173.270. Foster care or residential care students, waiver of tuition and fees, when.
Foster care or residential care students, waiver of tuition and fees,when.
173.270. 1. The coordinating board for higher education shall makeprovisions for institutions under the board's jurisdiction to award atuition and fee waiver for undergraduate courses at state institutions ofhigher education for any student, beginning with incoming freshmen in the2010 fall semester or term, who:
(1) Is a resident of this state;
(2) Has graduated within the previous three years from high school orpassed the GED examination; and
(3) Has been in foster care or other residential care under thedepartment of social services on or after:
(a) The day preceding the student's eighteenth birthday;
(b) The day of the student's fourteenth birthday, if the student wasalso eligible for adoption on or after that day; or
(c) The day the student graduated from high school or received a GED.
2. To be eligible for a waiver award, a student shall:
(1) Apply to and be accepted at the institution not later than:
(a) The third anniversary of the date the student was discharged fromfoster or other residential care, the date the student graduated from highschool, or the date the student received a GED, whichever is earliest; or
(b) The student's twenty-first birthday;
(2) Apply for other student financial assistance, other than studentloans, in compliance with federal financial aid rules, including thefederal Pell grant;
(3) Apply to the coordinating board for higher education for adetermination of eligibility. Application shall be on forms and in amanner prescribed by rule of the coordinating board; and
(4) Complete a minimum of one hundred hours of community service orpublic internship within a twelve-month period beginning September firstfor each year in which the student is receiving a tuition and fee waiveraward under this section. The department of higher education, incollaboration with participating state institutions of higher education,shall by rule determine the community service and public internships thatstudents may participate in to meet the requirements of this subdivision.A student may fulfill this requirement by completing the necessarycommunity service or public internship hours during the summer.
3. The tuition and fee waiver provided by this section shall beawarded on an annual basis, subject to appropriation to reimburse theinstitution, and shall continue to be available, if the student isotherwise eligible under this section, as long as the student remains ingood academic standing at the state institution of higher education. Theinstitution shall monitor compliance with subdivision (4) of subsection 2of this section and report it to the department of higher education.
4. The waiver provided by this section for each eligible student maybe used for no more than four years of undergraduate study and may only beused after other sources of financial aid that are dedicated solely totuition and fees are exhausted.
5. No student who is enrolled in an institution of higher educationas of August 28, 2009, shall be eligible for a waiver award under thissection.
6. Any rule or portion of a rule, as that term is defined in section536.010, RSMo, that is created under the authority delegated in thissection shall become effective only if it complies with and is subject toall of the provisions of chapter 536, RSMo, and, if applicable, section536.028, RSMo. This section and chapter 536, RSMo, are nonseverable and ifany of the powers vested with the general assembly pursuant to chapter 536,RSMo, to review, to delay the effective date, or to disapprove and annul arule are subsequently held unconstitutional, then the grant of rulemakingauthority and any rule proposed or adopted after August 28, 2009, shall beinvalid and void.
(L. 2009 H.B. 481)