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The State Cemetery System — Built Only on 100% Federal Money, by Statutory Design

The director of the Kansas Office of Veterans Services is authorised to establish and maintain a state system of veterans cemeteries, and may take donations and acquire property for it. The statute forbids the director from contracting for construction unless the federal government provides an amount equal to one hundred percent of the construction cost, and caps the number of federal grant applications.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

The director of the Kansas Office of Veterans Services is authorised to establish and maintain a state system of veterans cemeteries, and may take donations and acquire property for it. The statute forbids the director from contracting for construction unless the federal government provides an amount equal to one hundred percent of the construction cost, and caps the number of federal grant applications.

What it's worth: Interment in a state veterans cemetery — terms set by the office, not by the statute

  • No fee or free-interment figure is claimed. K.S.A. 73-1232 contains none, and the office’s own cemetery pages could not be read this session.
  • The weight reflects what a family typically avoids paying for a plot, opening and closing where a state veterans cemetery is used, not a figure Kansas publishes.

Who is entitled to it

  • You served.
  • Your discharge is honorable or general under honorable conditions.
  • You are 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

  1. 1Establish eligibility before it is needed. Federal veterans cemetery grant conditions govern these cemeteries, and a pre-need determination settles the discharge question while there is time to correct a record.
  2. 2Have the DD214 to hand. Character of discharge is the first thing any veterans cemetery asks for.
  3. 3Ask the office directly what it charges for a spouse or a dependent child. Kansas publishes no figure in statute, and the practice at state veterans cemeteries elsewhere ranges from nothing to several hundred dollars.
  4. 4Ask which cemetery is open to new interments before assuming the nearest one is. The statute lets the director build a SYSTEM and limits the number of federal applications, so capacity is not evenly spread.
  5. 5A county or a service organisation may carry costs the cemetery does not. Where a veteran dies without means, ask about that route in the same conversation.
Form
Pre-eligibility determination or at-need application with the Kansas Office of Veterans Services
File with
Kansas Office of Veterans Services
Documents you will need
dd214
No renewal
Once granted it does not need renewing.
CorrectionThe interesting content of this section is a CONSTRAINT, not a benefit. The director may not enter a construction contract unless the federal government provides an amount equal to one hundred percent of the construction cost, and may make no more than three applications to the Veterans Administration for cemetery grants after the act took effect. Kansas built its cemetery system on federal money by statutory design, which is why expansion is not simply a budget question.
Worth knowingThe statute puts the system under the director of the Kansas Office of Veterans Services and lets the director accept donations and acquire property for it — so land and money from private sources can enlarge a site even where the construction-funding bar blocks a new one.
Known gapLocations, current capacity, the eligibility rules for spouses and dependent children, and any fee for a family interment are all unverified: kovs.ks.gov is 403 from here. Confirm every one of them with the office before making arrangements.

Sources

Why only one source type: Only the statute could be read. The Kansas Office of Veterans Services publishes the interment eligibility and fee terms on kovs.ks.gov, which returned HTTP 403 on the cemeteries path on 23 August 2026 — the same wall recorded against that host in earlier rounds. Nothing operational is claimed beyond what K.S.A. 73-1232 itself says.

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