Brief Description: Regarding tuition and fee waivers for veterans' families.

Sponsors: Senate Committee on Higher Education (originally sponsored by Senators Hewitt, Hobbs, Shin, Parlette, King, Rockefeller, Swecker, Brandland, McCaslin, Haugen, Kohl-Welles, Rasmussen, Kilmer and Sheldon).

Senate Committee on Higher Education
House Committee on Higher Education

Background: In 2007 the Legislature passed SSB 5002 (C 450 L 07) unanimously. It provides that state higher education institutions must waive all tuition and fees for the children and spouses of eligible veterans or National Guard members who died, are permanently and totally disabled, are missing in action, or are prisoners of war. To be eligible, a child must be a Washington domiciliary between the age of 17 and 26. A surviving spouse, to be eligible, must be a Washington domiciliary, must not have remarried, and it must have been ten years or less since the loss. Each recipient's continued eligibility is subject to the school's satisfactory progress policy.

Summary: It is clarified that the qualifying disability or loss of life must be a result of serving in active military service rather than while engaged in military service. If a death results from a total disability, the surviving spouse has ten years from the date of death in which to receive the waiver. "Totally disabled" means that a person has been determined to be 100 percent disabled by the federal Department of Veterans Affairs. It is also clarified that "fees" include all assessments for costs incurred as a condition of a student's full participation in coursework and related activities.

Students receiving the waivers may attend full- or part-time, but in no case, may the waivers exceed 200 quarter credits or the semester equivalent. Tuition waivers for graduate students are encouraged, but not required. Every two years, the governing boards of institutions of higher education must report on the use of tuition waivers for veterans and National Guard members.

Votes on Final Passage:

Senate      48   0
House      96   0   (House amended)
Senate            (Senate refused to concur)
House      94   0   (House amended)
Senate      49   0   (Senate concurred)

Effective: June 12, 2008