{"id":39226,"date":"2025-05-30T12:44:24","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T18:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=39226"},"modified":"2025-05-30T12:44:24","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T18:44:24","slug":"first-responder-tuition-waiver-expanded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=39226","title":{"rendered":"First responder tuition waiver expanded"},"content":{"rendered":"

Correctional and youth detention officers will qualify for a tuition waiver under a bill passed by lawmakers May 30.

\"Sen.
Sen. Eliot Bostar<\/figcaption><\/figure> <\/p>\n

Under the First Responder Recruitment and Retention Act, law enforcement officers, professional firefighters and their legal dependents are entitled to a full tuition waiver at a Nebraska state university, state college or community college if they meet certain requirements. <\/p>\n

Under LB608, sponsored by Lincoln Sen. Eliot Bostar, correctional and youth detention officers and their qualifying children also will qualify for waivers, beginning July 1, 2027.<\/p>\n

Additionally, individuals who are disabled as a result of injury or illness that resulted from or is connected to employment as a first responder, as well as their qualifying children, now qualify for a waiver. <\/p>\n

Civilian firefighters at Offutt Air Force Base also now are included in the program. <\/p>\n

The waiver for correctional officers and youth detention officers, disabled individuals who served in those roles and their qualifying children is available only for attendance at the University of Nebraska.<\/p>\n

Beginning July 1, 2028, the bill requires the Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education to reimburse the university for 50% of the tuition waivers granted in the preceding year to those individuals. If state appropriations are not enough to pay all submitted claims, the commission will prorate the university\u2019s total reimbursement. <\/p>\n

Senators voted 36-12 to pass LB608.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Correctional and youth detention officers will qualify for a tuition waiver under a bill passed by lawmakers May 30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[264],"class_list":["post-39226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-revenue","tag-sen-eliot-bostar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/UpdateBlogPhoto-4.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39226"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39228,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39226\/revisions\/39228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}