Schreiner Veteran

Benefits Usage Guidelines

Before certifying to the VA that you are enrolled, it will be necessary for you to file the VA Certification Form with our office.

Once you have applied for VA Certification, you will receive your Certificate of Eligibility by mail. This award letter will come from the VA and will state your percentage of eligibility for VA benefits and the number of months and days of entitlement you are allotted. Your certificate of Eligibility is required for benefits processing.

If you are receiving Chapter 30 or 1606 benefits you must verify your enrollment with the VA at the end of each month so that you will receive your payment. Be sure that you have verified exact start and end dates for any classes in which you are enrolled that are shorter or extend beyond the regular semester. You can verify enrollment via Web Automated Verification of Enrollment (WAVE) or  1-877-823-2378. If you notice either class dates or credit amounts are incorrect while verifying, please contact our office.

Receiving Your Benefits

Direct deposit is the safest and fastest way for you to receive your education benefits payment. There are three ways to set up a direct deposit for your payments. You can call 1-877-838-2778 to set up or change direct deposit. You can use eBenefits to make necessary changes.

Expiration of Benefits

If you are a Veteran using your benefits, you are entitled to no more than 48 months of combined VA benefits (Chapters 30, 31, 35, 1606). What this means for you is that although your Certificate of Eligibility might state that you only have a couple of days or months of benefits remaining, the VA may still cover you for the entire semester at the basic rate. If you have any further questions regarding your remaining benefits and payment, call the VA at  1-888-442-4551 or check out your eBenefits account.

If you are eligible for the ARMY College Fund, other – kickers, or benefits with payment for dependents, the additional amount will stop on the delimiting date, but the basic rate will continue through to the end of the current enrollment period.

If you are the dependent using transferred entitlement, the VA will cover your tuition up until you’ve exhausted your months and days, or until your delimitating date, whichever comes first. You can ask the Veteran to remove the delimiting date by contacting the VA or making the adjustment in eBenefits.

Important Reminders

You must attend class and submit assigned work in order to receive benefits. The VA only pays for classes you attend and complete. If you register for a class and stop attending at any point during the semester, you may receive an unofficial withdrawal and a debt will be created against you by the VA. Even if you are failing the course, it is best to either withdraw or continue attending the class and fail if you do not want to pay money back to VA. The VA will allow you to fail a course without having to pay money back, as long as you attended the entire semester. If you receive a debt letter from the VA, bring or send it into our office for evaluation.

If you fail a class, you will not receive a debt as long as you attended the class through the end of the term. You will also be able to use your benefits to retake the class to satisfy your degree requirements. The VA considers a failing grade to be any grade in which you did not meet the minimum grade to “complete” the course. For example, some courses require a C+ or better to receive credit, if you receive a C, you did not pass and therefore the VA will pay for you to retake the course. We do not report “I” grades to the VA. However, the VA does not pay repeated course fees.

If you have used your benefits at another school and are transferring to Schreiner University, you are required to complete a Change of Program/Place of Training form to the VA. You can do this via the VA services website. If you are a veteran, you will submit the VA Form 22-1995. All dependents regardless of chapter will submit a VA Form 22-5495. These forms are submitted directly to the VA and cannot be processed by our office. The VA will mail you a new Certificate of Eligibility after you submit this form.

When you enroll at Schreiner University to pursue a degree or certification program, Schreiner is considered your “parent institution”. You must request to have a Parent Institution Letter sent to your other school. You can do this by completing a Request for Certification form and indicating your other school in the “Institution” column next to each class. If you are concurrently enrolled in classes at Schreiner and another school, remember that you also need to request to be certified for your Schreiner class. Simply indicate the class and Schreiner as the institution on the form. Immediately transfer all coursework to Schreiner University upon completion. If you plan to attend Schreiner while attending another school, you will be considered as being concurrently enrolled and the VA will receive certifications from both institutions.

Your eligibility letters will always be mailed to the address that the VA has on file. If you change your address, you should immediately notify our office and the VA.

Additional Information