Chapter 35 Rates 2026-27

Who gets the money. VA sends the monthly payment directly to you. It is not tied to tuition: you can spend it on school costs or living expenses. You verify your enrollment each month, either online, by text, by email or by phone.

Partial months and short terms. The table amounts are for a full month. VA pays a share based on the days you are enrolled: a term that starts on the 20th of a 30-day month gets about a third of the monthly rate for that month. Below half time, VA pays up to the listed rate for each month but never more than your tuition and fees, and if those are less than the monthly rate it sends the tuition and fees as one lump sum at the start of the term.

Apprenticeship and on-the-job training. The rate steps down every six months of training, from $1,029.00 to $259.00 from the 19th month. The full amount assumes at least 120 hours of training a month, and as the payment goes down, so does the entitlement VA charges for each month (it charges the payment as a share of the full-time rate, to the nearest percent: 38 U.S.C. 3687(e)).

Credit hours. VA measures an undergraduate course by the credit hours your school certifies as full time. If that is 12 hours, then 9 to 11 is 3/4 time, 6 to 8 is 1/2 time, 4 to 5 is less than 1/2 and more than 1/4 time, and 1 to 3 is 1/4 time or less. Trade and technical courses without credit hours are measured in clock hours per week (38 CFR 21.4270).

Months of benefits. You get up to 36 months of full-time benefits if you first started using DEA training on or after August 1, 2018, and up to 45 months if you started before then (38 U.S.C. 3511(a)). Part-time training uses part of a month: 3/4 time uses 0.75 month, 1/2 time 0.5 month, and less than half time is charged as 1/4 time (38 CFR 21.3045). Chapter 35 combined with other VA and Defense Department education programs, such as the Montgomery GI Bill or the Post-9/11 GI Bill, cannot exceed 81 months (38 U.S.C. 3695(c)).

Who qualifies. You must be the spouse or child of a Veteran who is permanently and totally disabled because of a service-connected disability (see the VA disability pay chart for what a 100% rating pays), who died from a service-connected disability, or of a service member who died in the line of duty, is missing or captured, was detained for more than 90 days, or is being discharged for a service-connected permanent and total disability.

Children. If you became eligible, turned 18 or finished high school on or after August 1, 2023, you can use Chapter 35 at any age and there is no time limit (38 U.S.C. 3512(g)). Any one of the three is enough: a child who became eligible in 2020 but turns 18 after that date has no deadline. Only a child who became eligible, turned 18 and finished high school all three before August 1, 2023 generally has 8 years, ending by age 26, and must be 18 or have finished high school to start. The 8 years can run longer if you became eligible between 18 and 26, or if you joined the military (then up to 8 years after discharge, to age 31 at most). A child getting Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) has to give up those payments when using DEA; see VA DIC rates.

Spouses. If the qualifying event was on or after August 1, 2023, there is no time limit. For earlier events, most spouses have 10 years from the date VA finds them eligible (38 U.S.C. 3512(b)(1)(A)). Two exceptions give 20 years: a service member died on active duty (3512(b)(1)(C)), or the Veteran was rated permanently and totally disabled within 3 years after discharge and you remain the spouse (3512(b)(1)(D)). If a Veteran rated permanently and totally disabled later dies, the surviving spouse gets another 10 years, because the earlier spouse period is not subtracted. A spouse can receive DEA and DIC together. Divorce ends eligibility. If the Veteran dies and you remarry, eligibility ends unless you were at least 57 at a marriage on or after January 1, 2004, or the new marriage ends.

Fry Scholarship. If you are the child or surviving spouse of a service member or Selected Reserve member who died on or after September 11, 2001, in the line of duty on active duty, in the line of duty in the Selected Reserve other than on active duty, or from a service-connected disability (within 120 days of discharge from active duty, or at any time for the Selected Reserve), you may qualify for the Fry Scholarship. A spouse must choose DEA or Fry and cannot switch later. A child whose parent died before August 1, 2011 may qualify for both, one at a time, up to 81 months combined; if the parent died on or after that date, both are possible only when DEA eligibility comes from a different event, up to 48 months combined. Fry pays tuition and fees to the school, a housing allowance and books, for up to 36 months, so compare it with the flat monthly DEA amount before you choose.

Post-9/11 GI Bill. The Post-9/11 GI Bill is earned by a Veteran's own service (or transferred to a family member), while DEA is based on the Veteran's death or permanent and total disability. Post-9/11 pays net tuition and mandatory fees to the school (in full at public schools, up to a yearly maximum at private and foreign schools) plus housing and book amounts; DEA pays you one monthly rate by enrollment level.

The rule. Each fiscal year, 38 U.S.C. 3564 raises the school and special restorative training rates, and 38 U.S.C. 3687(d) the apprenticeship and OJT rates, by the percentage the Consumer Price Index (all items, U.S. city average) for the 12 months ending the previous June 30 exceeds the index for the 12 months before. Each dollar increase is rounded to the nearest whole dollar.

What VA's tables show. The statute does not name the index or round the percentage, so we inferred both from VA's tables: the CPI-W 12-month average (July to June, Bureau of Labor Statistics), with the percentage rounded to the nearest tenth. For 2025-26 that is 2.5%: $1,536.00 plus $38.00 is $1,574.00, and $975.00 plus $24.00 is $999.00 for the first six months of OJT, matching VA's 2025-26 table. The same method reproduces every rate in VA's tables for 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26 from the year before. The quarter-time rate (full time divided by 4), the less-than-half rate (the half-time rate), special restorative training (the full-time rate) and the daily entitlement figure (full time divided by 30) follow the structure of VA's table, not a separate percentage.

The next table. VA has not published rates for October 1, 2027, and we do not compute them: the method cannot be checked against the 2026-27 table, because the Bureau of Labor Statistics published no October 2025 index. VA's own table, not this page, is what you will be paid.