100% VA Disability Spouse Education Benefits: Chapter 35, Hazlewood, VMSDEP

If your spouse is rated 100% permanently and totally disabled by the VA, you qualify for education benefits for the spouse of a 100% VA disabled veteran through the federal Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance program (Chapter 35, or DEA), and possibly through a separate tuition waiver in your state. Chapter 35 pays you a monthly stipend for college, vocational training, apprenticeships, and certain tests. State programs, where they exist, typically waive tuition at public colleges.

What Chapter 35 DEA Pays

Chapter 35 is a flat monthly payment sent directly to you, not a tuition-matching benefit like the Post-9/11 GI Bill. You can spend it on tuition, fees, rent, groceries, or anything else. There is no separate housing allowance and no books-and-supplies stipend. The monthly check is the whole benefit.¹

For the benefit year running October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2026, institutional program rates are:²

Full-time: $1,574
Three-quarter time: $1,244
Half-time: $912
Less than half-time but more than quarter-time: $912, or the actual cost of tuition and fees, whichever is less
Quarter-time or less: $393.50, or the actual cost of tuition and fees, whichever is less

On-the-job training and apprenticeships start at $999 per month for the first six months and step down to $251 per month after 18 months.²

Who Counts as an Eligible Spouse

Your veteran’s 100% rating has to be designated permanent and total. A temporary 100% rating does not qualify. It does not matter whether the P&T rating is schedular (based on the combined disability percentages) or based on Total Disability Individual Unemployability (TDIU); either works.³

Beyond that, a few situations end or block spousal eligibility:⁴

Divorce ends eligibility.
If the veteran dies and you remarry, you generally lose eligibility. There is an exception when the remarriage occurred on or after January 1, 2004 and you were 57 or older, or when the new marriage later ends by death or divorce.
A spouse currently on active duty cannot use DEA. If you separated from the military yourself, your discharge must be something other than dishonorable.

Unlike dependent children, spouses can collect DEA and VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation at the same time.

How Many Months and How Long You Have to Use Them

If you first enrolled in a program on or after August 1, 2018, you get up to 36 months of full-time-equivalent benefits. Spouses who started earlier may still have 45 months. The Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2017 (the “Forever GI Bill”) cut the cap from 45 to 36, and the 36-month figure is codified at 38 U.S.C. § 3511.⁵⁶

The deadline to finish using benefits, called the delimiting date, depends on when your qualifying event occurred:⁴

On or after August 1, 2023: no time limit. You can use benefits whenever.
Before August 1, 2023: benefits generally end 10 years from the date VA determined you eligible. If the P&T veteran later dies, you get another 10 years. If the veteran’s P&T effective date was within three years of discharge, the window extends to 20 years from that effective date.

What You Can Study

DEA works at VA-approved schools and training establishments and covers:

Undergraduate and graduate degrees at accredited colleges and universities
Vocational, technical, and other non-college degree programs
On-the-job training and apprenticeships
Correspondence and distance-learning courses (spouses specifically are eligible for correspondence)
Licensing and certification tests, reimbursed up to $2,000²
Tutorial assistance up to $100 per month with a $1,200 lifetime cap, if you are enrolled at least half-time⁷
VA work-study⁴

One coming change to watch: starting August 1, 2026, DEA will no longer cover high school coursework, GED preparation, or academic remediation. Public Law 117-328 removed secondary schools from the Chapter 35 definition of “educational institution.” Students already enrolled in those programs can finish their current term but will not be paid for subsequent secondary terms.⁸

How to Apply

Use VA Form 22-5490, Dependents’ Application for VA Education Benefits. You can complete it online through the VA’s website or download the PDF and mail it in.⁹

If you mail the form, send it to the VA regional processing office in the state where your school is located. If you have not picked a school yet, send it to the regional office in your state of residence. Once you enroll, tell your school’s certifying official, who submits your enrollment to the VA electronically.⁴

