Army Education Benefits Mr. Bryan Steele Dept. of the Army Civilian Education Services Specialist Primarily serves Soldiers in the MO and KS Army National Guard Jefferson City, MO 573-638-9500 ext. 37053 bryan.l.steele.civ@mail.mil As of 22 JUNE 2017

Agenda Regional Education Services Specialists nation-wide Scenarios Federal Tuition Assistance (FTA) – GoArmyEd Missouri’s State Tuition Assistance (STA) program Veterans Administration (VA) Benefits Best Practices Missouri ARNG Education & Incentives POCs

Regional Breakdown of ARNG ESS’

SCENARIOS PFC Ziegler walks into your Veteran’s Center and tell you “I just entered the MOARNG. I have NOT been to or ever attended Army basic training. I’m enrolled in five classes starting in August and I’m wondering if I’m eligible for any education benefits.” What do you do?

SCENARIOS SFC Morse enters your Veteran’s Center and informs you that she just transitioned from active duty and is now in the MOARNG but living in Illinois. She is a 68W (Combat Medic), deployed overseas three times and served as an Operating Room assistant. She has assisted in numerous surgeries from gun shot wounds, sucking chest wounds and amputations. She wants to know how she can best use her benefits for a bachelors and graduate degree. What do you tell her?

SCENARIOS 1LT McMenamin is a MOARNG helicopter pilot, completed 115 semester hours of college and her academic advisor informed her she only needs two more classes in order to complete her bachelor’s degree. She has completed five years of military service. She also wants to immediately start her graduate program as soon as she graduates. What education benefits do you advise her to use?

SCENARIOS SFC Woods is pursing a graduate degree. SFC Woods Used 12 credit hours of FTA for classes starting on 15 OCT at an approved MO school. The school charges $400.00 per credit hour. The Soldier has not deployed and is an AGR Soldier. What benefits can the Soldier use in order to have 100% of their Tuition covered? What education benefits do you advise her to use? What about the next semester?

Which ed. benefit and when should it be used? How do we know what is best for each Soldier and their family? Prior service? Deployment/Mobilization? One/ten year eligibility rule? ETS date? STATE TA FED TA VA Benefits Is the Soldier flagged? Is the school eligible? GPA?

Federal Tuition Assistance

Federal Tuition Assistance All Army Soldiers (Active, Guard, Reserves) apply for Federal tuition assistance by using www.goarmyed.com web site. Federal tuition assistance pays up to a maximum of $250 of tuition per credit hour for up to 16 credit hours. Maximum limit is $4,000 per federal fiscal year (1 Oct–30 Sep) Federal tuition assistance pays for tuition! FTA Does NOT pay for books and fees. Itemized bills must clearly separate the tuition and fees. Cannot bundle the two together.

Federal Tuition Assistance Federal tuition assistance can be used for Associates through Masters (Soldiers must have 10 years of service in order to pursue a Masters Degree if the Soldier used any FTA for an undergraduate degree) Pays up to 130 semester hours towards a Bachelors & 39 semester hours toward a Masters Degree 21 semesters to earn one “Transition Certificate” if they have not previously obtained a certificate in the past five years Enlisted Soldiers must be within three years ETS and Officers must be able to fulfill their FTA statutory additional service obligation upon completion of the course of study  

Federal Tuition Assistance Must maintain 2.0 GPA for undergraduate degree and a 3.0 GPA for graduate degree; must earn at least a “C” grade for undergrad and “B” for graduate level classes FTA must be approved before the start date of the class. Applications may be submitted 60 days prior to the start of class. FTA Requests submitted less than 5 days prior to course start date may not get approved by the class start date and will not be considered for an exception to policy. Soldiers are ineligible if they are “flagged” for Adverse Actions, fail the Army’s physical fitness test, or overweight. Federal TA cannot be used in conjunction with Ch. 1606

How much money for FTA? Missouri uses more FTA than any other state. Bachelor’s degree - up to 130 semester hours X $250.00 = $32,500.00 Master’s degree - up to 39 semester hours X $250.00 = $9,750.00 Transition certificate - up to 21 semester hours X $250.00 = $5,250.00 Total amount of Federal Tuition Assistance in their Army career of $47,500.00. Missouri uses more FTA than any other state. Averages more than $2M per fiscal year! This is also a saving to MO tax dollars.

