Request By:
Mr. Dennis McKiernan
1199 Far Hills Drive # 59
Park Hills, Kentucky 41011
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Thomas R. Emerson, Assistant Attorney General
This is in reply to your letter requesting an interpretation of KRS 164.505 which deals with the exemption from matriculation or tuition fees of dependents of servicemen or national guardsmen who were killed while in service or who died as a result of a service-connected disability.
You state that you were able to demonstrate to the Kentucky Veterans Bureau (a section or division in the Kentucky Department for Human Resources) and the Veterans Administration that your father died as a result of a service-connected disability. The required documents were provided and all statutory requirements were satisfied. Therefore, you were excused from payment of tuition fees in connection with your undergraduate education at Jefferson Community College and the University of Kentucky.
You then enrolled at Northern Kentucky University (Chase College of Law). Prior to registration you requested that you be excused from payment of tuition fees pursuant to KRS 164.505. The Kentucky Veterans Bureau refused your request at that time and again at the end of your first year in law school. The reasons given for denying your request were that the statute limits the benefits to a period of time not to exceed thirty-six months and benefits cease when a person completes the required training and instruction to qualify for a degree or diploma.
You maintain that the Veterans Bureau is confusing KRS 164.515, and the limitations contained therein concerning the amount and duration of educational benefits, with the provisions of KRS 164.505 which does not contain such limitations. In addition to requesting an interpretation of KRS 164.505 you also ask whether you are entitled to a refund of the tuition payments you have made if we agree with your analysis of the statutes.
Before we answer your specific questions we would like to make the comment that, in our opinion, the particular state supported university, junior college or vocational training institution involved, and not the Veterans Bureau, makes the determination as to whether an applicant qualifies for the benefits provided in KRS 164.505 and 164.515. Various state agencies may assist the applicant in obtaining the required documentary evidence, such as evidence of the parent-child relationship and the parent's service and cause of death or disability. However, the state-supported educational institution, on the basis of the evidence submitted by the applicant, determines if the person qualifies for the benefits provided in KRS 164.505 and 164.515.
KRS 164.515 which applies to the spouse and children of a permanently and totally disabled serviceman, a prisoner of war or a member of the armed forces declared missing in action, does contain limitations on the exemption from tuition of the children otherwise eligible. The benefits afforded by that statute are exhausted when one of three things happens, as stated in OAG 75-265, copy enclosed:
1. The beneficiary completes thirty-six months of training and instruction under the benefits of the statute.
2. The beneficiary completes his required training and instruction to receive a degree or diploma.
3. The beneficiary attains his twenty-third birthday.
KRS 164.515, however, involves a separate and distinct class of beneficiaries from those set forth in KRS 164.505 which is applicable to any person whose parent was killed while in military service during national emergencies, or wars declared by Congress, or actions of the United Nations or who died from a serviceconnected disability. Children applying for benefits pursuant to KRS 164.505 and who otherwise satisfy the statutory requirements are not limited to a specific number of months of training and instruction; they are not limited to one degree or diploma, and benefits are not terminated when they reach the age twenty-three. Such children are not so restricted or limited because the General Assembly has not placed those limitations in KRS 164.505. For whatever reason, the General Assembly has seen fit to provide greater benefits to children of servicemen in KRS 164.505 than it provides in KRS 164.515.
In conclusion, it is our opinion that if you qualify for the benefits provided by KRS 164.505 and satisfy all the statutory requirements contained therein, those benefits cannot be restricted or terminated because of various limiting factors, such as the age of the beneficiary, the prior receipt of thirty-six months of training and instruction and the attainment of one degree already, limitations which are contained in KRS 164.515 but not in KRS 164.505. Furthermore, it is our opinion that you are entitled to a refund of the tuition payments you made which you should have been excused from making and we would suggest that you contact the appropriate person or office at the university and request a refund.