Scammy and fraudulent schools have required Congress to take protective measures to help prevent Servicemembers and Veterans from being lured into questionable programs; as those using their education benefits are prime targets with guaranteed funds.
The rule boils down to: Programs CANNOT have more than 85% of their students using a VA or DoD educational funding.
In practice, this mostly impacts those who are using their GI Bill.
Exceptions to Policy
This rule does NOT apply to:
- Educational and training institutions that do not assess tuition, fees, or other mandatory charges (commonly, but not limited to, on-the-job (OJT) and apprenticeship (APP) training facilities)
- Farm cooperative training courses
- Flying clubs (also known as "aero clubs") operating under regulations of the Armed Forces as "non-appropriated sundry fund activities"
- Veterans in pursuit of a program leading to a high school diploma, equivalency certificate, or a refresher, remedial, or deficiency course
- Programs with less than 10 students
Additional exceptions:
- Use of the DoD Tuition Assistance (TA), Veterans Readiness and Employment (VR&E), and Dependents Educational Assistance (DEA) CAN be approved even if the rule is violated. This approval process/consideration is automatically done by the VA and does not involve the Veteran/dependent.
- An institution CAN request a waiver that allows the program in violation to still allow new students. This process is NOT Veteran driven.