|
PROCESSING
The
processing time for a complete VA application through the Santa Ana
College VA Office can take up to 2 weeks. Please check the VA Packet
checklist (pdf) to
determine what forms you need to fill out or documents you need to
provide. The certification is then
forwarded to the Department of Veterans Affairs for their part of the processing.
It can take up to 4 weeks for the Servicing Regional Processing Office
to complete. During peak periods, the processing time could be longer.
SEMESTER VETERANS BENEFIT REQUEST FORM
All
veterans and eligible dependents and spouses must complete the
Semester Veterans Benefit Request Form
(pdf) and turn it in to the
Veterans Affairs Office (VAO) the first week of each term or prior as
long as the student is registered to the intended classes of the semester/term. If this form is
not turned in, then the VAO will assume you no longer wish to continue
receiving VA educational benefits. For new students at SAC or SCC, other
documents (refer to the
checklist (pdf)) will
be requested along with this form (ex: educational plans, transcript
evaluations, Form 22-1990, etc.)
PRIORITY REGISTRATION
The passage of SB272 gives priority
registration to active duty members of the Armed Forces of the United
States or former members who have been discharged within the last 2
years of the day before classes begin. Even if you aren't receiving VA
benefits, you may still be eligible for this type of institutional
benefit. Check with the SAC VAO to see if you're eligible and to
obtain priority status for registration for the Fall & Spring
semesters.
DEGREE OBJECTIVE
To be in
compliance with VA regulations, all veterans and eligible
dependents/spouse must be striving toward an educational objective while
attending any campus in the Rancho Santiago Community College District
(Santa Ana College and/or Santiago Canyon College). This is declared on the Semester Veterans Benefit
Request Form and the Educational plan &/or Program Approval. An
undecided major is accepted only if a student's objective is to enroll
in a Transfer Program at SAC or SCC (Ex: A student is completing General
Education requirements to transfer to a CSU or UC). Only one
educational goal at a time is permitted for VA certification purposes.
For example, if your goal is to obtain an A.A. degree in Liberal Arts,
you cannot take courses outside what is required to obtain that goal.
EDUCATIONAL PLAN
To be in
compliance with VA regulations, students using the Veterans Educational
Benefits must have a current and complete Student Educational plan on
file. A complete educational plan is approved and signed by an academic
counselor to help you attain your educational goal as reflected on the
RSCCD catalog. Please schedule a counseling appointment (SAC
714-564-6100, SCC 714-628-4800) to discuss your educational goals with
an academic counselor. Request a copy of your educational plan for your
VA file which you will need to submit to our office. Any general educational courses need to be
listed on the appropriate sections for us to check and certify courses.
VA will only pay for courses needed to complete your required
coursework to obtain your one educational objective as indicated on the
RSCCD catalog. To avoid delays in payment or possible overpayment, it is
your responsibility to adhere to your Student Educational Plan.
If your
academic counselor is unable to provide an educational plan for you due
to transcripts that have not yet been evaluated, a Veteran Program
Approval may be substituted in the mean time until an Educational Plan
can be submitted within that same term. This form can also be drafted by
an academic counselor from the counseling office. Classes listed
on the Program Approval must match the classes listed on the Educational
Plan which will eventually be turned in to the VAO.
MILITARY CREDIT
When a
veteran petitions for graduation from Rancho Santiago Community College
District and needs these units for graduation purposes, the graduation
office will verify a request for credit from the form DD-214. It
may take no longer than a semester for your DD-214 to be scanned into
the Admissions System. Three (3) units for health education and
one (1) unit for exercise science may be granted on the basis of
military service under the Lifelong Understanding and Self-Development area under Plan A (Associate
Degree Plan) & three (3) units towards Plan B (Transfer to a CSU Plan). Military credit is not
accepted under Plan C (Transfer to a UC Plan).
CHANGING YOUR EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE
If you
elect to change your educational goal/program, you must notify the VAO
immediately. You will be required to provide a new educational plan
(Contact your academic counselor) and complete a VA form
22-1995 or
22-5495 (for dependents).
Return it to the SAC VAO. If you're doing this form through Vonapp,
make sure you make a copy of this submitted form for your file at the
SAC VAO. This needs to be done before you will be eligible to receive any benefits for
courses required on your new educational goal. Make sure that the
training establishment is at Santa Ana College even if you may be
attending Santiago Canyon College.
TRANSCRIPTS
Official
Academic Transcripts from all prior colleges and universities must be
evaluated at the Admissions and Records office. If the transcripts are
not on file, the Veterans Affairs Office (VAO) will not be able to
certify your courses for payment. Furthermore, transcripts are needed in
order for Counselors to make an educational plan for you or a Veteran
Program Approval. Once the evaluation is completed, in the event you
have satisfactorily completed prior courses and have elected to repeat
them prior to transcript evaluation, you may be at risk of overpayment
by the VAO. The VAO may stop or reduce your education benefits and you
will be required to return any overpayments determined by the VAO.
Overpayments may be retroactive to the beginning of the semester.
WITHDRAWALS, CHANGES, ADDITIONS TO REGISTERED CLASSES
All
veterans and eligible dependents are required to report ANY changes
of classes, adds and/or drops to the VAO after the add/drop request
has been officially processed by the Admissions and Records Office to
avoid overpayment.
VERIFYING ATTENDANCE
As an
inactive duty veteran (Chapter 30) or selected reserve veteran (Chapter
1606 or Chapter 1607), you are required to verify your attendance in
class/es to the VA Department on the last calendar day of the month.
