Office of Veteran Affairs

Satisfactory Academic Standards

All students receiving veteran’s benefits must maintain the following academic standards:

• Cumulative GPA of 2.0 and
• Complete at least 50% of all coursework taken in a term

If you fail to meet these requirements two semesters back to back your benefits will be terminated. To reinstate your benefits, you must bring your GPA and completion ratio to the required academic standards. If you need to appeal this decision you may turn in your written appeal to Valencia College Veterans Affairs office. Once it is reviewed by Valencia’s Certifying Official they will contact you via email to inform you of the decision.

Please keep in mind Valencia and Financial Aid have different and separate standards you may also need to comply with.

Certification for First Time Transient Students

If this is your first time using benefits at Valencia College, you will be required to complete the initial certification process listed above.

First, consult the Florida Virtual Campus website for more information about taking courses as a Transient student.

If Valencia Is Your Home Institution

If Valencia is your home institution and you are planning on taking a course at another school you will need to get a letter from Valencia's VA School Certifying Official, Denise Asselta. Please email her a copy of your Florida Virtual Campus approval email if you are going to another Florida public school. If you are going to a Private School or a school outside the state of Florida please fill out a Valencia Transient Form and submit it via email to Denise Asselta. The VA office will then provide a Transient/ Parent School letter to both you and your secondary School's VA Certifying Official via email.

If Valencia Is Your Secondary Institution

If Valencia is your secondary institution, please provide the VA office with a Parent School Letter/Transient Form that is signed off by your home school's VA School Certifying Official. They will typically ask for the Florida Virtual Campus approval or need to internally approve you to take the course(s) before supplying this to you. It is your responsibility to make sure that approval is turned into your VA office with your certification request either in person or electronically. The Valencia VA Office will notify you by Atlas email if we are missing this documentation and remind you that it is needed to process your certification request.

Code of Conduct

The Code is a definition of behavioral standards that a student has agreed to follow and is accountable to follow while attending Valencia College. These standards are defined in the student handbook under  POLICY: 6Hx28:8-03.

Deferment

All students who are using a VA educational benefit will receive a protection/deferment on their account by submitting a VA certification request.  This protection/deferment is provided so courses are not dropped during the deferment deadline.  However, if the student has a previous outstanding balance, the courses will be dropped even though a protection/deferment is in place.  The deferment deadline can be found under important dates in the catalog.  Students receiving chapter 33 Post 9/11 GI Bill Benefits and chapter 31 Vocational Rehabilitation benefits can sometimes have an outstanding balance due to awaiting payment from the VA.

Transferring Hours

Have all official transcripts sent to the Admissions Office immediately to be evaluated. The Valencia College Veterans Affairs office can only certify a student’s enrollment for two terms without military transcripts and official college transcripts being received.

Tutorial Assistance

If you are having academic difficulty in a course, Valencia College provides free tutorial assistance. The Department of Veterans Affairs can also provide tutorial assistance for up to $100.00 per month as a reimbursement. If you have questions about this service please contact the Valencia College Veterans Affairs Office.

Withdrawal

When a student withdraws from course(s) the VA automatically forgives up to six credits of non-punitive grades. This is a one-time exception of up to six credits. If you withdraw from multiple courses totaling 6 credits they all must be done on the same day. When forgiven this means that no moneys will have to be paid back to the VA until date of withdrawal. After you use your one-time exception you will receive a debt letter from the VA. The instructions for contacting their office will be in the letter from Debt Management.

Drop vs Withdraw

When you drop a course this means you have no financial obligations to pay for the course and it will not show up on your transcripts. The window to drop a course is a very small time frame (normally the first week of the term). A dropped course does not get counted into attempted hours for VA or Financial Aid benefits.

A withdraw is when you remove a course after the drop window has ended. When this happens money is still owed for the course and you will have a "W" on your transcripts showing you attempted the course. This does get calculated into attempted hours for VA and Financial Aid benefits.

Failing Grades

There are two types of failing grades:

• The student earns a "F" by completing the course and taking the Final Exam. The VA will not ask for money back and will pay for it to be retaken.
• The student receives a "F" that is not earned due to not taking the Final Exam. If the grade was not earned, then it is treated like a "W" withdraw and money will be asked back by the VA from the last date of attendance. The VA will pay for the class to be retaken for these "F" as well.

If you have questions regarding this process please contact Valencia College Veterans Affairs Office.

Incomplete Grades

If you receive an incomplete (I) grade, you have one full semester to earn a grade without penalty. If the grade is not earned within the one semester, it will be converted to a "F". This can only be approved or denied by the professor of the specific course you are concerned with.

Third Attempt

When you register and attempt a course for the third time you will automatically get charged the full cost of attendance. At this time only one VA educational benefit will pay the full cost of this which is Vocational Rehabilitation. Chapter 33 (Post 9/11) will only pay the in state portion and the outstanding balance responsibility falls onto you the student. Valencia does have a waiver to attempt to reduce the cost back down to the instate rate for those who can not afford to pay the full cost. This form gets submitted to the answer center.

1720 State Law

The 1720 state law says that any student who started in a Florida public high school in 2003 or later and then also graduated from a Florida public high school in 2007 or after do not need to take the placement exam (PERT).

The 1720 state law says that any student on active duty when they apply to Valencia College does not need to take the placement exam (PERT).

If you are eligible for this exemption it will automatically get placed on your account. What this means for you as a student using VA benefits is that the VA will NOT pay for remedial courses even if you choose to still take the placement exam and it is determined that you should register for remedial courses. If you want to register for remedial courses please note the financial responsibility will fall on you the student.

Remedial Courses

If you do not qualify for the 1720 state law mentioned above please remember that if remedial courses are required for you to graduate that the VA will only pay for on-site courses. This means they cannot be mixed-mode which is a combination of on-site and online, nor can they be strictly online. If you register for either a mixed-mode or online course they will automatically be removed from your certification (22-1999) that is submitted to the Department of Veterans Affairs.