Veterans Affairs (VA) Chapter 31 – VR&E
Veteran Readiness and Employment Benefit Summary
Below is a snapshot of how the Department of Veterans Affairs processes Veteran Readiness and Employment benefits and their general eligibility requirements. Our VetSuccess on Campus Counselor may be able to help you determine your eligibility for this benefit. You may also contact the Department of Veterans Affairs directly at (800) 827-1000 to determine your eligibility.
- Veterans with service-connected disabilities may be eligible. A service-connected disability rating of at least 10% or a memorandum rating of 20% or more from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is required.
- Must be used within 12 years of either the date of separation from active military service or the date in which the veteran was first notified by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs of a service-connected disability rating.
- Can cover up to 100% of tuition and fees. A monthly subsistence allowance may be available as well.
How to use your VR&E (Ch. 31) Benefits:
Step One: Determine Your Eligibility
You may contact the Department of Veterans Affairs by phone at (800) 827-1000 to determine your eligibility. Our VetSuccess on Campus counselor is also available to help you determine your eligibility for this benefit.
You may apply for Veteran Readiness and Employment by completing and submitting VA Form 28-1900 to the Department of Veterans Affairs directly.
Step Two: Your VR&E Counselor is Assigned
Once approved, you will be assigned a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor in your state.
Step Three: Authorization is Issued to Liberty University
Your U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor must issue an Authorization Form to Liberty University’s Office of Military Affairs, which officially notifies our office that you are using VR&E benefits and authorizes Liberty to post projected credit to your student account in a given term. Your Counselor must submit these forms through the Tungsten Network.
Step Four: Credit is Posted, and FCI is completed.
Once we receive the Authorization Form from your Counselor and you’ve enrolled in courses, the Office of Military Affairs will certify your enrollment to the VA and post a projected credit to your account. You will receive an email in your Liberty email account to notify you that your account has been processed. You’ll then need to complete Financial Check-In to secure your enrollment for the semester. Please see our FCI Guide for more information on this process.
The processing time for the VR&E certification is 3-5 business days for the current semester after registration and the Authorization Form is on file. However, this may not be consistent for a future semester when the current semester is still active, as the current semester’s processing will take priority. For a future semester, it may take up to 30 business days for VR&E benefits to be processed. As soon as all students have been processed for the current semester, the Office of Military Affairs will be able to prioritize the future semester. This typically occurs two weeks after the start of the current semester’s D sub-term.
Please be aware this credit will remain in a projected status until the actual payment is received through our invoicing process. The invoicing process begins the week after the D sub-term’s add/drop period each semester. Projected credit cannot be used to process a refund of financial credit, so this means students using other forms of financial aid along with their VR&E benefit may experience a delay in receiving a full refund of the financial aid credit as a result of this. Once the invoicing process is complete and the payment has been fully authorized on the account, any additional refund due on the account can then be released according to the University’s refund process.
Step Five: Order Your Books
Undergraduate Students
- Students enrolled in undergraduate programs will take advantage of Liberty University’s Inclusive Access system. Inclusive Access integrates digital books and resources into the course and comes at no additional charge to undergraduate students. (learn more about Inclusive Access here). This means that purchasing physical textbooks is not a requirement for undergraduate students. VR&E (Ch. 31) may only pay for required expenses, however VR&E counselors have flexibility to approve coverage for the cost of physical textbooks if a student has a preference for physical books or disability that can be accommodated by using physical text books. The VR&E counselor will need to communicate to Liberty University’s Military Affairs Office that they intend to pay for the cost of physical textbooks after acknowledging that these purchases are not required.
- Once this approval for non-required physical books is received, the Office of Military Affairs will then allocate the VR&E book voucher funds to be used at the Liberty University Online Book Store. Book Voucher funds are automatically allocated at $250.00 per course, up to $1,300.00 and are applied in one to three business days after FCI is completed. Students are sent an automated email from the Online Book Store containing their book voucher code and instructions to use their book voucher funds. If additional funds are needed to complete the purchase of all required books, the total amount of book voucher funds can be increased accordingly by emailing vre@liberty.edu and requesting the additional amount needed to complete the purchase.
- **Please note that the Office of Military Affairs cannot guarantee the availability of any materials through the Online Book Store. Please reach out to the Online Bookstore customer support team for any inventory-related inquiries.
Graduate And Doctoral Students
- Students enrolled in any Graduate or Doctoral level program will be automatically provided with VR&E book voucher funds to be used at our Online Book Store. Book Voucher funds are automatically allocated at $250.00 per course and are applied in one to three business days after FCI is completed. Students are sent an automated email from the Online Book Store containing their book voucher code and instructions to use their book voucher funds. If additional funds are needed to complete the purchase of all required books, the total amount of book voucher funds can be increased accordingly by emailing vre@liberty.edu and requesting the additional amount needed to complete the purchase.
- **As VR&E book vouchers are automatically provided upon completion of FCI, students using VR&E benefits should not manually apply book voucher funds during the FCI process as this may create an additional balance that may not be invoiced to your VR&E counselor
Residential Students
Students attending residentially will obtain their books and supplies including laptops, and other needed items from our Barnes and Noble bookstore on campus and a separate authorization will need to be issued to the bookstore by your counselor. Your counselor will need to issue an authorization for the books and items in the Tungsten Network to the campus bookstore directly. Your counselor may need the following information to create the authorization:
Service Provider Name: Barnes & Noble Education
Payable To: Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC.
Service Provider Email: sm330@bncollege.com
Federal Tax ID: 46-0599018
Facility Code: 31926246
You should have access to your funds within 24 hours of your counselor submitting the authorization. Please note that the Office of Military Affairs is only able to view authorizations for tuition and fees and cannot confirm receipt of authorizations submitted directly to our bookstore. For assistance or troubleshooting in completing a purchase with our campus bookstore after your counselor has submitted the authorization, you may reach out to our bookstore directly at sm330@bncollege.com or by calling (434) 582-2316.
Note: If the amount of materials needed is more than $50.00, the student will need to email the bookstore at sm330@bncollege.com prior to placing an order to have the amount available for purchase adjusted. This does not apply to books.
How to Purchase Materials:
Students utilizing VR&E benefits may be approved by their counselors on a case-by-case basis for the purchase of school supplies or other items such as laptop computers. Additional inquiries on obtaining approval for material purchases may be directed to your VR&E counselor. If your counselor has approved for your VR&E benefits to cover the cost of a laptop purchase or the purchase of other supplies, your counselor will need to issue an authorization for the approved items in the Tungsten Network to the campus bookstore directly. Your counselor may need the following information to create the authorization:
-
- Service Provider name: Barnes & Noble Education
- Payable to: Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC.
- Service Provider email: sm330@bncollege.com
- Federal Tax ID: 46-0599018
- Facility Code: 31926246
Once your counselor has issued the authorization as outlined above, you should have access to your funds within 24 hours. Please note that the Office of Military Affairs is only able to view authorizations for tuition and fees and cannot confirm receipt of authorizations submitted to our bookstore directly. For any additional assistance or troubleshooting in completing a purchase with our campus bookstore after your counselor has submitted the authorization, you may reach out to our bookstore directly at sm330@bncollege.com or call (434) 582-2316.
Note: If the amount of materials needed is more than $50.00, the student will need to email the bookstore at sm330@bncollege.com prior to placing an order to have the amount available for purchase adjusted.