spouse, on its online exemption form after the business tax application. It accepts a DD-214 or a VA health card.

Honorable discharge, or a listed spouse. An honorably discharged veteran, a veteran's spouse or unremarried surviving spouse, or an active-duty spouse, as majority owner. No rating is needed.

Okaloosa County gives chapter 295 veterans preference on its jobs and pays Guard and Reserve employees full salary for 240 hours of training a year and the first 30 days of active service, then tops up military pay to county salary for a year with the employee's own health premiums paid. Its jobs page links preference questions to the Veteran Services page, which does not cover them.

Veteran applicants and Guard or Reserve employees. Preference follows chapter 295 categories. Military leave pay is for county employees on Reserve or Guard duty. No rating is needed except for the disabled veteran preference category.

Under section 205.055 an honorably discharged veteran, the spouse or unremarried surviving spouse, and a PCS military spouse owe Okeechobee County no local business tax. The Tax Collector's FAQ still offers only a fee exemption "for disabled veterans (up to $50)", the rule Florida repealed in 2018.

Honorable discharge, or a listed spouse. An honorably discharged veteran, a spouse or unremarried surviving spouse, or a PCS military spouse. No rating is needed, though the Tax Collector still describes a disabled-veteran rule.

State agencies and political subdivisions must give a three percentage point bonus preference to Oklahoma businesses at least 51 percent owned and controlled by service-disabled veterans. The Department of Veterans Affairs may also prefer veteran-owned vendors in its own purchasing.

51 percent owned and controlled by service-disabled veterans. 74 O.S. § 85.44E(A)(2).

A school board may grant a diploma to an Oklahoma veteran who left high school to serve in World War II, Korea or Vietnam and was honorably discharged.

Service in the three wartime windows. 70 O.S. § 24-153(B)(2).

Veterans with 90 days of active service and their spouses and children, current service members with an Oklahoma home of record or stationed in Oklahoma and their families, ROTC scholarship students and Oklahoma Guard members qualify for in-state tuition at Oklahoma public colleges, regardless of residence.

Veteran route: 90 days of active uniformed service. 70 O.S. § 3247(A)(4).

Current Oklahoma Guard members get resident tuition and fees paid at state colleges, up to 18 hours a semester, 120 undergraduate hours and 40 graduate hours, and tuition at technology centers for up to three years, in return for 24 months of further service. From 2025 a member with six years can transfer entitlement to a spouse or children.

Current Oklahoma Guard member with a year left on the contract. 70 O.S. § 3231(E)(1).

Oklahoma licensing boards must credit military training toward a licence, expedite licences for military spouses, issue a licence within 30 days to a service member or spouse moving here with a licence from another state, waive the first fees, and keep a deployed member's licence alive without fees.

On military orders, federal law treats the existing licence as valid. 50 U.S.C. § 4025a, as amended by Pub. L. 118-159: no equivalence test, and a temporary licence if the board needs more than 30 days. Veterans rely on 59 O.S. §§ 4100-4100.8.

From July 1, 2026, the children of an active duty service member, or a reservist on active orders, who is moving to an Oklahoma installation are treated as district residents before they arrive, may choose their district, and cannot be refused early enrollment because of a special education plan.

Parent on active duty orders, moving to an Oklahoma installation. 70 O.S. § 8-103.1, as amended by 2026 Okla. Sess. Laws c. 264.

Oklahoma repealed its civil service preference points in 2022. A veteran found eligible by the Office of Veterans Placement is now guaranteed up to two interviews for a qualified position with the same job title at each agency in a year. A war veteran rated 30 percent may also be hired without the ordinary hiring procedures.

Full obligation or early release, and honorable or under honorable conditions. OAC 260:130-1-2; 72 O.S. § 2. The office's web page says honorable only.