Title 29 Tuition Exemption — Children, Spouses and Survivors
The state's in-state tuition exemption educates the families of qualifying veterans, on two routes with different tests. Living route: the veteran is rated 90-100% or 100% unemployable and was a Louisiana resident for at least a year before the student starts; children aged 16 to 25 qualify, and spouses do not while the veteran lives. Deceased, POW or MIA route: spouses and children both qualify, the spouse with no age limit but only within ten years of eligibility, and remarriage ends it permanently.
Verified August 27, 2026
What this benefit is
The state's in-state tuition exemption educates the families of qualifying veterans, on two routes with different tests. Living route: the veteran is rated 90-100% or 100% unemployable and was a Louisiana resident for at least a year before the student starts; children aged 16 to 25 qualify, and spouses do not while the veteran lives. Deceased, POW or MIA route: spouses and children both qualify, the spouse with no age limit but only within ten years of eligibility, and remarriage ends it permanently.
What it's worth: Four years of tuition at any state college or university, within five years, full-time
- Living route: the veteran must be rated 90-100%, or 100% through individual unemployability.
- Living route: the veteran must have been a Louisiana resident for at least one year before the student starts school. There is no residency requirement on the child.
- Living route: eligible children are aged 16 to 25 and dependent — biological, step, or fully adopted. Spouses do NOT qualify while the veteran is living.
- Deceased route: the veteran was killed in action, died in active service, is missing in action, was a prisoner of war, died of a service-connected disability incurred in a wartime period under R.S. 29:251.2, or was rated 90-100% or unemployable before death.
- Deceased route residency: the veteran was a Louisiana resident for 12 months before entering service or before death, or was permanently assigned to a Louisiana installation.
- Deceased route: a spouse has no age limit but must use the benefit within TEN years of becoming eligible, and remarriage is a permanent bar. Children are 16 to 25 as on the living route.
- Both routes: four years of education to be taken within five years, attending full time, at any state college or university including the LCTCS institutions.
Who is entitled to it
- The qualifying parent or spouse is a veteran meeting the programme requirements.
- The qualifying veteran meets the residency requirements.
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
- 1Match your class to your route: children qualify through a LIVING veteran; spouses qualify where the member is POW/MIA; surviving spouses and children qualify through a DECEASED veteran.
- 2Residency requirements attach to the veteran and differ between the living and deceased routes — a parish veterans assistance counselor (every parish has one) walks the specific case.
- 3Separately, plain in-state tuition STATUS — not the exemption — is granted to veterans, spouses, children and active-duty members eligible for federal education benefits, which matters to new arrivals.
- Form
- Title 29 application through a parish veterans assistance counselor
- File with
- The Department of Veterans Affairs, via any parish service office
- Documents you will need
- dd214 · va benefit summary letter
- Annual
- Claimed once a year.
Sources
- authority · published policyLouisiana Department of Veterans Affairs — Title 29 eligibility, living veteran route (June 2025)
- operating · published policyLouisiana Department of Veterans Affairs — Title 29 eligibility, deceased/POW/MIA route (June 2025)
Why only one source type: The department's own page states the beneficiary classes and the differing residency rules; the statute hosts block every tool.
This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.