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Dependent Tuition Waiver — Tuition AND Fees, No Month Cap Stated

A child, stepchild, spouse, widow or widower of a resident veteran who was killed in action, died of service-connected causes, holds a 100% service-connected disability, or was captured or missing attends the university-system institutions free of tuition and fee charges through a bachelor's degree or certificate.

Verified August 27, 2026

What this benefit is

A child, stepchild, spouse, widow or widower of a resident veteran who was killed in action, died of service-connected causes, holds a 100% service-connected disability, or was captured or missing attends the university-system institutions free of tuition and fee charges through a bachelor's degree or certificate.

What it's worth: Free of tuition and fee charges at university-system institutions, bachelor's or certificate — aviation flight charges excluded

  • The waiver covers tuition AND fee charges at North Dakota university-system institutions, through a bachelor's degree or a certificate.
  • Aviation flight charges are excluded — the one carve-out, and an expensive one if you are studying to fly.
  • The qualifying routes under N.D.C.C. 15-10-18.2 and 18.3 are: a veteran killed in action; a veteran who died of service-connected causes; a veteran holding a 100% service-connected disability; and a veteran captured or missing in action.
  • Eligible dependants are the child, stepchild, spouse, widow or widower of a qualifying resident veteran.
  • No month cap is stated in the statute — the limit is the degree or certificate, not a period of entitlement.

Who is entitled to it

  • The veteran holds a 100% service-connected disability — the living-veteran route.
  • The veteran meets the resident-veteran definition.

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. 1Check the resident-veteran definition — it has three doors: born in the state and lived there until service; six months of residency before service with voter registration; or five years of state residency before requesting the waiver.
  2. 2The waiver covers tuition AND fees for an undergraduate degree or certificate — with one carve-out named in terms: aviation flight charges are not included.
  3. 3Campus pages circulate a 45-month cap. The department's own page states none — eligibility runs "for so long as the dependent is eligible." If a campus imposes the cap, ask it to point at the authority.
Form
Dependent tuition waiver application via the institution
File with
The campus veterans or financial aid office, with department certification
Documents you will need
va benefit summary letter
Annual
Claimed once a year.
CorrectionUniversity-system pages state a 45-month benefit limit. The administering department's page names no month cap and says eligibility continues for so long as the dependent is eligible. We publish the department's version and flag the discrepancy rather than silently adopting either.

Sources

Why only one source type: The department's own page states the qualifying routes, the beneficiary classes, the tuition-and-fees scope and the aviation carve-out.

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