AHEAD-Veterans SIG
Earning the “F”: What You May Not Know About Student Veterans with Disabilities Using the GI Bill
By: Dan Standage, M.A. COMS, Student Veterans of America; SIG co-chair
I was working on a presentation for the upcoming AHEAD conference in Albuquerque with a friend and former colleague who works in Disability Services. She said, "I have lots of student veterans who say they’d rather get an 'F' than drop.” I thought it was a good learning moment, so I asked another former colleague (also a very dear friend too) to give some insight on why this is so common amongst student veterans. Thought I'd share the moment to advance the knowledge.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will only pay for classes that receive punitive grades which are considered "earned credit." A grade of a "W" is non-punitive and does not go into a GPA. The VA will not pay for a class from which a student withdraws. However, if a student gets a failing grade, the VA will pay up until the last day of attendance (for attendance-taking institutions) or until the end of the term (for institutions that do not take attendance).
The people that process the GI Bill on every campus that accept the GI Bill as financial aid are known as the State Certifying Official (SCO). SCOs must report all "W" grades to the VA. Once the "W" is submitted to the VA, a debt will be created for the student, for tuition, fees, and monthly living stipend associated with that class. There is up to a six-credit exclusion for a student the very first time he/she withdraws from classes and a debt will not be created. There is no paperwork to fill out for the exclusion. It is automatic when the adjustment is processed by the SCO.
Some schools have a tuition cap after so many credits, commonly seven. If a student is still full-time after withdrawing from a class, there would be no penalty. However, at other schools, including many community colleges, each class has a tuition and fees value, so it will always create a tuition and fees debt. Of course, if a student does add a second eight-week course to replace the drop, the VA would pay based on the status with that class. The student could then be full-time again, but it's always case-by-case and it can be complicated.
If you're serving student veterans and they tell you that they'd rather get an "F" than drop a course, it's not self-destructive behavior. To the contrary, they're actually protecting their education benefit and being an active participant in their own affairs. Coming from military culture, which is highly directive and discourages individuality, this is a good sign that he/she is successfully reintegrating. It's possible they are unaware of the first-time drop exclusion or the credit cap. It's also possible that it's more complicated than that and they are doing an inventory of options before they decide which is best for them.
Connect with your campus SCO (larger or satellite campuses may have multiple) and establish a relationship with them. The GI Bill is like a book and has many chapters. For example, Chapter 31 is VA Vocational Rehabilitation (VAVR). Chapter 31 requires veterans to have a VA disability rating of 30% or higher for basic eligibility. Student veterans with disabilities often don't know that Disability Services exists, or why they would use them. A Disability Services contact for the SCO is a really good resource, especially for first-term, first-generation, and transfer students, in addition to those at-risk for academic probation. Having that relationship with an SCO also provides a way to stay up-to-date on changes to GI Bill processing that affect student veterans.
This article and other information can be found in the AHEAD-Veterans special interest group (SIG) community. To access this online community, you must sign-in to your AHEAD member account. From there, follow the link titled “Communities” toward the top of the page. All SIGs are listed in alphabetical order. Please consider joining the Veterans SIG to stay up-to-date on relevant topics. The SIG Chairs understand that the new online community is a drastic change from the soon-to-be phased-out listservs that have been around for decades. On the other hand, the landing pages for each SIG will remain. This will allow SIGs to continue making information publicly available on the web. For instance, the archive of the tri-annual Newsfeed will continue to be hosted there, along with other info and resources. The benefit of the online community is near-real-time interaction, recent posts, rich content, a collaboration space for members, and much more.
Here’s some other ways to stay connected:
- The AHEAD-Veterans SIG landing page can be found at https://www.ahead.org/about-ahead/about-overview/special-interest-groups/veterans
- Download the latest issue of the Newsfeed (February 2018) using the link above.
- AHEAD-Veterans SIG annual meeting will be held on Thursday, 19 July, from 12:45p to 1:45p at the AHEAD Conference in Albuquerque.
- Oohrah! Best Practices for Accommodations Veterans in Higher Education breakout session will be on Wednesday, 18 July from 2:00p to 3:00p.
- AHEAD-Veterans SIG will have a table at the AHEAD Conference in Albuquerque during the Exhibit Hall grand opening, Wednesday, 18 July from 5:30p to 7:30p.