Survivors and Dependents Educational Assistance (DEA)

Survivors and Dependents Educational Assistance (DEA), also known as Chapter 35, provides education and training benefits to eligible dependents of veterans who are permanently and totally disabled due to service-connected conditions, or who died from a service-connected cause, or who died while a disability evaluated as total and permanent was in existence. Eligible dependents include the veteran spouse, surviving spouse, and children between ages 18 and 26. The age limits for children can be extended in certain circumstances, such as when the child served on active duty. DEA benefits can be used for college degree programs, certificate programs, apprenticeships, and on-the-job training. The program pays a monthly education allowance directly to the student. The amount depends on the type of training and whether the student is full-time or part-time. DEA provides up to 36 months of education benefits. Surviving spouses generally have 10 years from the date of the veteran death to use the benefit, though this period can be extended under certain circumstances. DEA is a separate benefit from the Post-9/11 GI Bill Transfer of Entitlement. If a veteran transferred their GI Bill benefits to dependents before death, the dependents may choose between DEA and the transferred GI Bill benefits based on which provides better coverage for their educational plans.

What changed on August 1, 2026

DEA no longer pays for education below the college level. Public Law 117-328, enacted in December 2022, rewrote the definition of an educational institution that chapter 35 runs on — 38 U.S.C. § 3501(a)(6) — by striking secondary school from the list of institutions and raising the floor from the secondary school level or above to the postsecondary school level or above. The amendment carried a delayed effective date, and that date was August 1, 2026.

What it removes is secondary-level training: high school coursework toward a diploma, GED-level instruction, and standalone tutoring or academic remediation. The cutoff runs on when the program starts, not on when the student became eligible, and it reaches any program beginning on or after August 1, 2026.

What continues is everything at the post-secondary level, which is where most Chapter 35 students already are. Undergraduate and graduate degrees, vocational and technical training, non-college-degree programs, apprenticeships and on-the-job training, certificate programs, licensing and certification tests, entrepreneurship training, co-op training, and correspondence or distance learning are all unaffected. So is tutorial assistance under 38 U.S.C. § 3492, which is a separate allowance for a student who is already enrolled at least half-time in a postsecondary course and needs individual tutoring to get through it — a different thing from tutoring as the program itself, and the change does not touch it.

A student who had already started a secondary program before August 1, 2026 is paid through the end of that academic term. VA has said plainly that it cannot continue DEA for later secondary terms even when one more term is what graduation requires — so a student in that position finishes the current term on Chapter 35 and needs a different funding source, or a post-secondary program, for anything after it.

Note: This article references sections of the VA's M21-1 Adjudication Procedures Manual. The VA periodically reorganizes the M21-1 and section numbers may have changed since this article was written. For the most current section references, visit the VA's public M21-1 Web Automated Reference Material System (WARMS).