VA Approval for Hybrid Courses Extended

Good news! The Veterans Administration has approved hybrid courses, including transition and coreq courses, to be offered to veteran students. The hybrid course qualifies if it meets face-to-face at least once a week. There is no expiration on this approval! Fully online courses are approved through the end of 2020 and we hear that may be extended to December 2021 but no final word on that yet.

The change to the rules for hybrid courses did change permanently effective August 15, 2019.  Effective that date curriculum course only have to have one standard face to face class session during the term to be considered resident training for your VA students.  As I provided in a bulletin dated August 14, 2019, remedial/deficiency courses were not included in this and must still be offered in an on campus modality to be certified at all. This includes transition, RISE and co-req courses.  

As things have been changing fairly regularly this year due to the pandemic I reached out to VA management to verify the accuracy of the statement that was sent out as I was not aware of any permanent changes for remedial/deficiency courses not offered on campus. It was verified that we have not received any information that this change is permanent or may become permanent. The provisions outlined in the FAQ are meant to be temporary in nature.  NOTE: The provisions under PL 116-128 and 116-140  have been extended through 12/21/21, and VA Central Office is currently working on updating the FAQs found here: https://benefits.va.gov/gibill/covid19faqs.asp.   

If anything changes, VA will disseminate that information.