If Your Veteran Transferred Post-9/11 GI Bill Benefits to You

Some spouses have access to both Chapter 35 DEA and a transferred Post-9/11 GI Bill (Chapter 33) allotment, if the veteran transferred entitlement while still serving. You cannot use both at the same time, and they work very differently.¹

Transferred Post-9/11 benefits generally pay tuition directly to the school (up to the in-state maximum at public institutions), add a monthly housing allowance, and include a books-and-supplies stipend. You may also qualify for the Yellow Ribbon Program, which helps at private or out-of-state schools.¹⁰ DEA recipients are not eligible for Yellow Ribbon. On the other hand, DEA does not require any transfer to have happened while your veteran was on active duty; eligibility flows automatically from the P&T rating. For spouses whose veteran did not transfer GI Bill benefits before separating, DEA is often the only federal option.

Programs That Do Not Apply

A few benefits you may see mentioned are not available in this situation:

Fry Scholarship. The Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship is only for surviving spouses and children of service members who died in the line of duty on or after September 11, 2001. It does not apply to spouses of living disabled veterans, whatever the rating.¹¹
Chapter 31 (Veteran Readiness and Employment). This vocational rehabilitation program is for veterans themselves and cannot be transferred to a spouse.¹²
MyCAA. The My Career Advancement Account program, worth up to $4,000, is limited to spouses of active-duty service members in pay grades E-1 through E-6, W-1 through W-2, and O-1 through O-3. Spouses of veterans who have already separated do not qualify.¹³

State Tuition Programs

Several states run their own tuition benefits for spouses of disabled veterans, and in some cases you can stack them with Chapter 35. Three of the more prominent programs:

Texas: Hazlewood Act

The Hazlewood Act exempts eligible spouses from tuition and most fees for up to 150 credit hours at Texas public colleges and universities. The veteran must have entered the military from Texas or listed Texas as home of record and must be rated 100% P&T (including TDIU) by the VA. You must be classified as a Texas resident by the institution and not be in default on a state-guaranteed student loan. When the veteran is 100% P&T, each eligible family member gets their own 150-hour allotment rather than sharing. The exemption does not cover living expenses, books, or supplies. Federal VA education benefits can be used at the same time, as long as the federal benefit does not exceed the value of the Hazlewood exemption.¹⁴

Virginia: VMSDEP

The Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program waives tuition and mandatory fees at Virginia public colleges and universities for up to eight semesters. Spouses of veterans rated totally and permanently disabled, or at least 90% permanently disabled, qualify under Tier 1. You must meet Virginia domiciliary requirements, and state law has historically required five years of Virginia residency before the benefit is available.¹⁵

Florida

Florida offers scholarships for spouses of veterans who are 100% P&T through the Scholarships for Children and Spouses of Deceased or Disabled Veterans program, authorized under Florida Statute 295.01. Spouses using GI Bill benefits also get a waiver of out-of-state tuition fees at Florida public postsecondary institutions and are eligible for priority course registration at state colleges and universities.¹⁶

Many other states offer some form of tuition assistance or fee waiver for spouses of disabled veterans, with widely varying rules on eligibility, covered institutions, and benefit amounts. Your state’s veterans affairs office is the right place to check what applies where you live.

1
Navy Mutual Aid Association. Understanding Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance
2
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. DEA Rates
3
Stateside Legal. Difference Between 100% Schedular and 100% TDIU
4
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance
5
Congressional Research Service. Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 38 U.S.C. Chapter 35
7
UC Merced Veteran Services. Chapter 35
8
My Army Benefits. VA Is Discontinuing Chapter 35 Education Benefits for High School Programs
9
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. VA Form 22-5490
10
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Yellow Ribbon Program
11
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Fry Scholarship
12
Hill & Ponton. Chapter 31 VA Benefits
13
University of Massachusetts Global. Military Spouse Education Benefits
14
Texas Veterans Commission. Hazlewood Act
15
Virginia Department of Veterans Services. VMSDEP
16
Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Education Benefits