If I’m 100% Service-Connected Disabled, Can My Children Use Both State and Federal GI Bills?
Q: I’m a 100% service connected disable veteran. Can my children receive state GI Bill and VA (Federal) GI Bill for their education in college?
A: Yes they can provided your state offers a state GI Bill. But know the VA is usually the last bill payer, so they may only pay the tuition/fees that is left after the state GI bill pays first.
As a veteran with a service-connected disability, you are authorized the Post 9/11 GI Bill at the 100% level if you served for at least 30 days after September 10, 2001.
The way Congress wrote the Post 9/11 GI Bill, you had to be on active duty on or after August 1, 2009 to make a transfer request. Now the real question is did you have a chance to make your transfer requests before you were separated? Many disabled veterans were so focused on their health (and rightly so), that they forgot (or in many cases did not know) they had to make a transfer and get it approved before they got out. If you did, you were one of the lucky ones. If not, then there still might be light at the end of the tunnel.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (Rep – UT) w/ 1 Co-sponsor recently introduced H.R. 2002 legislation that would allow service-connected disabled veterans the opportunity to make a transfer request – the opportunity many never got. However, it will need to pass both the House and Senate, and have the President sign it into law before it can be used. At least someone is making an attempt to correct a wrong.
If you did not make a transfer while you were still in, then look into getting Chapter 35 for your children. This GI Bill could provide up to 45 months of education benefits for each of them.
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