Responsibilities of the Veteran

You must submit an Enrollment Certification Request form to the Veteran's Certifying Official each semester to have enrollment certified to the VA.

• Regardless of the courses you enroll in, the BC3 Veterans' Certifying Official can only certify to the VA enrollment in courses that are required for your degree/certificate as defined in the BC3 catalog.
• Once an area of requirement is met, no other classes can be certified for that area unless there is unmet general elective credit availability.
• Once an area requirement is met for specified degree, any classes taken in that area will be considered elective credit. Transfer credit from other institutions, including military credit, will be evaluated for credit and applied to your BC3 degree plan. Once requirements are completed for each area, no other courses in this area will be certified to the VA.
• Audited courses cannot be certified to the VA.
• Short term and late start classes are only certified for the period in which they meet. The VA will only count them in your total number of hours enrolled for the period they are in session. This can affect your enrollment status and your payment level.
• To ensure the most prompt and accurate reporting of schedule changes, please submit an Enrollment Certification Change Form as your are changing your schedule.
• If you drop or add classes, enroll in classes outside your BC3 degree program, repeat classes, enroll in short term classes, or are dropped for nonpayment or nonattendance, your enrollment status may change and will be automatically reported to the VA. These changes can result in an overpayment as determined by the VA.
• You must attend class and make satisfactory academic progress as defined in the BC3 Course Catalog. If you stop attending a class and do not officially withdraw from it and receive a failing grade, BC3 is required to report this information along with the last day of attendance in that class to the VA. The VA will consider this a reduction in enrollment and charge an overpayment against your VA education benefits.
• If you are placed on academic probation or suspension, BC3 is required to report this status to the VA.

Class attendance: The Veterans Coordinator will monitor class attendance via your professors. Students who do not attend on a regular basis, stop attending, or withdraw (officially or unofficially) will be reported to the Buffalo Regional Processor. Such notification may include a last date of attendance for each class and may result in adjustment or termination of your GI Bill®® eligibility.

Academic Probation/Suspension and GI Bill®® eligibility: A student who does not make satisfactory progress for attendance at BC3, will have his/her GI Bill®® benefits terminated. The veteran will receive a letter stating benefits have been terminated.

An overpayment may result if you receive a grade of I, F, W, which are not used in computing requirements for your degree program/graduation or if you repeat a course in which you previously received a passing grade, unless a higher grade in that course is required for graduation.

Additional Causes for Overpayments

• You stop attending classes.
• You withdraw from school.
• Information is received from professors which indicates you stopped attending or have not attended class.

Avoiding Education Overpayments

To avoid overpayment of benefits, veterans and dependents must immediately report to the Veterans Coordinator any change in credit hours, drop/add, withdrawal, or termination of attendance.

• All overpayments must be repaid to the DVA.
• Failure to repay an overpayment will result in adverse credit and debt collection may be turned over to a collection agency or the IRS.
• Contact the Veterans Coordinator before you cash your next check if you suspect a change in credit load or termination of attendance could result in an overpayment.

If you change credit load or withdraw from the college after the drop/add period, you will be asked to provide a statement explaining the events which caused the change in enrollment. Mitigating circumstances are unanticipated and unavoidable "events" which interfere with your pursuit of a course. Withdrawal to avoid a failing grade, dislike of the instructor, or attempting too many courses are not considered mitigating circumstances.

If you do not provide a statement or mitigating circumstances are not acceptable, the DVA may reduce or terminate your benefits effective the beginning of the term, rather than your actual last date of attendance.