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Alabama Veterans Affairs names expanding veteran scholarship program, treatment courts as top priorities

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama State Board of Veterans Affairs voted recently to approve a list of priorities for the 2025 legislative session, with expanding veterans treatment courts and a veterans scholarship program topping the list.

Legislation is currently being considered for the upcoming session to increase the number of veterans treatment courts, which give veterans charged with a crime an alternative pathway through the criminal justice system, and expand the Alabama G.I. Dependent Scholarship Program.

“The great thing is that multiple legislators, both senators and representatives, are looking into this, and they are being very proactive as well,” said ADVA Board member Tony Berenotto. “And we want to make sure that they know we’re supporting them.”

The Alabama G.I. Dependent Scholarship Program, which provides veterans and their dependents with financial aid, is currently only available for veterans and their families that have a disability rating of 40% or greater. The program is also designated as the ‘payer of last resort,’ meaning all other forms of financial aid must be exhausted first before the program pays out.

Under the expansion proposed by the board, the program’s disability rating eligibility cutoff would be reduced from 40% to 20%, its designation as a payer of last resort would be removed and the program would cover graduate programs, which it currently does not.

“Most of the time (at) those junior colleges, a lot times (veterans) are getting Pell Grants, and so when you’re the payer of last resort with their Dependent Scholarship, they’re not going to get any money,” said Scott Gedling, vice chair of the committee. “By taking that away you’ll allow them to use their Pell Grants to do some of those things that a Pell Grant covers like transportation, so I think this will be a good boost.”

Sen. Andrew Jones, R-Centre, told Alabama Daily News Thursday that he has been working with the ADVA and the Alabama Legislative Services Agency Fiscal Division on the bill. He added, however, that he was still unsure whether it would ultimately materialize.

“We have been looking at different data points and trying to work with ADVA and the fiscal office to get some different estimates and projections on ideas,” Jones told ADN in a written message. “I’m really not sure where we will end up or if we will even have a bill this year or not, to be honest.”

Regarding the veterans treatment courts, board members had reason to be more hopeful given that Rep. Ed Oliver, R-Dadeville, has been working on a bill to expand the courts since at least September, and had recruited the help of St. Clair County Circuit Court Judge Philip Seay, Alabama Military Stability Foundation Executive Director Jake Proctor, and Alabama Supreme Court Justice Sarah Stewart in drafting the bill.

Stewart has expressed a desire to see the veterans treatment courts expanded across Alabama, with only 27 currently operating in the state. The courts are funded largely from the Alabama Administrative Office of Courts and through grants, with funding varying greatly depending on its location in the state.

The specific form of expansion to the veterans treatment courts the board supported was simple: to increase state funding and to enact “some level of consistency” across all courts, which currently differ in the services they provide.

“The level of recidivism that is being shown is greatly reduced on those veterans who complete the program, and the graduation rate is actually very good as well,” Berenotto said of the veterans treatment courts.

Expanding the veterans treatment courts has also gained support among a number of state lawmakers, including Reps. Neil Rafferty, D-Birmingham, Chip Brown, R-Hollingers Island, and Margie Wilcox, R-Mobile.

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