Enrollment Certification Request (ECR) Form

An ECR Form is a document that a student who is eligible for U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) education benefits must submit to their school’s Veterans Affairs school certifying official. This form authorizes the school to report (or "certify") the student’s enrollment status to the VA to process the VA education benefits.

Purpose of the Form:

• Notifies the school that the student wants to use VA benefits for a specific term or semester.

• Allows the school to verify and submit key enrollment details to the VA, such as:
  Number of credit hours
  Program of study
  Term start and end dates

• Ensures timely processing of tuition payments, housing allowances, and book stipends (if applicable).
  
  

Important Notes:

• This form must typically be submitted each term the student wants to use VA benefits.

• It is separate from applying for VA benefits directly through the VA, it tells the school to certify your enrollment to the VA.

• Failing to submit this form can delay or prevent the receipt of VA payments.

• The course certification process takes approximately five weeks when your ECR is complete – two weeks at our Center and three weeks at VA. Please help us be as efficient as possible by turning in your ECR as soon as you register.

The priority deadlines for ECR submission are: 

December 15 – SPRING Term

April 15 – SUMMER Term

July 15 – FALL Term

If you submit your ECR after the priority deadline, you will still receive all your VA education benefits; however, your first month’s payment (e.g., BAH, stipends) may be delayed.

The course certification process takes approximately five weeks when your ECR is complete – two weeks at our Center and three weeks at VA. Please help us be as efficient as possible by turning in your ECR as soon as you register.

• Summer 6-week Session:  To receive the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH), students must enroll in at least 3 credits per summer session, with at least one course being in-classroom. For full BAH, students must enroll in 4 or more credits per summer session, with at least one in-classroom course in each session.

• Fall and Spring Semester:  To receive the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH), students must enroll in at least 7 credits, including at least one in-classroom course. For full BAH, students must enroll in 12 or more credits, with at least one in-classroom course.

Visit the Department of VA website for the current rates.

NOTE: Online or Hybrid Remedial courses and Repeat courses are not approved by VA.

• All GI Bill® beneficiaries will need to verify their enrollment through text, email, Ask VA, or phone. Veterans or service members can also verify their enrollment online. If a student has a question about verifying their enrollment, please advise them to review the enrollment verification webpage.

Students can change the way they verify their enrollment to whichever method is most convenient for them. If they encounter any issues with a verification method or have any questions about verifying their enrollment, please have them contact VA through Ask VA or by calling the Education Call Center.

• Survivors' and Dependents’ Educational Assistance (DEA - Chapter 35),  if you’re getting DEA benefits and enrolled in a non-college degree (NCD) program, you’ll need to verify your enrollment every month to keep getting benefits.  Please visit the VA website to verify your enrollment at https://www.va.gov/resources/verify-school-enrollment-for-dea-benefits/

*Please note that “verifying” and “certifying” your enrollment are two different procedures. “Certification” is done by a school certifying official and lets VA know how many hours or credits you will be enrolled in so we can determine your payment rate. “Verification ” is done by you at the end of each month and lets VA know that your enrollment information has not changed. 

HERE is a page that explains the eligibility percentage. 

To actually start your benefits you need to go HERE. Scroll to the very bottom of the page and click on the green button that says "Find Your Education Benefits Form". Go ahead and answer those few questions and then click "Apply Now". You will be prompted to a page that gives you an option for filling out an application. You can start this application without signing in. After you've completed this application, it will be sent to the VA and they will review it. After being reviewed, they will send you a paper in the mail called a Certificate of Eligibility (COE). The COE will contain the percentage of benefits you are eligible for. You will need to send a copy of the first page of your COE to our office at kccva@hawaii.edu l if you plan to use these benefits for classes here. 

Yes, you may be eligible for more than one VA education benefit program. However, you may only receive payments from one program at a time. You can receive a maximum of 48 months of benefits under any combination of VA education programs you qualify for.

For Example: If you qualify for both MGIB-AD (Chapter 30) and MGIB-SR (Chapter 1606), you can receive 36 months of entitlement at your MGIB-AD payment rate, and then an additional 12 months of entitlement at your MGIB-SR payment rate, up to the maximum total of 48 months entitlement.

submit an application to your local VA Regional Processing Office to determine eligibility.

