Chapter 35 · For the Family

Survivors' and Dependents' Educational Assistance

DEA, Chapter 35. It pays for school for the children and for the spouse or surviving spouse of certain Veterans. Most Families never hear the word Survivors' in the name, so they never find out it is theirs.

Chapter 35 on VA.gov
Veterans Crisis Line — dial 988, then press 1. Text 838255. Chat at veteranscrisisline.net. TTY 711 then 988, or 1-800-799-4889. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You do not have to be enrolled in VA benefits or health care to connect. Survivors and Family members can call too.
Why I built this page. The flyer version of this benefit gets cut down to "Chapter 35" and a couple of ages. Two things get lost when that happens. The word Survivors' disappears, so a surviving spouse never learns she is covered. And the age rules for children get printed next to the age rules for CHAMPVA health care, so people mix up two different programs. I am going to separate them and give you the full breadth of the rule, not the narrow version.
Start here

Whose Family qualifies

The age rules on this page mean nothing until this part is true.

Chapter 35 is tied to the Veteran's situation, not to the student's grades or need. It is for the child, spouse or surviving spouse of a Veteran or service member who:

  • Is rated permanently and totally disabled from a service-connected disability — meaning VA has decided the disability is total and is not expected to improve; or
  • Died from a service-connected disability; or
  • Died while on active duty; or
  • Is missing in action, captured in the line of duty, or forcibly detained by a foreign government or power.
Read that again if the rating is 70 percent. A disability rating below permanent and total does not open Chapter 35, no matter how high it is. If you believe the rating should be permanent and total, that is a claim question — take it to an accredited representative or your county Veterans Service Officer and ask about the rating itself. The door is not locked, it is a different door.
★ The Veteran's status opens it. Not the student's.
The correction

Spouses and surviving spouses

This is the part people get wrong, and it is the part that costs the most.

The child age rules further down this page do not apply to you. You have your own clock, and which clock you are on depends on one date.

If the qualifying event happened on or after August 1, 2023 — there is no time limit. VA says it plainly on its own page: "If the event that qualified you for DEA happened on or after August 1, 2023, there's no time limit to use your benefits." The qualifying event is the Veteran's death, or the permanent and total rating.

If the qualifying event happened before August 1, 2023, benefits generally end 10 years from the date you became eligible. That stretches to 20 years if the service member died on active duty, or if the Veteran was rated permanently and totally disabled within 3 years of discharge.

If somebody told you your window shuts in ten years, check the date. A surviving spouse of a Veteran who died in 2024 has no time limit. I have seen the ten-year line printed on pages that were written before the law changed, and it stops people from ever filing.
★ One date decides. Find it first.
Children

The age and time limits for a child

August 1, 2023 splits this one too.

No age limit if you first became eligible on or after August 1, 2023, or if you turned 18 or finished high school on or after August 1, 2023. There is also no time limit for those covered by the newer law.

If you became eligible, turned 18, and finished high school all before August 1, 2023, the older rules apply to you:

  • Your benefit generally runs from your 18th birthday or the day you finished high school, whichever came first, and ends on your 26th birthday.
  • If the Veteran parent's service-connected death or permanent and total rating happened after you turned 18 but before you turned 26, you instead get 8 years from the beginning date you elect — and that 8 years can run past your 26th birthday.
  • If you served on active duty yourself, the period can extend 8 years from your first discharge, but never past your 31st birthday.
★ Past 26 is not automatically closed.
What it pays for

Where you can use it, and for how long

  • College and university
  • Technical and vocational school
  • Apprenticeships and on-the-job training
  • Other VA-approved training programs

How many months. Up to 36 months of benefits. Up to 45 months if your training began before August 1, 2018. Taking the age limit away did not add months — it only took away the deadline for using the months you have.

High school, GED, tutoring and remediation are out. VA announced that Chapter 35 can no longer pay for secondary education — high school coursework, GED-level training, tutoring or academic remediation — for any program beginning on or after August 1, 2026. If you started a secondary program before that date, benefits continue through the end of that academic term, but not into a later term. If you are mid-term right now, finish the term. (VA's announcement.)
★ Post-secondary. That is the lane now.
The money

What it is worth

I am not printing a monthly figure here, and here is why.

Chapter 35 pays a set monthly amount while you are in training. The amount depends on your training time — full time, three-quarter time, half time — and on the type of program.