FTA Required Documents A. Degree Plans must have the Soldier’s name, school name, degree name, academic advisor’s name, and list all courses required to graduate, to include electives, by course number and course name. B. Course Schedules must have your name, school name, course name, course number, number of either Semester Hours/Clock Hours/Quarter Hours for the course, start and end date of the course. C. Itemized Bill must have your name, school name, and clearly show the cost of tuition for the course. Tuition and fees must be listed separately. Tuition and fees cannot be bundled. To determine the “Unit Cost” divide the amount of tuition by the number of hours. Schools providing these three documents to Soldiers IAW DODMOU: significantly reduce Soldier’s application processing time reduce invoicing errors Increase Soldier/student enrollment and… Increase the amount of federal TA your school receives.

Missouri’s State Tuition Assistance Program

State Tuition Assistance (STA) MO legislature determines the amount per credit hour – currently $276.20 State TA will assist with tuition cost up to a total of 39 undergraduate credit hours a year (15 SHs for Spring, 9 SHs for Summer and 15 SHs for Fall) Up to 150 credit hours or first Bachelor’s Degree $41,430.00

State TA Eligibility Soldier must maintain a 2.5 Cumulative GPA – on a 4.0 Scale All Soldiers MUST exhaust all Federal TA before being eligible to use State TA If you are flagged you will not be approved for State TA ***Must submit complete application and all required documents prior to start date of class

State TA Application Required documents for successful application: 1. The Application 2. Statement of Understanding 3. Course Schedule (must have soldiers name, school name, credit hours, class title and start/end date of classes) 4. Itemized Bill (must have school name, soldiers name and show tuition cost) 5. Official or Unofficial Transcript (mailed directly to INC from school) first time college freshman do not need to provide a transcript. All other Soldiers who have completed college classes (with or without using State TA) must provide a transcript. ** State TA information is located on the www.moguard.com website under the tabs “Programs”, “Education & Incentives”

Question and Answer QUESTIONS?

GI Bill THREE CHAPTERS OF GI BILL BENEFITS Chapter 1606 Selected Reserve Chapter 30 Active Duty/AGR Chapter 33 Post-9/11 VA Phone number is 888-442-4551 Ebenefits.va.gov GI Bill support Guard Education Support Center Little Rock, AR 866-628-5999

GI Bill 48 Months of Benefit if eligible for more than one Chapter 36 Months of One Individual Benefit Can use more than one chapter if eligible, Chapter 30 and 33 can be used with FED TA, Chapter 1606 cannot be used with FED TA

Chapter 1606 Reserve Eligibility: 6 Year Enlistment MOS Qualified (Must have completed AIT) High school diploma Currently pays $369 per month and can only use this Chapter while serving in the ARNG or USAR

Chapter 30 Active Duty AGR or prior service Active Duty who contribute to this Chapter Soldier pays in $1200.00 3 Yr. pay out rate $1857 2 Yr. pay out rate $1509 Have an option for $600 Buy Up Adds $150 per month to benefit= $5400 over the 36 months 10 years to use entitlement after separation

Chapter 33-Post 9/11 Eligible if served 90 Aggregate days of service since September 10, 2001, under section 10 USC 101 or Title 32 AGR (Deployment, AD, or AGR; ADOS does not count) Must give up another GI Bill benefit, irrevocable election Private School Tuition capped at $21,970.46 Tuition paid directly to the school $1000 book stipend a year ($500/semester)

Chapter 33-Post 9/11 E5 with Dependent rate BAH paid based on zip code of the school ($805.50 for online schools) Option Transfer to dependents (spouse and DEERS eligible children) must have 6 years of service to transfer to dependents Must transfer while you are in service and Soldiers will incur a 4 year obligation from date of request Soldier remains in control of transfer, can change *TRANSFER NOW, HR 3016 will cut BAH in ½ for Children

Qualifying Service (CH 33) At least 36 cumulative months-100% At least 30 cumulative months-90% At least 24 cumulative months-80% At least 18 cumulative months-70% At least 12 cumulative months-60% At least 6 cumulative months-50% At least 90 cumulative days-40%