If you are eligible for more than one benefit program, please notify VA of which program you intend to use upon deciding to enroll in an approved education or training course. If you are unsure about whether you qualify for more than one program, you can contact VA using the “Ask VA” or by calling 1-888-GIBILL-1 (1-888-442-4551) to help you determine eligibility.

• You are entitled to receive the Post-9/11 GI BILL®, MGIB-AD, MGIB-SR, VEAP, or DEA benefits through the date you dropped out of school.

• If you were called up under Title 10 (Federal authority), VA will restore the entitlement you were charged for the period that you received benefits. For this to occur, you must send VA a copy of your orders or DD-214 verifying service under Title 10.
  For Example: If you were in school one month and had to drop out, you keep the money for that period and VA will add back a month to your entitlement for you to use at a later time. If you were called up under title 32 (state authority), you don’t receive the entitlement restoration benefit.

• If you have been overpaid education benefits, VA will postpone collection action if you are deployed to a combat area. However, once you return from a combat area, you may be responsible for repaying any overpayment of benefits

Inform Kapi’olani CC’s VA School Certifying Official (SCO) as soon as possible. SCO will then contact the secondary campus(es) to certify your non-Kapi’olani CC courses. 

You are certified as enrolled in classes for the exact attendance dates of your course(s). For example, in the fall semester, if your class ends in October, your certification will reflect the course dates (not the semester dates), and VA payments may be reduced. 

You MUST notify the Veteran & Military Resource Center in ‘Iliahi 112 or via email (kccva@hawaii.edu) as soon as you change your course credit/load/training time (Add, drop, course cancellation and/or switch course(s).

To prevent delays, please submit your completed Enrollment Certification (ECR) Form before:

December 15th – SPRING Term

April 15th – SUMMER Term

July 15th – FALL Term

Chapter 33 recipients only

To minimize debts and repayment to the Veteran Administration (VA) when students make changes to their schedule, VMRC submits an initial enrollment certification with $0.00 in tuition and fees to the VA. After the drop-add period, the tuition and fees are certified by amending the term to add the tuition and fees amount. This practice is called “Dual Certification.”

VMRC placed a "Do Not Purge" hold on your school account to hold your classes and will submit tuition and fees after the last day for erase withdrawals with a 50% tuition refund.  You will receive an amendment to your VA certification from the VA Enrollment Manager System after we report the tuition and fee to the VA. Your financial hold will be removed after the VA pays your tuition and fees.

Note: Dual Certification will not affect the educational benefits you are entitled to and you will be receiving a book stipend and housing allowance accordingly. 

Tuition and Fee will be reported to the VA on:

mid June for Summer Session I
mid July for Summer Session II
mid September for Fall Semester
mid February for Spring Semester

Once Kapi’olani CC’s VA Certifying Official submits your enrollment information, it must be entered into the system by VA. Because VA is generally overwhelmed with enrollments at the start of each semester, it could take up to 6 weeks to process an enrollment during those times. Your patience is appreciated – VA will process all of the enrollments in order by the date received.

If you are receiving benefits under MGIB-AD (Chapter 30) or MGIB-SR (Chapter 1606), you must also verify your enrollment at the end of each month in order to receive payment for that month. Benefits are paid after each month of school is completed. For instructions on how to verify your enrollment.

Kapi’olani CC can only certify courses that lead toward an approved Kapi’olani CC degree or certificate. Kapi’olani CC cannot certify courses that lead toward degree programs at any other college or university. You must follow the degree requirements for your Kapi’olani CC major.

As a non-matriculated student in one of our selective admissions nursing or health science programs, you may be classified by the VA as “non-matriculated health science program” or “non-matriculated nursing,” for example. You can remain in a specific non-matriculated pathway (such as Respiratory Care, Radiologic Tech, Nursing, etc.) for up to two consecutive semesters to complete the prerequisites required for admission to the program. After the second semester, you must be in a classified program.

The VA defines "matriculated" as having been formally admitted to a college or university as a degree-seeking student. VA educational benefits cannot be paid to non-matriculated students unless they are pending admission to your school. Additionally, please note that the non-matriculated classification does not apply to financial aid.

