The VR&E Technology Package

What Chapter 31 can furnish

Books, tools, and other supplies and equipment VA determines are necessary for your program.

• The authority is 38 CFR 21.210 and 38 CFR 21.212 — not 38 CFR 21.6210, which belongs to a different program entirely and gets quoted on flyers by mistake.
• Supplies may be furnished during extended evaluation, rehabilitation to the point of employability, employment services, or independent living services (38 CFR 21.210(c)).
• Chapter 31 is an employment program, or for the independent living track, an independence program. School is the means, not the goal. Equipment is tied to your approved employment or independence goal — not to a degree you want for its own sake.

What an item has to pass

"I need it to succeed" is not the standard. This is.

On disability-related items:

• If a service-connected condition affects how you work or study, items that mitigate or compensate for that condition, or that let you function more independently, may be authorized. There is no published list of qualifying diagnoses — do not let anyone tell you your condition is not on it.
• Medical documentation is commonly asked for. Ask your counselor what they need before you assume.

How VA pays, and the mistake that costs the most

There are two ways VA gets an item to you (38 CFR 21.218):

1. VA arranges for your school or training facility to furnish it.
2. VA issues the authorized item directly to you.

When an item can be authorized

Two separate rules. Both have cost people money.

• Prior authorization by your case manager is required for supplies — except for the standard sets of books, tools or supplies your school or employer requires of all trainees or employees (38 CFR 21.218(a)). That exception is real. Do not let a flat "everything needs a signature first" stop you from getting the standard set your program requires of everybody.
• Supplies are generally not authorized before your enrollment date unless there are compelling reasons, and in no case earlier than the date VA approves your rehabilitation plan and the facility accepts you (38 CFR 21.212(c)).
• Your case manager is the one responsible for authorizing supplies (38 CFR 21.212(f)).

Clothing, cameras and anything you could use at home

• Protective apparel such as lab coats or scrubs is furnished only when your school requires similarly circumstanced nonveterans to use it. No other clothing is supplied (38 CFR 21.219(a)).
• Items that can be put to personal use — the regulation names musical instruments and cameras — are furnished only when the educational facility requires them to meet degree or course requirements (38 CFR 21.219). The same thinking applies to tablets and similar gear.
• If your program genuinely requires it, get the requirement in writing from the school. That document is what turns a personal-use item into an authorizable one.

When you need more than an ergonomic chair

Special equipment has its own authority — and its own precondition.

• Special equipment, sensory aids, prostheses and access modifications may be authorized under 38 CFR 21.216.
• But under 21.216(b), Chapter 31 authorizes it only after VA determines you are not eligible or not suitable to receive that equipment under another VA program — such as VA health care or prosthetics.
• So ask about VHA prosthetics first. Going to VR&E first usually means being sent back around. Starting in the right place saves you a term.

Employment services and self-employment

Chapter 31 has five tracks, and what can be bought changes with the track.

• The tracks are Reemployment, Rapid Access to Employment, Self-Employment, Long-Term Services and Independent Living.
• In employment services rather than training: VA may furnish supplies your employer requires of all new employees, plus items VA finds necessary for job performance — but this is subject to your employer's own reasonable-accommodation obligation (38 CFR 21.214(d)). If the accommodation is the employer's duty, asking VA for it costs you time.

What happens to a VA-issued laptop that dies

• VA replaces items lost, stolen, misplaced or damaged beyond repair when the loss was through no fault of yours (38 CFR 21.220(a)).
• If you have no funds to replace an item VA will not pay for, the Vocational Rehabilitation Revolving Fund may advance you the money (38 CFR 21.220(a)(1)). Almost nobody knows this exists. Ask for it by name.
• Nonconsumable supplies are generally furnished once for your entire program (38 CFR 21.220(c)). Treat the first issue as the only issue.

If you do not have a counselor

"Talk to your VR&E counselor" is useless advice to a veteran who has not applied.

• Basic eligibility: a service-connected disability rating of at least 10% and a discharge that is not dishonorable.
• Still serving: you can qualify with a 20% or higher pre-discharge memorandum rating, or while awaiting discharge for a severe service-incurred illness or injury.
• Discharged on or after 1 January 2013 — there is no time limit on your Chapter 31 eligibility.
• Discharged before that date: a 12-year basic period runs from the later of your separation notice or your first VA rating, and it can be extended where a counselor finds a serious employment handicap. If somebody told you that you ran out of time, ask anyway.

Subsistence allowance

Chapter 31 pays a monthly allowance while you are in training. The flyers leave this out.

• If you also qualify for the Post-9/11 GI Bill, you may be able to elect the BAH-based rate instead of the standard Chapter 31 rate. For many veterans that is substantially more money each month.
• Rates change on 1 October every year, so I am not printing a figure that would be stale by the time you read this. Get the current numbers from VA: benefits.va.gov/vocrehab/subsistence_allowance_rates.asp.
• Ask your counselor to run both rates for your situation before you elect. Put the request in writing.

A denial is not the end of it

A counselor's determination can be challenged. Nobody puts that on a flyer.

• Ask for the decision in writing, with the reason and the regulation it rests on. You cannot argue a decision you only heard out loud.
• Where a decision is appealable, a Higher-Level Review must be requested within one year of the decision. Ask at the same time about your other review options so you do not let a deadline pass.
• Important for VR&E: Higher-Level Review can be requested online only for disability compensation. For other claim types, including VR&E, the request goes in by mail, in person, or through a representative. Contested claims cannot use Higher-Level Review at all. Start at va.gov/decision-reviews/higher-level-review.