|
The Official Newsletter for School Certifying Officials |
|
Leadership Corner
Greetings GI Bill Partners,
On April 1, 2024, I joined the Digital GI Bill team to film the second video of the State of Education Service series. This video focuses on our strategic initiative of customer service excellence and discusses how prioritizing customer experience helps Veterans, service members and their families get the benefits they’ve earned.
In harmony with that, since our last newsletter edition the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Education Service has taken great strides in focusing on customer service. Most significantly:
- I, along with my senior staff, held a fireside chat to bring some of the most up-to-date information on pressing issues affecting Education Benefits directly to you, our School Certifying Officials (SCOs) partners.
- Our Stakeholder Engagement, Digital Engagement and National Training Team Schools teams visited Bowie State University as part of our national GI Bill Roadshow tour, providing briefings to both SCOs and GI Bill beneficiaries and providing real time answers to their questions.
- Education Service has called, texted and sent dozens of GovDelivery messages to Post-9/11 GI Bill beneficiaries whose direct deposit accounts could be affected by payment system modernization efforts.
As you read on in this edition, you will find further evidence of how Education Service continues to push forward in its mission to provide top tier customer service. In the future I hope that you are able to make my fireside chats and attend our GI Bill Roadshow visits so that we here at Education Service can hear directly from you on how we can best assist.
I would like to thank you for all you do, every day, in your essential role in helping Veterans, service members and their dependents receive their hard-earned benefits. I look forward to continuing to work with you and accomplishing great things.
Respectfully,
Joseph Garcia, Executive Director Education Service
|
|
Automatic enrollment verification for April 2024
Post-9/11 GI Bill beneficiaries enrollment for the month of April 2024 was automatically verified by the VA. No further action on their part is required. Beneficiaries will need to allow up to seven business days for their benefits payment to reflect in their bank account.
Post-9/11 GI Bill students who did not respond to enrollment verification for February and March of 2024, or whose monthly housing allowance and kicker payments are already being held due to not providing enrollment verification for previous months, will have their payment held until they verify their enrollment. Students whose payments are on hold can verify their enrollment by:
- Going online and following the instructions.
- Verifying their enrollment through AskVA.
- Calling the Education Call Center (ECC) at 888-442-4551.
|
|
Enrollment Manager and personal email addresses
 During the migration from VA-ONCE to Enrollment Manager, SCOs' information needed to be validated using ID.me or Login.gov. Some SCOs were already validated through one of these systems using an old name or their personal email address, which has resulted in an incorrect name or their personal email address appearing on the enrollment certifications they submit through Enrollment Manager.
In order for a SCO to correct their email address in Enrollment Manager they must contact the ECC - SCO Hotline and provide the following information:
- Their full name.
- Their facility code(s).
- The incorrect name or email address showing on the enrollment certification.
- The correct name or email address that should be used. It is imperative that the correct information be the same as what is in the Web Enabled Approval Management System (WEAMS).
The ECC representative will record and escalate the provided information. So long as the corrected information mirrors the information currently in WEAMS, the information in Enrollment Manager should be corrected within seven business days. If the corrected information does not mirror what is in WEAMS, the update will not be completed, and the SCO will be referred to their Education Liaison Representative in order to update their WEAMS information. Once their WEAMS information has been corrected, they will need to call in again to request their Enrollment Manager information be updated.
NOTE: If a SCO is associated with multiple facility codes, they will need to provide all facility codes (excluding extension campuses) they are associated with.
|
|
Subscribe to receive all our updates!
Did you receive this newsletter as a forwarded message? As a reminder, you must be subscribed to our GovDelivery email list to receive routine communications (such as webinar invites or office hour notes) from Education Service.
|
|
GI Bill Roadshow recap: Bowie State University
Paula West with the National Training Team - Compliance presenting during the SCO Workshop at Bowie State University.
On April 10, 2024, Education Service (EDU) hosted a SCO Workshop at Bowie State University as a part of their GI Bill Roadshow. Over 25 SCOs attended to learn more about Enrollment Manager, connect with EDU leadership, and each other. One SCO responded, “It was great! A lot of really good information and networking that I think will really help.”, when asked what he thought about the event.
One of the first SCOs to use Enrollment Manager shared, “What I really appreciated so far about this experience is that it’s continuous improvement...it’s continually listening to the SCOs and continuing to improve [Enrollment Manager] to make it the best that it can be.”
Education Service enjoyed meeting all the SCOs who attended, gathering their feedback, and answering their questions. Education Service representatives look forward to meeting more SCOs at future GI Bill Roadshow stops!
|
|
Resources for schools page updated
In case you missed it: Education Service recently launched the updated Resources for Schools webpage.
