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National Guard Tuition Waiver — the Programme That Replaced Tuition Assistance

A serving Guard member at an approved public institution has the remaining balance of in-state tuition waived after other aid is applied — up to 100%, part-time or full-time, undergraduate through doctoral. It replaced the old State Tuition Assistance payment, and the enrolment windows are only 20 days long.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

What it's worth: Up to 100% of in-state tuition waived at an approved public institution, after other aid is applied

The waiver is last-dollar. Private, state and federal tuition assistance is applied to the bill first, and the waiver covers what is left.
Since 1 July 2026 the remaining balance is split 50/50: the institution absorbs half as a direct waiver and the department reimburses the other half from appropriated funds.
HB26-1386 removed the per-institution enrolment caps that the previous funding mechanism carried.
Credit-hour ceilings run for the whole of an academic career: 65 for an associate degree, 130 for a bachelor's, 145 combined across a two-year and a four-year institution, full tuition for one certificate programme, and — with departmental approval — 60 for a master's, 90 for a doctoral and 150 for a professional degree.
Hours used under the old tuition assistance programme do not count against these ceilings.
What is never covered: mandatory fees, textbooks, standalone or professional licensures, out-of-state tuition, and courses that carry no credit or sit outside the degree plan.
Only the listed public Designated Institutions of Higher Education take the waiver.

This record exists to correct a myth. State Tuition Assistance paying up to $5,000 a semester no longer exists. SB25-247 converted it into a tuition waiver in 2025, and material still describing a per-semester dollar payment is describing a programme that closed. The practical difference is large: a waiver can cover more than $5,000 of tuition, and can also cover nothing at all if other aid has already cleared the bill.

Who is entitled to it

The waiver is for serving members of the state Army and Air National Guard.
Your home is in this state.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

1Get accepted at one of the approved public institutions and establish in-state residency with its registrar BEFORE you apply. Out-of-state tuition is outside the waiver, so an unresolved residency file costs you the whole benefit.
2File the federal or state financial aid application and keep a screenshot showing your name and a submitted status. You have to apply for aid; you do not have to be awarded any.
3Apply inside the 20-day window for the term — 1 to 20 June, 1 to 20 November, or 1 to 20 April, closing at 11:59pm on the final day. The window used to be 30 days. Miss it and you pay that term yourself.
4Upload proof of completing basic training, and proof of any further training your speciality requires; an incomplete training file is a denial rather than a query.
5Include documentation of your current separation date, and re-enlistment paperwork or a commander's memo if that date falls inside the term.
6Answer any request from the department within three business days. After that the application is denied rather than held.
7Sign the award and records-release form the department emails you and get it to your bursar before the institution's add/drop date, or the approval is cancelled.
8Do not drop a class after add/drop, and keep satisfactory academic standing. Falling short obliges you to repay the department for the tuition waived that term.
9Apply again for every term. Each term has its own budget and its own verification of your standing with the Guard.

Form: Tuition waiver application, filed once for each term
File with: The Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, inside the 20-day window
Documents you will need: dd214
Each term: Claimed per academic term.

CorrectionState Tuition Assistance paying up to $5,000 a semester no longer exists. SB25-247 converted it into a tuition waiver in 2025, and material still describing a per-semester dollar payment is describing a programme that closed. The practical difference is large: a waiver can cover more than $5,000 of tuition, and can also cover nothing at all if other aid has already cleared the bill.

CorrectionThe waiver is last-dollar, not first-dollar. Federal tuition assistance, grants and scholarships are applied first, and the waiver takes the remainder. A member planning to bank federal aid for living costs while the state pays tuition has the order backwards.

Worth knowingFalling out of satisfactory academic standing does not merely end the waiver. The enacting act obliges the member to reimburse the department for tuition already waived that term, which turns a bad semester into a debt.

Worth knowingFrom 1 July 2026 the money comes half from the institution and half from the department, and the per-institution enrolment caps are gone. A member turned away in an earlier year because a school had hit its cap should ask again.

Known gapWhich reserve components fall outside the waiver was read from the department's own eligibility material and from the enacted bill summaries, not from the codified section. The statute text host refused both automated fetching and the browser this session.

Sources

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.