Educational gratuity payouts rise as children of wartime veterans enter school

Jeff King told the committee the educational gratuity program has seen substantial growth as the children of early 2000s-era wartime service members reach college and vocational ages. "We've experienced a 235% beneficiary increase in the educational gratuity program over the last 5 years," King said, and DMVA reported disbursing almost $479,000 in FY 2025–26 to support approximately 479 children.

King attributed much of the demand to federal changes in disability adjudication and to Act 27 of 2024, which excluded certain disability-related payments from needs assessments. He said DMVA worked with the Department of Education to create a new process for approving educational institutions for the gratuity and focused regulatory edits on simplifying the need test to maintain program access.