Leadership Corner
Greetings GI Bill® Partners,
While filming the fourth video of the State of Education Service series, this time on Platform and Technology Enhancement, part of the video will include an interview with Carson Nugent, a current Navy service member. As part of that interview the service member completes his GI Bill application online, a process that took about 15 minutes, and then received his digital Certificate of Eligibility (COE) in less than five minutes.
I can think of no clearer example then this that illustrates the arc of change Education Service has undergone. From paper applications being mailed, to faxed, to submitted online, with each application being reviewed by a Veterans Claims Examiner (VCE) and responded to via paper letter. Then with the Digital GI Bill initiative we were able to provide COEs digitally after VCEs completed their review. Today a claim can be submitted online, processed via automation, and a response sent back all in under a half hour. And I’m excited to say that we’re still not done making the process faster, easier, and safer for Veterans, service members, their beneficiaries, and you, our School Certifying Official (SCO) partners. In this edition of our SCO newsletter, you’ll see the hard work of the Education Service staff blossom, as we report multiple updates, upgrades, and new features.
As always, 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
Fiscal year 2024 annual training requirements reminder
If you are a SCO at a covered educational institution, you must complete your required annual training for this fiscal year by August 31, 2024.
Updates, new news and coming soon features
 SCO Handbook updates
The SCO Handbook was formally updated August 20, 2024. The following changes were made:
- Two new sections were added.
- Conservation of Entitlement.
- Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA).
- Nine sections were updated.
- 85/15 section.
- Graduation section.
- Reductions and Withdrawals section.
- Refresher Training section.
- Repeating Courses section.
- STEM Scholarship section.
- Submitting Enrollment Certifications section.
- Submitting Enrollment Certifications - Original Applications section.
- Tuition and Fees section.
Find a comprehensive breakdown of these updates in our “Updates to the SCO Handbook” GovDelivery message.
New academic year – new tuition and fees caps
The 2024-25 academic year (August 1, 2024 – July 31, 2025) tuition and fees caps are now available on the GI Bill website.
SCO training webpages updates
We recently updated the SCO training webpage and SCO training frequently asked questions (FAQs) to provide the most current guidance on your required SCO training.
The updates include:
- A restructured training webpage featuring clearer guidance for new and existing SCOs.
- Revised FAQs focused on current training requirements and trending questions.
Please visit the GI Bill website to check out the changes:
Building Your Future with the GI Bill Updates
Regardless of where your students are in their education journey, VA has a useful resource that can help them make decisions about what to do next. It’s a three-part guide called “Building Your Future with the GI Bill”. The guides have been updated and can now be found at:
 85/15 and Approved Rule 56 – new webpage
Approved Rule 56 brought about key changes to the 85/15 rule that are effective for enrollment periods beginning on and after January 16, 2025. You can find a list of those changes explained in detail on the new webpage: 85/15 and Approved Rule 56.
For information on the current rules and regulations of the 85/15 rule, please visit the 85/15 Rule webpage.
85/15 – new forms
Updated 85/15 forms have been formally implemented in August 2024. You can find copies of the updated forms at:
NOTE: There are confirmed browser issues with completing the forms online. If you are unable to complete the form, please try opening the form in another internet browser.
 Certification series recordings
The National Training Team - Schools team will soon release the first ten videos of its certification series video library. These videos are meant to address the certification of enrollment, credit, and tuition and fees in micro learnings that will be available as YouTube recordings. Some of the topics that the recordings will address include:
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Standard vs. non-standard terms.
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Vacation periods.
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Rounding out and repeat courses.
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Yellow Ribbon.
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Resident training vs. distance learning.
Please be on the lookout for additional communications, so that you will know when these recordings are available.
Digital GI Bill Release 6: Post-9/11 GI Bill payments are now processed in a modernized platform
 As a part of the Digital GI Bill initiative to enhance GI Bill platforms and technologies, we are excited to announce that Release 6 has gone live! This release transitioned payments processing for Post-9/11 GI Bill beneficiaries from the Benefits Delivery Network (BDN) to the modernized Enterprise Management of Payments, Workload, and Reporting (eMPWR) platform allowing Education Service to deliver benefits faster, easier and more accurately.
Release 6 updates also enabled VA systems to automatically intake service history changes, allowing Veterans to receive education benefits and eligibility decisions faster thanks to real-time updates. Additionally, all updates to a student’s personal information such as payment account, mailing address, and contact information will now synchronize across all Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) systems.
We look forward to updating you about future modernization efforts as we work to improve claims and payments processing for all beneficiaries.
Date of birth data in Enrollment Manager update
With the roll-out of Enrollment Manager (EM) in March of 2023, we heard you ask for changes to EM to include correcting data that originally transferred over incorrectly into the Date of Birth block to display as 01/01/1900. We listened to your feedback and acted.
This past February, VA began correcting over 600,000 records ensuring student’s birth dates were good, and by March we reduced the number to over 266,000 records. As of August 2024, we have further reduced the number of affected files to 45,000, with about 1,400 of those files being individuals who have remaining GI Bill entitlement. This update makes it easier for you to correctly identify students and submit their enrollment certifications faster, allowing you time to focus on your GI Bill students and their educational goals.
Remind students to be cautious of VA benefits scams
Veterans and their families should never pay a fee to file an initial claim for benefits. In fact, it’s unlawful for anyone to charge a fee for preparing an initial claim. Please read and share how beneficiaries can avoid claims scams and predators looking to prey on their Veteran's benefits.
Please share the additional following information about common education scams and fraud prevention tips.
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.
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.
Calendar of events
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EDU Fireside Chat – September 17, 2024
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National Association of Veterans’ Program Administrators (NAVPA) Conference – October 7, 2024 – October 11, 2024
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Quarterly Office Hours – October 23, 2024 – October 24, 2024
To view the dates for other upcoming webinars, please visit the National Training Team - Schools Training Calendar.
To view the summary and recordings for previous webinars, please visit the Education Service Webinars and Training webpage. All webinar recordings can be found on our webinar playlist.
National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month
September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and we hope that you will help amplify the message to your Veteran students that they are never alone. VA has dedicated resources that are always available to them.
If an individual is in immediate crisis:
The individual will contact our 24/7 confidential Veterans Crisis Line. They will connect with a real person qualified to help them. The Veterans Crisis Line serves Veterans, service members, National Guard and Reserve members, and those who support them.
They don't have to be enrolled in VA benefits or health care to call.
You can learn more about suicide prevention on our webpage.
Reminders
Enrollment Manager training availability reminder
The updated Enrollment Manager trainings are available in the SCO Training Portal. If you have completed these trainings and wish to review them, please go the Review section of the SCO Training portal.
Peak enrollment season reminder
As a reminder, every fall and spring term VA experiences an increase in the education workload due to the peak enrollment period. There is no need for your educational training institution to hold or resubmit enrollments.
SCO Matrix reminder
We would like to remind you of the availability of the SCO Resource Matrix. This all-in-one resource is routinely updated and is available to assist you in finding and accessing VA education resources.
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