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Tuition AND Fees Waived by Statute — War-Era Veterans

Montana Code 20-25-421 requires the regents to waive full tuition and fees for a Montana resident who served in any of the nation’s wars and was honorably discharged. The same section also covers war orphans, the families of prisoners of war and those missing in action, and the families of Guard members killed on state military duty — those limbs are covered by mt-war-orphans-and-guard-survivor-waivers rather than repeated here.

Verified August 27, 2026

What this benefit is

Montana Code 20-25-421 requires the regents to waive full tuition and fees for a Montana resident who served in any of the nation’s wars and was honorably discharged. The same section also covers war orphans, the families of prisoners of war and those missing in action, and the families of Guard members killed on state military duty — those limbs are covered by mt-war-orphans-and-guard-survivor-waivers rather than repeated here.

What it's worth: Full tuition AND fees waived at a unit of the university system

  • The subsection waives "tuition and fees" together, which is broader than a tuition-only waiver and is the point of recording it separately from the regents’ own last-dollar policy.
  • No dollar figure is claimed. What a waiver is worth depends on the campus and the credit load, and the statute names no number.

Who is entitled to it

  • The veteran route runs to the resident who served.
  • Your discharge is honorable or general under honorable conditions.
  • The survivor limbs name children of the killed or service-disabled, spouses and children of POW/MIA residents, and the spouse or children of a Guard member killed on state duty.
  • 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

Deadline: Set by the campus, term by term
  1. 1Identify which of the four limbs you are in before you apply — they ask for different proof. A war-era veteran shows a discharge; a war orphan shows the parent’s death or service-incurred disability; a POW/MIA family shows the determination; a Guard family shows the line-of-duty finding on state military duty.
  2. 2The Guard limb is the one nobody expects and is worth naming precisely: the spouse or children of a Montana National Guard member killed, or who died as a result of injury, disease or other disability incurred in the line of duty WHILE SERVING ON STATE MILITARY DUTY. Federal activation is a different route.
  3. 3Montana residency is doing real work in every limb. Read it as the resident status of the servicemember or the parent, not only of the student.
  4. 4The waiver is discretionary in form — the regents "may" authorise waivers — and is delivered through Board of Regents policy at each campus, so apply to the campus rather than to the state.
  5. 5Ask whether this statutory waiver stacks with the regents’ own last-dollar veteran waiver or replaces it. They are different instruments with different tests and the campus decides how they interact.
  6. 6Fees are inside this one. If a campus offers you a tuition-only waiver, ask why, because §20-25-421(2)(c) waives tuition and fees together.
Form
Montana University System fee waiver application, filed at the campus
File with
The campus you attend, under Board of Regents policy
Documents you will need
dd214
Each term
Claimed per academic term.
CorrectionMontana’s veteran tuition waiver is usually described only through the Board of Regents policy for veterans whose federal education benefits have run out. That policy is real but it is not the statute. §20-25-421(2)(c) is a separate and in places wider entitlement — it covers fees as well as tuition, it does not require exhausted GI Bill benefits, and it names four categories of family member the policy route does not.
Worth knowingThe statute’s words are "honorably discharged". This record accepts a general discharge under honorable conditions at the question stage because that is how the corpus asks the question, but a general discharge should be confirmed with the campus before relying on it — the statutory text does not extend to it in terms.
Worth knowingThe same subsection waives tuition and fees for several non-veteran groups — enrolled members of Montana tribes resident a year before enrolment, people designated by the corrections department, and qualified survivors of firefighters and peace officers killed in the course of employment. A household may have more than one route in.
Known gapWhich conflicts count as "any of its wars" is not defined in the section, and the campus application instructions were not read line by line this session. Confirm your service dates against the campus list before applying.

Sources

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