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Rework and publish compare education benefits for family members page #57744

Open RLHecht opened 1 year ago

RLHecht commented 1 year ago

Issue Description

We have a draft version of an R&S article for comparing education benefits for family members that was started a while ago with a previous content team. We need to rework this page to make sure it meets our plain language and current style standards. We also need to determine if we should add other benefits to the page (VR&E, Chapter 36).

Once we revise the page we should send to stakeholders along with the draft article for comparing education benefits for Veterans. These pages can both be published at the same time.

Drupal page: http://preview-prod.vfs.va.gov/preview?nodeId=44718

Tasks

Prepublishing checklist ## For all VA.gov pages (including those in Resources and Support) ### Before you begin - [ ] Confirm that there are no updates in draft by other content authors that aren't ready to be published. Check the revision log and then confirm with the content author who made the previous edits that the page is ready to publish. ### Accessibility standards - [ ] If your link or button will take the user off VA.gov, confirm that the text for the link or button contains a purpose and a target. The user should be able to tell from the link or button text what the call to action is (the purpose) and where they will end up if they click on the link (the target). The following link is an example of this:
[Read more about making links accessible on AccessibilityOz](https://www.accessibilityoz.com/2014/02/links-and-accessibility/)
**Note:** When you direct the user to another VA.gov page, the link only needs to contain text indicating purpose (the call to action). - [ ] Confirm all phone numbers are in aria labels. [Learn how to code numbers with aria labels](https://design.va.gov/content-style-guide/dates-and-numbers#phone-numbers) - [ ] Confirm that the hierarchy of section and subsection titles is correct (H1 to H2 to H3—levels shouldn't be skipped). [Learn more about section titles](https://design.va.gov/content-style-guide/page-titles-and-section-titles) - [ ] Replace any sighted language ("view," "see," "look") with a word that's inclusive of our screen reader users ("check," "go to," "review"). - [ ] Avoid using other ability-focused language. ("hear back from") ### Link standards - [ ] Confirm that links work (aren't broken—no error message) and point to the intended page (you pasted in the correct URL or chose the correct node ID). - [ ] Confirm all link text is 100 characters or less. - [ ] Check that you've selected a node ID for all links pointing to VA.gov (internal) pages. Only paste in a URL if the page you're linking to doesn't live in our CMS (isn't one of our modernized pages). [Learn how to add node IDs in Drupal](https://github.com/department-of-veterans-affairs/va.gov-team/blob/master/teams/vsa/teams/sitewide-content/how-to-do-different-tasks/linking-with-node-ids.md) - [ ] Check that all anchor/jump links are pointing to a node followed by # and the header identifier (Example: /node/47278/#information-for-survivors). Double check all anchor/jump links post-publish. ### CMS standards - [ ] Make sure all apostrophes and quotation marks are curly not straight. (Once this is automatic in Drupal, we can remove this item.) - [ ] If there are alerts at the top of the Drupal Edit node for broken links, redirected links, or links to unpublished pages, correct the issues. If there's an alert for a broken link but the link is actually working, report the issue to the CMS help desk. [Read more about link alerts in the CMS knowledge base](https://prod.cms.va.gov/help/cms-basics/how-to-fix-broken-links-and-redirects) - [ ] If publishing a brand-new page, confirm the left nav and url are set up correclty. (If the page is a child page, the section needs to be the same as the parent page in order for the left nav to show.) [Learn how to set up a url and left nav in Drupal](https://github.com/department-of-veterans-affairs/va.gov-team/blob/master/teams/vsa/teams/sitewide-content/how-to-do-different-tasks/adding-left-nav-and-url.md) - [ ] Check if the page has a new or updated alert. If so, publish the alert separately. ### Additional checks for translated articles - [ ] If we don't have updated translated versions, add the alert that links to the corresponding English page and lets users know that the translated pages aren't up to date.

Acceptance Criteria

katherine-fung commented 1 year ago

I've determined that there are no other benefits that need to go on this page. I'm moving forward with re-working it.

katherine-fung commented 1 year ago

I've started working on this page.

Draft in progress: http://preview-prod.vfs.va.gov/preview?nodeId=44718

I have a few notes and questions about it @bethpottsVADEPO.

  1. I've tweaked the style of the headers to match the "Compare VA education benefits" page. Since the latter included eligibility information, I've created a new section "Eligibility requirements" for DEA and the Fry Scholarship.

  2. I based the language of the eligibility requirements on the legislation in the federal register (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-38/chapter-I/part-21/subpart-C), but there are slight variations between the legislation I read (not sure if there have been updates to it that I'm not aware of) and the program pages on VA.gov. We'll need SMEs to confirm.

  3. There was a note on the program pages about a situation in which you can use both DEA and the Fry Scholarship. I created the section "What to know if you qualify for both DEA and the Fry Scholarship" to accommodate this information.

  4. I tried to make sense of the "How much time you have to use benefits" section, but I had a hard time. For example, both the DEA program page and the Compare draft say if you're a child, you can use DEA benefits between the ages of 18 and 26. However, my reading of the legislation suggests that you can't start using benefits after age 26. But if you're already using DEA benefits, you can use them until age 31. Can we have stakeholders confirm the time limit to use benefits, and when you can/can't get DIC benefits? ("Age limitation for commencement. No person is eligible for educational assistance who reached his or her 26th birthday on or before the effective date of a finding of permanent total service-connected disability, or on or before the date the veteran's death occurred, or on or before the 91st day of listing by the Secretary concerned of the member of the Armed Forces on whose service eligibility is claimed as being in one of the missing status categories of § 21.3021 (a)(1)(iv) and (3)(ii).

