The National Training Team – Schools (NTT-S) has created two new resources for School Certifying Officials (SCOs) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) education beneficiaries. The first is a comprehensive scenario-based guide designed to walk readers through their first year of using VA education benefits, providing step-by-step instructions and practical scenarios for a successful experience. The second is a New SCO Checklist to help newly designated SCOs track their progress through the onboarding process.

The guide can be found on the Education and Training - First Year Scenarios webpage.

The New SCO Checklist can be found on the Education and Training - New SCO Checklist webpage.

On August 1, 2026, VA will discontinue Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance (DEA or Chapter 35) benefits for high school programs.

Public Law 117–328 statutorily changed the definition of “educational institution” by deleting “secondary school” and replacing it with “post-secondary school.” This means that using DEA benefits for secondary education, such as high school coursework, GED level training, tutoring, or academic remediation is no longer allowed for any program starting on or after August 1, 2026.

A message was previously sent to impacted schools. Impacted students have been notified as well.

As of June 13, 2026, Enrollment Manager (EM) no longer allows:

• Manual creation of new student profiles.
• Submission of enrollment certifications when the student has not established the necessary eligibility.

These updates are designed to provide real-time submission validation, maintain claimant data integrity, and speed up claims processing for education claimants.

Please note that, at this time, these changes do not apply to Veteran Readiness and Employment (VR&E) (Chapter 31) benefits.

This summer, Education Service is hosting a series of invitation-only national listening sessions for all facility types. The purpose of these sessions is to review the responsibilities of the NTT-S and to gather feedback on how they can better support you in certifying enrollments to better assist Veterans, beneficiaries, and service members access their education benefits.

These sessions will be based on facility type and experience level. The New SCO sessions will be defined as those with less than three years of experience, while the Experienced SCO sessions will be defined as those with three or more years of experience.

Invitations will be sent over the next few months, but below are the dates for your awareness.

Because space is limited, invitations are extended only to designated certifying officials who meet the criteria specific to each session’s topic.

Historically, students have been allowed the practice of “rounding out” where VA allows a school to certify courses for payment which are not a part of the beneficiary’s approved program of education in an effort to increase a beneficiary’s training time or rate of pursuit. Rounding out is only allowed during the beneficiary’s final academic term. By authorizing payment for these extra courses (courses which are potentially completely unrelated to the beneficiary’s program of study or vocational objective) non-Chapter 33 students are eligible for up to full-time benefit payments and Chapter 33 students can receive the maximum allowable housing allowance (MHA) during this final term. This procedure can be done only once per program.

On January 2, 2025, the Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act of 2025 (Public Law 118-210) was signed into law. Section 208, “Payment of full monthly housing stipend for veterans enrolled in final semester using educational assistance under Post-9/11 Educational Assistance Program”, updated the “rounding out” rule. Students in their last term, attending at an institution of higher learning (IHL) and:

• Attending with a rate of pursuit greater than 50% can now be paid MHA at the full-time rate, without having to take additional classes.
• Attending with a rate of pursuit at or less than 50%:
  • Any courses required for the student’s degree plan must be taken first if available.
  • When all options for the degree plan is currently being taken, filled, or not offered, the student may take any course, even if not part of their program to get their rate of pursuit above 50%, at which time full MHA benefits will be paid.
• Attending with a rate of pursuit at or less than 50%, who does not take additional courses, will not be paid MHA.

SCOs will report “rounding out” situations through Enrollment Manager. The next update to the SCO Handbook will also formally include this change.

Staying updated in the Customer Engagement Portal (CEP) helps ensure smooth and timely Annual Reporting Fee processing. You can review a walkthrough of the CEP on the NTT-S YouTube channel.

Please remember to:

• Verify your school information and points of contact are current.
• Check your school’s CEP regularly for notifications or follow up requests from VA.

If your school is holding a conference or event and would like VA Education Service to provide presentation support (training that would count toward the annual training hour requirement), please complete the SCO Conference Panel request form at least 60 days in advance of your event.

If your school is holding a conference or event and would like VA Education Service to provide presentations on Digital GI Bill (DGIB), new beneficiary education benefit overview, or other more foundational training (training that would count not count toward the annual training hour requirement), please contact the Stakeholder Engagement Team at least 60 days in advance of your event.

Where VA employees are physically present (to include areas within 50 miles of Los Angeles, St. Petersburg, Muskogee, Buffalo, Atlanta, and the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia [DMV] area) VA will be able to ideally support in person conferences.

All requests are subject to resource availability. It is requested you provide the conference agenda as soon as possible to assist with coordination and planning efforts.

The fiscal year (FY) 2025 Annual Benefits Report has been published on the GI Bill® website. In FY 2025 over 933 thousand GI Bill beneficiaries were paid over $13 billion in education benefits. The majority (54%) of GI Bill beneficiaries utilized the Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33) during FY 2025 with another 38% utilizing the Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance (DEA) (Chapter 35) benefit.

We strongly urge you to review this report to see the full scope of where and how education benefits are being paid to Veterans, service members and their families.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is excited to implement the Veteran Employment Through Technology Education Courses 2.0 (VET TEC 2.0) program. This is a new education benefit that was created though the Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act.

VET TEC 2.0 is only for programs in computer programming, computer software, media application, data processing, or information sciences. VET TEC 2.0 offers a different set of approval criteria and pays benefits at key milestones instead of in a lump sum. You can find more information about the program, including how to apply, on our website. If you would rather hear about the program, please review the recorded VET TEC 2.0 Potential Training Provider webinar.

If you have students who are interested in VET TEC 2.0, especially students who may have exhausted their education benefits or would be otherwise ineligible for VA education benefits, please share out VET TEC 2.0 student webpage with them, where they can find more information and apply online. Interested students can also hear more about the program by reviewing the recorded VET TEC 2.0 Potential Beneficiary webinar.