Example 60% Rate CH 33 A Soldier who deployed for 12 months qualifies for 60% of GI Bill if attending school full time 60% of the Soldier’s tuition is paid to college 60% of the book stipend is paid to Soldier 60% of the BAH is paid to Soldier. BAH is based on the zip code of the school, unless attending an online school which is $805.50

Chapter 33-Post 9/11 How to transfer benefits to a dependent: Go to www.dmdc.osd.mil/milconnect. Sign in at the top right with the sign in button. Then click ok, you have to log in with a CAC card Once logged in, click on the Transfer My Education Benefits button located at the middle of the page on the left. This opens a page with your information and any dependent in DEERS Locate the dependent you wish to transfer to, and using the arrow, select the amount of months you wish to transfer, do not worry about a use by date (you can only transfer a total of 36 months) Click on the Chapter 33 / Post 9-11 circle, answer the questions by checking the boxes, then click on the submit button located above the questions (you may get a pop up screen after you select the Post 9-11 circle, read it and click ok)

SCO “Best Practices” Encourage Soldiers to submit their applications EARLY! Provide Soldiers their unofficial transcripts, degree plans, itemized bill and course schedules that meet DOD requirements Make sure a Soldiers application for STATE TA is complete prior to submitting Maintain a copy of the Soldier’s STATE TA application in the Veteran’s Center Upload the Soldiers “Joint Service Transcript” (JST) to their eFile on GoArmyEd Remember most of our Soldiers/Students are young, inexperienced and this is the first time they’ve ever enrolled in school and applied for their education benefits

Take the time to show and explain to Soldiers the process Soldiers/students are what helps to keep our school doors open Contact the MOARNG Education experts quickly when we have an issue Have a representative in your Veteran’s Center that can evaluate the JST and award credit hours Create Checklists for FTA, STA and various VA benefits Prior to each semester, pull a report of all military –connected students and email a welcome/welcome back message Encourage your student Veteran’s to stop by your Veteran’s Centers Veteran’s benefits provides a large financial resource to our schools. Take care of our Veterans and they’re more likely to return next semester.

Remember most of our Soldiers/Students are young, inexperienced and this is the first time they’ve ever enrolled in school and applied for their education benefits Take the time to show and explain to Soldiers the process Soldiers/students are what keeps our school doors open Contact the MOARNG Education experts quickly when we have an issue Have a representative in our Veteran’s Center that can evaluate the JST and award credit hours Invite the MOARNG FTA and STA manager to your school Be involved with the ROTC department. Some ROTC cadets do not receive a Cadet Command/ROTC Scholarship and are eligible for benefits Keep in mind most Soldiers use GAE only a couple of times per year and they forget how to use the site. You may use it daily.

Become the GoArmyEd (GAE) expert at my school Print off the step-by-step guides from GAE Establish a working relationship with MOARNG, Scott and Whiteman AFB Ed. Center folks Know who you can reach out to for help. Don’t expect to become an expert overnight. Advise service members but let them make the decision. Save the “Broadcast Messages” Mr. Steele sends to Soldiers in a binder for reference. Provide Soldiers the GAE “User’s Guide” (print and email) Review a Soldier’s TA Authorization form after their FTA is approved for accuracy at least three business days prior to the start of class. This will reduce problems with your invoicing.

MOARNG Ed. Center Staff 573-638-9500 Education Service Officer: 1LT Emge, 39637, justine.e.emge.mil@mail.mil GI Bill / NCOIC: SFC Laird, 37051, pauline.c.laird.mil@mail.mil Bonus: SPC Gearhart, 37690, stephen.j.gearhart.mil@mail.mil SLRP: SSG Howard, 37139, jeffery.d.howard8.mil@mail.mil Bonus/Fed TA: SGT Embree, 37052, stephen.c.embree.mil@mail.mil Federal TA: Bryan Steele, 37053, bryan.l.steele.civ@mail.mil State TA: SSG Klempke, 37689, brandon.m.klempke.mil@mail.mil State TA: Brenella Mehrhoff, 37023, brenella.mehrhoff2.nfg@mail.mil State TA Application email address: ng.mo.moarng.mbx.per-inc-stateta@mail.mil Mailing Address: The Adjutant General of MO Attn: NGMO-PER-INC 2302 Militia Drive Jefferson City, MO 65101-1203 Serving approximately MOARNG 9,000 Soldiers

QUESTIONS?