Children of military veterans have from now until June 8 to apply for the Children of Wartime Veterans Scholarship for the 2026-27 academic year. The announcement comes after previous funding concerns due to a lack of a state budget.
The scholarship’s funding was restored by the first bill signed into law during the current short session. The bill also included $319 million in funding for the state Medicaid rebase through the end of the 2025-26 fiscal year, among other things.
“I am also gratified to see the General Assembly heed the call for urgent action on many of the items in my Critical Needs Budget, including addressing shortfalls in the Department of Adult Correction, the State Bureau of Investigation, and the DMV, which have faced an increased workload without enough funding to keep people safe,” Gov. Josh Stein said in a press release after signing the bill into law. “And I know thousands of children of veterans across North Carolina will be relieved to know that their scholarships are no longer in jeopardy.”
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The bill allocates $1 million in nonrecurring funds to the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority (NCSEAA) to cover the remainder of scholarship funds that were previously cut for the spring 2026 semester. The legislation said that any remaining funds can be used by the NCSEAA to award scholarships for the 2026-27 academic year.
An additional $10 million was also allocated to the NCSEAA to award additional scholarships for the 2026-27 academic year to qualifying students.
Scholarship funds for the spring 2026 semester were previously prorated 25%, meaning students only received 75% of the amount they were supposed to be awarded. The North Carolina Department of Military Veterans Affairs (DMVA) had also not opened scholarships for the 2026-27 academic year until May 6, to close on June 8.
“This condensed timeframe is necessary to ensure that award notifications can be issued prior to the beginning of the Fall 2026 academic term in August,” the DMVA’s website says. “We recognize the difficulty this shortened window may present for students and families, and we are committed to providing clear communication and prompt support throughout the process. We remain deeply grateful for the service and sacrifice of North Carolina’s wartime veterans.”
Funds were reduced and paused due to a lack of a state budget. A proposal for funding the program was included in Stein’s critical needs budget, which outlined $1 million to cover the shortfall for the current fiscal year. The budget proposal also said that an estimate of $7 million in recurring funding would be needed to cover scholarships for 2026-27.
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Scholarship requirements
According to the website, the scholarship was created to show appreciation for the services and sacrifice of war veterans. Those eligible for the scholarship are children of diseased, disabled, prisoners of war, or missing in action veterans. The aforementioned criteria must have happened to the veteran during a time of war, and the veteran must have been a resident of North Carolina. Applicants must be current residents of North Carolina and under the age of 25.
After the initial requirements, scholarships fall under the following eligibility categories, per the state law:
- Class I-A: A child whose veteran parent was killed in action or died of service connected ailments.
- Class I-B: A limited scholarship for a child whose veteran parent was receiving 100 % of their disability benefits due to a service-connected ailment.
- Class II: A child whose parent received between 20% and 99% of service-connected disability compensation and the parent received a Purple Heart.
- Class III: A child whose veteran parent is deceased and was drawing a pension for a permanent, total disability which was non-service connected. Veteran parents must have also served in a combat zone.
- Class IV: A child whose veteran parent was determined to be missing in action, captured in the line of duty by a hostile force, or forcibly detained by a foreign government or power.
Under the new law, the Secretary of the DMVA may increase the number of Class II and Class III scholarships awarded in the 2026-2027 academic year from 100 to 200 children in each class. The DMVA also has more flexibility with how they distribute funding, including the power to establish a lottery and pro rata scholarships for room and board.
The legislation also says, “All scholarship notifications shall include language that the award of the scholarship is contingent upon the availability of funds.”
What lawmakers are saying
Rep. Grant Campbell, R-Cabarrus, said he was grateful to his colleagues in both the House and Senate along with Secretary of Military Veterans Affairs Jocelyn Mitnaul Mallette for moving the program forward and restoring funding. He also praised the move of scholarship management from the DMVA to the NCSEAA.
“The Children of Wartime Veterans Scholarship program fell victim to bureaucratic mismanagement that resulted in its cancellation in early 2025,” Campbell said in an emailed statement to EdNC. “This was an essential resource for children of brave North Carolinians that answered the call and served our nation in times of war, and its cancellation left many NC students scrambling to reach their educational goals.”
However, according to an emailed statement from Rep. Julie von Haefen, D-Wake, the new law does not fully fund the shortfall previously identified by the DMVA, or help students who may have had to pay out of pocket for the spring 2026 semester, the representative said.
“It breaks my heart that we’re adding stress to these students whose families have been through so much. It’s just not fair to them,” she said.
Von Haefen went on to comment on the law’s language on fund contingency.
“This scholarship’s law has been on the books since 1934. We should not be making conditional statements; we should be honoring the basic promise our state made almost a century ago,” she said. “To me, this is like a warning that if this happens again, people shouldn’t be mad. Before, it was a requirement that the state pay these, but now, they’re changing the language to give themselves an out. Now, people are not going to be able to rely on this money.”
To apply for the scholarship and view the official requirements, applicants can click this link.
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