The National Training Team-Schools (NTT-S) began work on this redesign during the fall of 2023, partnering with VA’s Education Service Digital Engagement Team, VA.gov partners and the SCO collaboration group.
In the redesigned webpage you will find:
- A more streamlined webpage, making locating needed resources easier and quicker.
- A direct link to the Education Service Upload Portal for when schools need to submit documents directly to VA.
- A forms library so you can quickly and efficiently find those VA forms most used by schools.
Input from the SCOs has been vital to the success of this project, many of whom provided feedback directly to VA via email, during webinars, and at conferences. In our commitment to customer service excellence, our everyday users directly influenced the redesign.
We hope you, too, will engage with us as we continue to fine-tune our resources and trainings to provide our schools and partners with top tier support. Please email NTT-S via email at edutraining.vbaco@va.gov with comments and suggestions on any ways you think we can further improve this webpage.
|
|
2024-2025 Yellow Ribbon open season announcement
VA is now accepting modifications to terms of existing Yellow Ribbon Program agreements and soliciting for initial participation from Institutions of Higher Learning. If your school is currently participating, the open-ended agreement will be automatically renewed with the same terms unless your school submits a request for changes or submits a request for withdrawal.
The agreement form (revised), instructions, cover letter, and frequently asked questions have been posted on our Yellow Ribbon Program webpage. Modifications to existing agreements and any new agreements must be submitted to VA no later than May 15, 2024. The FAQs have also been updated.
The listing of institutions participating in the Yellow Ribbon Program for the 2024-2025 academic year will be updated on VA’s website during June 2024.
NOTE: If you are a non-domestic institution (foreign school approval) this open season period is not applicable to you. You will receive other correspondence notifying you of your Yellow Ribbon open season.
|
|
Five essential monthly housing allowance payment reminders
New Post-9/11 GI Bill students are counting on their monthly housing allowance (MHA) benefits to support themselves and their families while they attend school. Given how essential, and complicated, these benefits can be, we ask that you please share the following reminders with new beneficiaries:
-
MHA is paid only when they are actively enrolled and attending. Breaks between semesters, quarters, or terms are not eligible for MHA reimbursement, which means that no housing payment will be paid for these periods.
-
Housing payments are prorated. Payments are prorated if their course(s) do not span an entire month. If they are certified for part of a month, the payment will be prorated as follows:
VA uses a 30-day month. Divide the monthly rate by 30 to get the daily rate. If the courses begin mid-month, starting on the 15th and running through the 30th, then they are entitled to 15/30ths of the full housing rate.
-
Students must have a rate of pursuit over 50% in order to be eligible to receive MHA payments. If their rate of pursuit is equal to or less than 50%, they are not eligible to receive MHA for the certified period.
-
Changes in enrollment can affect their rate of pursuit, which will subsequently affect their MHA. VA always encourages students to talk with you, their School Certifying Official, before they make any changes to their courseload. They can contact VA to see how the change in pursuit may affect their MHA payments.
Example 1: dropping a course takes a student’s rate of pursuit from 100% to 90%. This will cause the student’s MHA payments in future months to be prorated. If those months were already paid (the change was not reported before payment), a debt for the overpayment will be assessed.
Example 2: terminating all enrollment (dropping all courses) will cause MHA to stop being paid effective the date of termination. If the student was already paid for the full month, or longer, a debt will be assessed for the overpayment.
-
MHA payments are made in arrears, meaning that the student will routinely receive the previous month’s MHA payment during the first week of the following month. While VA will make every effort to make the payment on the first day of the month, students should not be concerned about non-payment until the end of the first business week.
Example: course began mid-August. The MHA payment the student receives during the first week of September will be the prorated August MHA payment.
Students will need to plan accordingly to ensure that they are taking courses and using GI Bill benefits in a way that fits their specific needs and so that they maintain their quality of life. Please help support students by sharing the above essential reminders and advising them to contact VA (via our Education Call Center or AskVA) whenever they have questions or concerns about their benefit payments.
How VA kept everyone in the know
quarter two of fiscal year 2024
 |
|
Newsletters:
|
Messages sent to GI Bill beneficiaries:
|
Messages sent to SCOs:
|
Share your good news story!
Does your school have an exciting Veteran-centric event or initiative to share? We want to know about it and share your good news in an upcoming SCO Spotlight! Click here to find out how to submit your good news story.
|
|
 |
|
US Department of Veterans Affairs
Veterans Benefits Administration
1-888-442-4551, TDD: 711
|
Do you have a question or concern about GI Bill benefits? Contact us safely and securely with Ask VA! |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