Complete the appropriate Kapi’olani CC Change of Major or Change of Home Institution form(s) and submit to Kekaulike Center –  ‘Ilima 102 via fax (808-734-9896) or email at kapinfo@hawaii.edu

And

Submit and complete the appropriate VA form (22-5495 for Chapter 35 only) and 22-1995 to the Department of VA. These forms are available online at www.va.gov.

Rate of pursuit (RoP) applies specifically to chapter 33. It differs from training time, which is used for all other chapters. Schools certify actual credit. VA calculates RoP by dividing the number of credit (or credit hour equivalents) being pursued by the number of credits considered to be full-time by the school. The resulting percentage is the student’s RoP.  The Chapter 33 housing allowance is paid if RoP is more than 50%. 

Examples 1: If full-time is12 credits, then RoP:

• 6 credits (or credit equivalents) is 50% (6 ¸ 12 = 50%)

• 7 credits (or credit equivalents) is 58% (7 ¸ 12 = 58%) 

Example 2: (Standard term) 

If a student takes 6 graduate credit hours in the fall, however your academic regulations state 9 credits or more is full-time, enter 9 in the TT/FT box in VA-Once. VA will divide credits taken (6) by credits considered full-time (FT) to determine the student’s rate of pursuit (6 ÷ 9 equals approximately .67). The student’s rate of pursuit is 67%. 

The MHA is paid if the student’s RoP is more than 50%. Rate of pursuit determines whether a student receives or doesn’t receive the housing allowance. If pursuit is more than 50% the student receives the housing allowance. If the RoP is 50% or less, then the student doesn’t receive the housing allowance.  (Active duty personnel receiving chapter 33 benefits or spouses of active duty personnel receiving Transfer of Entitlement (ToE) benefits are not eligible for the housing allowance). 

MHA amounts are prorated based on a student’s benefit level and may be further reduced based on the rate of pursuit (RoP) rounded to nearest multiple of 10. Benefits are only payable when the RoP is more than 50%, and the student is not on active duty. 

The MHA paid is based upon the Department of Defense’s Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) for an “E-5 with dependents” and the zip code of the campus or training location where the student physically attends the majority of their courses.  

Historically, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Education Service (EDU) has allowed the practice of “rounding out” in which VA allows a school to certify for payment courses which are not a part of the beneficiary’s approved program of education in an effort to increase a beneficiary’s training time. Rounding out is only allowed during the beneficiary’s final academic term. By authorizing payment for these extra courses (courses which are potentially completely unrelated to the beneficiary’s program of study or vocational objective) GI Bill students are eligible for full benefit payments, particularly maximum allowable housing allowance (MHA) under chapter 33, during this final term. Effective August 1, 2021, this practice will be limited to payments for pursuit of an approved program of education or training.

VA has amended its policy for “rounding out” to specify that any additional class(es) taken during the last term for the purpose of increasing training time or rate of pursuit, up to full-time, while not required for the specific beneficiary to graduate, are included within the program and would count toward an enrolled individual’s graduation requirements.  Such classes must be specified by name in the approved program curriculum, and not have been already completed. A Veteran student can round out a schedule with additional courses to bring his/her course load up to a full-time schedule in his/her last term only. This allows students to continue to receive benefits at the full-time rate in their last term of enrollment, even though fewer credits are required to complete the program. 

On December 21, 2021, PL117-76 or "REMOTE  ACT" was signed into law.  Section 4 of the REMOTE Act codifies Education Service's authority to continue the current policy for students who are “rounding out”.

This procedure can be done only once per program.

EXAMPLE: A claimant needs to complete 120 credit hours to graduate with a degree in Music. As a graduation requirement, they have the choice to take two of four courses during their last term; they decide to enroll in all four courses, in order to be considered full-time during their last term in college. The claimant does not necessarily need all these additional hours but wants to “round out”. In this scenario, VA will allow the claimant to “round out” and take all four courses because they are still included within the program of education. Chosen classes must be specified by name in the curriculum.

NOTE: This concept may be used for Non-College Degree (NCD) schools offering courses in credit hours and operating on a term, block or unit basis. However, an NCD school on a clock-hour basis is not authorized to use this.

To minimize debts and repayment to the Veteran Administration (VA) when students make changes to their schedule, VMRC has not included tuition and fees to the enrollment certification to the VA. This will not affect the educational benefits you are entitled to and you will be receiving a book stipend and housing allowance accordingly. 

