SENATE BILL 295
By Crowe
HOUSE BILL 299
By Reedy
HB0299
000644
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AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49,
relative to higher education.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-7-102(a), is amended by
designating the existing language as subdivision (1) and adding the following as subdivision (2):
(2) Except as provided in subsection (e), every dependent child in this state
under twenty-three (23) years of age, whose parent sustained, while serving honorably
as a member of the United States armed forces during a qualifying period of armed
conflict, a service-connected disability determined by the veteran's administration to
constitute a one hundred percent (100%) permanent total disability, or the spouse of
such veteran, is entitled to a waiver of tuition, maintenance fees, student activity fees,
and required registration or matriculation fees and must be admitted without cost to any
of the institutions of higher education owned, operated, and maintained by the state.
SECTION 2. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-7-102(b)(1), is amended by
adding the following as a new subdivision:
(D) Present official certification from the United States government that the
parent (father or mother) or spouse veteran sustained, while serving honorably as a
member of the United States armed forces during a qualifying period of armed conflict, a
service-connected disability determined by the veteran's administration to constitute a
one hundred percent (100%) permanent total disability.
SECTION 3. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-7-102(b)(2), is amended by
designating the existing language as subdivision (A) and adding the following as subdivision (B):
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(B) The veteran who sustained, while serving honorably as a member of the
United States armed forces during a qualifying period of armed conflict, a service-
connected disability determined by the veteran's administration to constitute a one
hundred percent (100%) permanent total disability must be a citizen of this state at the
time the person's dependent child or spouse applies for the educational assistance
benefits established in subdivision (a)(2).
SECTION 4. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-7-102(b)(4), is amended by
designating the existing language as subdivision (A) and adding the following as subdivision (B):
(B) A veteran's spouse's eligibility for the educational assistance benefits
established in subdivision (a)(2) terminates ten (10) years from the date on which the
veteran's administration determined that the service-connected disability the veteran
sustained, while serving honorably as a member of the United States armed forces
during a qualifying period of armed conflict, constitutes a one hundred percent (100%)
permanent total disability, or upon dissolution of the qualifying marriage.
SECTION 5. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-7-102(d), is amended by
designating the existing language as subdivision (1) and adding the following as subdivision (2):
(2) Notwithstanding subdivision (d)(1), the educational assistance benefits
established in subdivision (a)(2) apply to all state institutions of higher education
beginning with the next registration or enrollment period for the next complete term after
July 1, 2025.
SECTION 6. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-7-102(f), is amended by deleting
the language "in which the ten-year period expires" and substituting instead the language "in
which the ten-year period expires, or at the end of the term in which an order of dissolution of
the qualifying marriage is entered, as applicable".
SECTION 7. This act takes effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.