This will generate the payment of your monthly benefit. If you fail to
contact the VA Department on the last day of the calendar month, you
will have to wait until the following month to verify two month’s worth
of enrollment. Monthly enrollment verifications can be done by calling
1 (877) 823-2378 or logging on to
WAVES website.
MINI COURSES
Classes
not beginning and ending within the regular semester calendar such as an
8-week course are certified only for the period of time that each course
is active. The beginning and ending dates used for these types of
classes will be determined as outlined in the class schedule.
VA
REPAYMENT POLICY
If you
drop a course or if a grade of “W” or “NC” is earned in a course which
lowered your payment status, the VA requires repayment. For example, if
you drop a class and you fall from Full Time of 12 units to ¾ time of 9
units, the pay back will be the difference between the full and three
quarter time after the drop date and will depend on when the class/es
were dropped. If you have special circumstances that was out of your
control that contributed to the reduction of your units, you may be able
to waive the debt (See Mitigating Circumstances below).
MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES
You may be
able to submit a mitigating circumstance explanation, if it was out of
your control with proper documentation to waive the debt. This is done
by filling out Form 21-4138.
The statement you submit must be a situation you were unaware of when
you registered for school. This must be an unexpected occurrence and
must be DOCUMENTED (e.g. a letter from your employer regarding shift
change or increased hours, a note from a doctor or medical bill, etc.).
If the VA accepts your explanation, they may waive your debt. If you
fail to submit an explanation or if the VA does not accept your
explanation, any money you received after the day of the drop for the
class or classes will be considered an overpayment. Such overpayment is
subject to immediate collection or deduction from your remaining
benefits.
“F” Grades
Your VA
benefits will not be affected if you receive an “F” grade, unless you
received the “F” due to non-attendance. You must notify the VA Office
if you stopped attending a class, even if you did not officially
withdraw.
REPEATING CLASSES
You may
repeat courses for VA benefits in the following situations:
1. A grade
of “W” or “NC” was previously received.
2. A grade
of “F” was received and the class is listed in the catalog as a
requirement for the major (which should also reflect your educational
plan).
3. A grade
of “F” was received and the class is a Basic General Educational
Subject required for graduation.
4. If the
grade does not meet minimum requirements for graduation for a specific
program.
You will
not be eligible for VA benefits for the classes that fall under the
following situation:
1. A grade
of “A,” “B,” "C," or “D” was received in a course.
2. It does
not fall into the above 4 categories.
SATISFACTORY PROGRESS
To be in
accordance with VA regulations, a veteran or eligible must maintain
satisfactory progress toward graduation
requirements. This means that you must maintain a positive grade point
average (GPA) of at least a 2.00 or a “C” average. If you do not
maintain this Satisfactory Progress requirement as defined in the
current RSCCD catalog, you will be placed on academic probation for one
semester. If the same pattern of unsatisfactory progress is repeated
during the probation semester, your unsatisfactory progress will be
reported to the Veterans Administration and the following will occur:
1. You may
continue in classes but will not be entitled to receive VA educational
benefits.
2. You
must see your college academic counselor for an approved program
indicating what course of action must
be
completed to maintain satisfactory progress toward graduation
requirements. Call the counseling office (See
“Education
Plan” for the phone number).
3. After
your counseling session and upon review of your counselor’s suggested
program AND satisfactory
semester
progress, VAO will then certify you for VA educational benefits.
ADVANCE PAYMENT
To be
eligible for advance payment, you must not have received VA educational
benefits the previous semester or have a break in your school session
less than 30 days or one full calendar month. The advance payment check
will be from the first day of the term or the fraction of the remaining
month, plus one month.
The Advance Payment Request
form must be completed in the VAO on the Santa Ana Campus 45 days or
more prior to the beginning of a semester, if you wish to receive
advance payment.
CONCURRENT ENROLLMENT WITH OTHER INSTITUTIONS
You may
take courses offered at other colleges/universities, while enrolled at
SAC/SCC, in order to satisfy your educational objective. You must notify
the SAC VAO prior to your registration date with other schools to make
sure the course can be certified for benefits according to your
educational plan by filling out a “Parent/Primary School Certification
Request.” This form must be signed by a SAC/SCC academic counselor or
dean. You will then return it to SAC’s VAO so they can submit it to the
secondary institution you are concurrently enrolled. SAC/SCC becomes the
parent school and the other institution becomes the secondary
school.
If you
discontinue the class at the secondary school, you must notify the
secondary school’s VA Certifying Official. The secondary school will
then adjust the certified units. When grades have been posted for the
secondary school term, you will provide the SAC Admissions & Records
with an Official Academic Transcript reflecting the grade/s you earned
for the term. Failure to provide official transcripts may jeopardize
future requests for secondary school certification.
Concurrent
enrollment at another school may cause delays in monthly benefits.
During peak periods, parent school certification requests could take
approximately three to four weeks.
ROUNDING
OUT
You may
qualify for a rounding out program. Rounding Out is a program which
allows a student with a limited number of courses remaining in his/her
program to add non-required courses in order to maintain a higher level
of monthly benefit.
Eligible
students will be permitted to “round out,” at one time, on their final
term at a 2-year college (final term of AA, AS, Certificate course, or
transfer to a 4-year program). The VAO must determine if a student is
eligible for rounding out. The student must request this in person and
meet with a VAO representative prior to registering for the final
semester.
DISAGREEMENT WITH POLICY
Rancho
Santiago Community College District follows the Veterans Administration
regulations by implementation of all of the above information.
Disagreement with any of these policies may be presented to the Veterans
Administration Office in Los Angeles by calling 1-800-827-1000 or the
Rancho Santiago District Veterans Affairs Office (Now located alongside
the Financial Aid Office) at 1-714-564-6242.
updated 11/5/09
|
