To receive VA Educational Benefits at Ivy Tech Community College please follow these steps:
- You must be admitted to the college.
- Provide Admissions and the VA Office with the certified copies of your DD214. If discharged from the regular service, you can secure this document from the VA Regional Office (only if you have filed it with them), 575 N. Pennsylvania, Indianapolis, or from a Federal Building or county court recorder if you live outside of Indianapolis. If you are in the Reserves or National Guard, provide a copy of your DD2384 or NOBE (Notice of Basic Eligibility) to the VA Coordinator. You obtain these forms from your unit.
- Get registered. You must be registered before your paperwork will be processed by the VA Office.
- Fill out a 1990 (Application for Benefits) which is available at www.gibill.va.gov or from the VA Office. Students must know their eligibility entitlement. Questions on the entitlement should be directed to (888) 442-4551.
- Fill out a Request for Certification in the VA Office for each semester for which you register with your classes. This step alerts the VA Coordinator that you are enrolled for the term and priority is given to those students that complete this form. you wish to claim benefits for this term. Under "conserving of entitlement", a student cannot opt out of benefits for a term and must be certified if a returning student, in accordance with 38 CFR 21.4203.
The college will submit paperwork for chapters 30, 1606, 1607, 32, 35, Sec 903 to the VA Regional Office in St. Louis and chapter 31 to the VA Regional Office in Indianapolis. The VA generally takes 10-12 weeks to process the paperwork. You will receive notification of your award at your home address.
If you are Chapter 30, you will receive an attendance verification form in the mail which you must fill out and mail back to the VA in St. Louis before you can receive your check. If you have not heard from the VA in more than six weeks, you may wish to contact the St. Louis office to check on the status of your benefits. All students receiving VA benefits, except Chapter 35, are required to verify attendance online at www.gibill.va.gov or by telephone at (877) 823-2378 on the last day of the month in order to get paid.
Checks are sent to the veteran's home address, except for advance pay. All payments are direct deposit with the exception of Chapter 35 recipients. To set-up direct deposit, call (877) 838-2778 and you will need to provide your checking account routing number (check with your bank or credit union).
Chapter 30 and Chapter 1606 recipients now have the option of having their monthly checks deposited directly to their checking accounts. If you receive Chapter 30 or Chapter 1606 benefits, call (877) 838-2778 to establish direct deposit. You will need to provide your checking account routing number (check with your bank or credit union).
You must inform the VA Office, located in room NMC-436, of any changes in your enrollment or of your address. We also recommend you notify St. Louis of the address change. You must also notify the Regional Processing Office in St. Louis of any change of address as they cannot accept this from the college. Change of address requests can be done online (click on the "Change Address" link after you have logged into WAVE) or by telephone at (888) 442-4551.
Payment Arrangements
Veterans are responsible for payment of their tuition and fees to the Bursar's Office by the semester payment deadlines.
Monthly Verification of Attendance
All students receiving veterans benefits, with the exception of Chapter 35, must verify their attendance each month. Students may verify their attendance electronically at www.gibill.va.gov or by telephone at (877) 823-2378. If a student's enrollment status has changed, he or she must verify their attendance electronically. Failure to verify your attendance each month will cause a delay in receiving your monthly check, as the VA will not process your check until your attendance verification is received.
Academic Program Progress
The Veterans Administration will only pay for courses that are required for a student's program of study. You may enroll in courses that are not required for your program; however, you will not be certified for these courses and therefore, will not receive payment from the VA. For example, if a student is in the Computer Information Technology (CIT) program and wants to take a Medical Terminology class, he or she would be able to register for the course, but would not be eligible to receive VA benefits for the course since it is not a required course in his or her program of study.
Repeating Courses
As a general rule, the VA will not pay for the repetition of any class that a student has already satisfactorily completed. As an example, if a student took a Business Law class and received a "D" grade, he or she may not use his or her VA benefits to repeat this course, as a passing grade was earned and credit was given to the student for the course.The exception to this rule occurs when a specific letter grade is required for a course and a student's grade falls below that requirement. For instance, there are some Medical Assistant and Nursing classes that require students to complete the class with a "C" grade or better. If a student does not complete the class with a "C", he or she can use his or her VA benefits to repeat the course; however, there is a limit to the number of times that a course may be repeated. Please see Failing Courses for more details.
Failing Courses
The Veterans Administration will pay only once for the repetition of a failed course or a course that fell below the specific grade requirement. As an example, if a student takes English Composition and fails the course, he or she could be re-certified for that course and receive his or her VA benefits. However, if the student fails the course again, he or she could not be certified for a third time for that course. As a result, the course could be taken again, but the student's enrollment in English Composition class would not be included in the student's total number of credit hours that is reported to the VA for that semester.
Any time a student fails a course, his or her last date of attendance in that course must be reported to the Veterans Administration. The instructor's grade and attendance roster are used to establish the student's last date of attendance. Once the last date of attendance is reported to the VA they will determine whether or not the student earned the "F" or if the student stopped attending classes.
Unofficial Withdrawals
If a student receives failing grades in all of his or her courses for the semester, the student is considered to be an unofficial withdrawal by the VA. The instructors attendance and grade rosters are reviewed to determine the student's last date of attendance. Once the last date of attendance is verified, it must be reported to the Veterans Administration. The VA will then determine if the student earned the "F" or if he or she just stopped attending class(es).
The student's last date of attendance is also used to calculate how much money the student is actually entitled to. Please remember that VA educational benefits are to be used for school-related expenses; expenses that are not incurred if the student's schooling is discontinued. For this reason, it is very important that students complete a Change of Enrollment (drop/add) form if they plan on dropping out of school so that they may be formally withdrawn from their classes. The formal withdrawal from school allows the student to receive "Ws" instead of "Fs" for the classes and prevents a potential overpayment with the VA.