VMRC placed a "Do Not Purge" hold on your account to hold your classes. VMRC will submit tuition and fees after the last day for erase withdrawals with a 50% tuition refund. You will receive an amendment to your VA certification from the VA Enrollment Manager System after we report the tuition and fee to the VA. Your financial hold will be removed after the VA pays your tuition and fees. If you still have the financial hold by the end of the following month, please let us know asap.

Tuition and Fee will be reported to the VA on:

mid June for Summer Session I

mid July for Summer Session II

mid September for Fall Semester

mid February for Spring Semester

For incoming students (freshman, returning, or transfer students) who will be attending this summer or fall, please contact the FYE/Pāhihi team at kapstart@hawaii.edu.

For continuing students (currently enrolled), contact the academic counselor assigned to your program/major. You can find a list of academic counselors for each major here: https://www.kapiolani.hawaii.edu/support-and-campus-life/counseling/ 

The Interactive Digital Access Program (IDAP) is a new initiative in the textbook industry that converts books into digital, interactive content. Students in courses that participate in IDAP will have access to their digital course material by the first day of the semester and at an exclusive price. For more information visit this link.

• For Chapter 31, VR&E will cover the charges.

• For Chapter 33, students can use their book stipend, which is sent separately by the VA.

• For other chapters, students will need to use their monthly stipend to cover these charges.

For eligible Veterans who previously had to forfeit their additional benefits in order to use their Post-9/11 GI Bill® (PGIB), VA will recalculate their benefit expiration date and provide them any return time after the election was made to use the benefit. The new expiration will be calculated by adding the time a Veteran had left when they previously forfeited their benefit to 90 days plus the date of issuance of the new Certificate of Eligibility (COE).

Example: A Veteran forfeited their MGIB benefits on January 1, 2016. At the time the Veteran had seven years remaining, before their MGIB benefits expired on January 1, 2023. The Veteran is approved by VA for reinstated MGIB eligibility on January 1, 2025 (new COE date). The seven years the Veteran had remaining before their benefits would have expired is added to the date of their new COE, plus an additional 90 days: January 1, 2025, + 90 days + seven years or March 31, 2032, is the adjusted expiration date.  

For more information: https://benefits.va.gov/gibill/rudisill.asp

If you're having trouble reaching your VR&E (Chapter 31) counselor, try the following:

1. Call the VA’s main line at 1-800-827-1000 and ask to be connected to your assigned VR&E counselor or the Honolulu Regional Office.

2. Visit the VA VR&E website for more information: va.gov/careers-employment/vocational-rehabilitation.

3. Email honvreveteransupport@va.gov or eva@va.gov — these are VR&E support contacts for Hawaiʻi-based students.

Classes that are successfully completed may not be certified again for VA purposes if they are repeated, even if VA didn't pay for the previous attempt. There are exceptions, however. If a course is required for graduation and meets the requirements for one of the 3 exceptions below, a student may repeat the course and be certified for it until it is successfully completed. There is no limit on the number of attempts. No further information needs to be provided to VA regarding those courses.

A student may be certified for a repeated course if:

1. The student failed the class.

2. If a program requires a higher grade than the one achieved in a particular class for successful completion. 

Example: if a Nursing program requires a “B” or better in Biology, then that class may be repeated if a “B” or better was not earned. That requirement must be in the school catalog. 

Note: If a student chooses to repeat a course that was successfully completed, just to improve their GPA, that course cannot be certified to VA.

3. If a student successfully completed a course so long ago, the school requires it be repeated.

Example: If student took computer programming 10 years ago and got a 'B', it may be too outdated to be accepted for credit now.

Note: If KapCC does not require the student to retake the outdated course, but the student chooses to repeat it, that course cannot be certified to VA.

If you fail a course but attended the entire term, the VA will not require you to pay back the tuition and fees, and you can usually retake the course with VA coverage.

However, if you stop attending (unofficially withdraw) or fail due to non-attendance, the VA may classify it as a withdrawal and could require repayment of the funds for that course.

It’s important to officially withdraw if you stop attending and to notify our office.

Timing: Paid directly to you, usually within a few weeks after your school certifies enrollment.

Amount: Up to $1,000 per academic year. If you are enrolled full-time, you will receive $500 per semester. If you are part-time, your stipend is calculated by multiplying your number of credits by $41.67.