Getting Started

Tuition Assistance

Trainings and Professional Development

Benefits Processing

The most common reason higher education professionals interact with military-connected students is for the purpose of processing VA education benefits, primarily the Post-9/11 GI Bill. Such interactions span the professionals who are doing the day-to-day work of processing forms in VA-ONCE, to colleagues handling compliance, and all the way up to executives providing oversight. VA State Approving Agencies (SAAs), and other bodies all have information that can help.

Helping military-connected students use VA education benefits they have earned can be complex. Below is a comprehensive list of resources, articles, manuals, and sources that will serve as a guide for the School Certifying Official (SCO) (known on some campuses as the VA Certifying Official (VACO)) and those who supervise them. These trusted sources can make a difference in your work.

Getting Started​​

As an SCO or VACO, or as a student affairs professional that serves military-connected beneficiaries, it is important to get connected to the resources that will start you out right.

VA Education Resources​​

The VA has added new GI Bill series on their SITREP program. These are short, under 5 minute, easy to digest, benefits certification related topics. Check it out here.

VA has a new certifying official section and another directly for school administrators.

Training Resources for the New Professional​​

What do I do first? How do I even get started? Every staff professional new in this field will have a long list of questions. Starting right and getting organized are the keys to success. The Association of Veterans Education Certifying Officials (AVECO) can help with its informative training and conferences (online and in person offerings!). Please get connected and attend an upcoming session.

Enrollment Manager​​

Enrollment Manager is the online platform that allows SCOs and VACOs to submit benefits to the VA for processing. A link to VA training resources, FAQs, and guides is below.

Ask VA FAQs​​

Ask VA — or AVA — is an online service that all veterans and members of the veterans’ community can use to submit questions, concerns, and recommendations to VA. Additionally, VA uses this portal to accept formal submissions of official paperwork that lacks an otherwise designated channel for submission.

Tuition Assistance​

Tuition Assistance (TA) also known as Federal Tuition Assistance (FTA) is a fund usable by active duty, guard, and reserve components to assist in paying for the cost of their voluntary, off-duty education programs. It provides $250 per credit hour, not to exceed $3750-4500 in a year running from 10/1 – 9/30. Each service branch has access to TA and specific portals that students and administrators use to manage the funds. In order to be eligible to receive TA, each institution must sign a Department of Defense Memorandum of Understanding (DoD MOU).

There are many moving parts to each fund and portal. They all require that programs and catalogs be uploaded, grades, graduations, and student progress be reported, as well as billing and invoicing. Resources below give insight into the process from both the student and administrator point of view.

An article from Military One Source provides a general, helpful, high-level overview of all the funds.

ArmyIgnitED Portal​

ArmyIgnitED is the portal that provides soldiers, education counselors, and academic institutions a smooth and reliable experience for processing Army TA requests.

Sign up for Army School Support, a private collaborative engagement platform for ArmyIgnitED education institutions, to get questions answered in real time.

Navy and Marine Corps Portal ​

Both branches utilize the same Navy Education portal to apply and submit coursework for payment.

Air Force Portal​

This portal exists for Air Force members to access TA. It’s also a tool that university administrators use to report grades, graduations, and invoicing.

Additional training tools and seminars are available once your institution is signed up to access the site.

Coast Guard Portal​

The Coast Guard provides one site that serves as both access to the portal, provides instructions for applicants, and a really defined FAQ Guide.

Trainings and Professional Development​

It is necessary, and often required, for SCOs (also known as VACOs) to keep up with training offerings and to refresh professionally. VA, regional bodies, and others such as the National Association of Veterans Program Administrators (NAVPA), offer excellent opportunities.

Reporting Fees should be available within your institution to cover the cost of attending training and certification opportunities at least once a year. Regulated under Public Law 111-377, Reporting Fees — the $17 per student, per term, that institutions receive to process benefits — cannot be rolled into the general fund, and must be earmarked for training and other very specific, limited-scope items.

NAVPA & NASPA​

NAVPA, a group of higher education administrators involved in advocacy, legislation, reform, and benefits processing training, has a wide variety of resources available. It also offers an annual national conference that is packed with helpful content and updates.

NASPA – Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, is an excellent resource for student affairs professionals to gain and develop necessary skills. It has a Military Connected Knowledge Community that includes a knowledge database, resources, and national training opportunities.

National Opportunities​

The VA requires that all SCOs (or VACOs) complete training hours every year through its portal.

Regional Opportunities​

Every institution is located in a state that is a part of a specific VA processing region. There are four regions: Northeast, Southeast, Continental, and Pacific. There are organizations that provide up-to-date training opportunities in collaboration with the SAAs and ELRs located regionally. These are affordable, low-cost opportunities that provide great information.

Look for other opportunities for training held in each state that are offered by ELRs and SAAs.

State Approving Agency Guidance and Process​

The State Approving Agency (SAA) in each state is an entity that works to ensure that educational programs are legitimate, meet academic rigor, and follow statutory criteria for programs that want to enroll students using VA educational benefits, like the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

Essentially, they work between the schools and VA as an additional check on compliance. The two main ways that an SCO (or VACO) interacts with a SAA are during compliance survey visits and catalog reviews. As an SCO, it is best to know everything one can about the SAA and VA so you know where their authority ends and the school’s begins.