The rates change every October 1. Any figure printed on a page like this one is wrong within the year. So I send you to the number itself instead of copying it: va.gov/family-and-caregiver-benefits/education-and-careers/dependents-education-assistance/rates.

Chapter 35 pays you, the student. It is not paid to the school the way some other VA education programs are, so plan for tuition and fees separately.

★ Check the rate. Never trust a flyer for a dollar figure.
Choosing

Chapter 35 or the Fry Scholarship

Some children qualify for both. You still run one at a time.

  • If your parent died before August 1, 2011, you may qualify for both the Fry Scholarship and DEA — but you can use only one program at a time.
  • If your parent died on or after August 1, 2011, you can use both only if you qualify for DEA through a different qualifying event.

Before you pick, sit down with a school certifying official or an accredited representative and compare the two against your actual program and your actual costs. The two benefits are built differently and one may be worth considerably more to you than the other. (VA's Fry Scholarship page.)

★ Compare before you elect.
How to apply

The form and the step

  1. Apply with VA Form 22-5490, Dependents' Application for VA Education Benefits. You can do it online at va.gov/family-and-caregiver-benefits/education-and-careers/dependents-education-assistance.
  2. Pick your school or training program and talk to its school certifying official. That is the person on campus who reports your enrollment to VA. Every approved school has one.
  3. Apply even if you are unsure you qualify. A decision on paper beats a guess, and a denial gives you something you can appeal or correct.

A county Veterans Service Officer or an accredited representative will help you file at no cost. Nobody should charge you a fee or a percentage to apply for this.

★ File it. Let VA say yes or no in writing.
Don't mix these up

CHAMPVA is a different program

Health care, not education. Its age rules are not the Chapter 35 age rules.

CHAMPVA — the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs — is health coverage for certain Family members of a Veteran rated permanently and totally disabled from a service-connected disability, or who died from a service-connected disability. The "no age limit, no time limit" language on this page belongs to Chapter 35 only. CHAMPVA has hard age limits for a child:

  • A dependent child is covered until age 18.
  • VA's own wording: "If you're enrolled in high school, college, or another educational institution, you can keep CHAMPVA benefits between ages 18 and 23. Your benefits end when you're no longer enrolled or when you turn 23, whichever comes first." You do not have to be full time — you have to show proof of enrollment.
  • After 23, coverage generally ends unless a special exception applies.
Two things that create a bill you have to pay back. CHAMPVA ends on the marriage date for a child who marries before 23. And the "permanently disabled before 18" exception is not automatic — it requires a helpless child rating granted by a VA regional office, which the Family has to file for. Report a marriage or an enrollment change right away. Coverage you were not entitled to becomes a debt.
★ Two programs. Two sets of ages.
CHAMPVA

What a spouse or surviving spouse should know

Spouses are the largest group on CHAMPVA and almost never appear on the flyers.

CHAMPVA also covers the spouse or surviving spouse of a Veteran rated permanently and totally disabled from a service-connected disability, or who died from a service-connected disability.

Remarriage decides it. If you are a surviving spouse and you remarry before your 55th birthday, CHAMPVA ends on the date of the remarriage. If you remarry on or after your 55th birthday, you keep CHAMPVA. If a remarriage before 55 later ends, eligibility resumes the first day of the month after it ends — so if that is you, go back and ask for it.
  • You cannot be eligible for TRICARE. CHAMPVA is for Family members who are not TRICARE eligible.
  • It is not free care. CHAMPVA is a cost-sharing program. There is a calendar-year deductible, then you pay a share of VA's allowable amount, and there is a yearly cap on what your cost sharing can total. Some care — including inpatient mental health care, care for alcohol or substance use disorders, organ transplants and some dental care — needs preauthorization first. Current figures and the full covered-services list are at va.gov/resources/champva-care.
  • CHAMPVA is run by VA, but it is separate from the VA health care system that treats Veterans. Signing up for CHAMPVA does not enroll you in VA health care.
  • Apply with VA Form 10-10d at va.gov/family-and-caregiver-benefits/health-and-disability/champva.
★ Report changes. Debts start with silence.
If you take one thing from this page. The program is called Survivors' and Dependents' Educational Assistance. If the Veteran in your Family died from a service-connected disability, died on active duty, or carries a permanent and total service-connected rating, then the spouse and the children have a school benefit — and after August 1, 2023, most of them have it with no deadline at all. File the 22-5490 and find out. It costs you a form.