December 10, 2009

ED Announces Deceased Veteran Dependent Matching

The Department of Education (ED) announced on Nov. 6, 2009 that beginning Dec. 2009 or Jan. 2010, it will begin receiving a file from the Department of Defense (DOD) that contains the names of students who lost a parent or a guardian as a result of military service while in Iraq or Afghanistan after Sept. 11, 2001. ED will match certain identifiers (student information and parent/guardian information) and notify each school listed on the student’s FAFSA via a phone call and send a follow-up e-mail.

This procedure will assist schools in complying with the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA), as amended by the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA), to identify otherwise eligible students whose parent or guardian died as a result of U.S. military service in Iraq or Afghanistan after Sept. 11, 2001. Benefits to the students include increased Title IV assistance, Pell funds and assistance from the new Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant (IASG) program.

Beginning with the 2010-2011 award year, ED will implement an automated process for notifying schools when a FAFSA record matches to a DOD record by adding a new “DOD Match” flag and a comment to the Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR). The school will use the flag and parent/guardian identifiers to determine the student’s benefits.

Additional information about this procedure can be found in ED’s Nov. 6, 2009 electronic announcement.