(d) Termination of eligibility. No person is eligible for educational assistance beyond his or her 31st birthday, except as provided under § 21.3041(g)(2). In no event may educational assistance be provided after the period of entitlement has been exhausted. In an exceptional case special restorative training may be provided in excess of 45 months. See § 21.3300.")

  1. The section "Programs you can use these benefits for" was already in this draft. I've left it for now, even though we took a similar section off the "Compare VA education benefits" page. This page is shorter - do we want to keep it here?

We list the eligible program types on the DEA page, but not the Fry Scholarship page.

  1. There's currently a note on the "Compare" page that says, "Note: You can get both DIC and education benefits at the same time."

I wonder if we should remove this note. From what I gather, you can get DIC and Fry/DEA as a spouse. Can't get DIC if you use education benefits as the child. But the difference isn't based on whether you choose Fry or DEA, so the info isn't relevant to a comparison of Fry or DEA.

bethpottsVADEPO commented 1 year ago

@katherine-fung thanks so much for your work here!

"What to know" section: Can we try it as "If you qualify for both DEA and the Fry Scholarship." We don't often vary from "Note" but I think here it would be more appropriate to use "Exception" instead. Would you try that?

"Eligibility" section: 1/ Can you look into whether we should be saying, for both DEA and Fry "surviving child or spouse" (move "surviving" before "child")--right now I see "child or spouse" and "child or surviving spouse." 2/ Can you change the start of the bullets from "They" to "The service member or Veteran"? Similar to the approach we have on this page: https://www.va.gov/education/survivor-dependent-benefits/ 3/ No period for the last bullet in each bulleted list. 4/ When you email SMEs, let them know that you noticed that the info on the program pages differs a bit from what's in the federal register and point to the differences so they're sure to look specifically at where we're uncertain about accuracy.

"How much time" section: 1/ The age 18 - 26 detail is really confusing. I remember the former content team member struggling with this too. Try to get it accurate according to your understanding of it, then again ask SMEs to look at that messaging and tell you if you got it right. 2/ I agree about not including DIC info on this comparison page for DEA/Fry. We'll see if for some reason stakeholders raise this, but no need to call it out to them.

"Programs you can use these benefits for" section: Is there a comparison to make in this section or is it the same for both DEA and Fry? If there's no comparison, I'd crosslink to the landing page about this in the same way we did for the other Compare page. Unless dependents can't use benefits for all those programs.

bethpottsVADEPO commented 1 year ago

@katherine-fung One more thing! For the CTAs at the top of the page, we should remove "more" from those labels. I also think we'll need to change that last sentence in the intro to: Keep reading on this page to compare these 2 programs and decide which is right for you.

katherine-fung commented 1 year ago

Thanks for the feedback @bethpottsVADEPO!

I made the edits to the intro, main CTAs, "What to know" and "Eligibility" sections.

re: the use of the word "surviving" for "child or spouse" in the "Eligibility" section -

For the "Programs you can use these benefits for" section, you can use both DEA and Fry for most of the programs. But there is 1 difference - you can use Fry, not DEA, for flight training.

We could shorten this section by saying:

You can use DEA or Fry Scholarship benefits to pay for these types of programs:

  • Higher education
  • Training for a specific career, trade, or industry
  • Classes from home
  • Work study

Note: Only the Fry Scholarship covers vocational flight training.

You can also use DEA or Fry Scholarship benefits to pay for these costs:

  • Tutorial assistance
  • Fees for standardized testing, and tests for licenses and certifications
katherine-fung commented 1 year ago

[saving my questions for SMEs here:

I'm working on the page "Compare DEA and Fry Scholarship benefits for family members." I have a few questions.

  1. We currently say that if you're the child of a service member or Veteran, you can only use DEA benefits between the ages of 18 and 26. My reading of the legislation says you can start using DEA benefits between the ages of 18 and 26. Is it accurate to say the following? "If you’re a child, you can start using this benefit between ages 18 and 26."

  2. My understanding is that someone can get 45 months of DEA benefits. According to my reading of the legislation, you can't use DEA benefits once you turn 31. Is it possible for someone who starts their DEA benefits between the ages of 18 and 26 to pause using their benefits, and then continue using them again (for example, at age 29)? Or would someone have to use their DEA benefits continuously?

  3. I reviewed the legislation outlining eligibility for DEA under Title 38, Chapter 35 of US Code and Public Law 109-461. I see that Chapter 35 says a child or spouse is eligible if A. the service member or Veteran "has a total disability permanent in nature resulting from a service-connected disability." Our existing va.gov page about DEA adds that a child or spouse is eligible if B. the Veteran or service member "is in the hospital or getting outpatient treatment for a service-connected permanent and total disability and is likely to be discharged for that disability." Does group A include those in group B?

  4. On the current va.gov page about DEA, we say that a child or spouse is eligible for DEA if "the Veteran or service member died while on active duty or as a result of a service-connected disability..." Is the part in bold true? I didn't see this in the legislation, so I want to confirm.]

katherine-fung commented 1 year ago

I sent a list of questions to stakeholders on 6/7/23.

Separately, Tammy asked other EDU stakeholders on 6/22/23 if the page should also compare TOE benefits.

Waiting for stakeholders' responses to both messages.

bethpottsVADEPO commented 1 year ago

@katherine-fung You could do an assessment about whether it makes sense to incorporate TOE onto this page in some way. It might not be an exact apples to apples comparison that's needed between the 3 options here, but more of a comparison of Fry and DEA with a TOE "presence" as well. Let's chat about it!

katherine-fung commented 1 year ago

Hi @laurwill,

We got feedback from stakeholders about our proposed DEA updates. I emailed them a few questions about this feedback.

I also want to get your thoughts on copy for the sections "If you became eligible on or after August 1, 2023" and "If you became eligible before August 1, 2023." (preview link: http://preview-prod.vfs.va.gov/preview?nodeId=950)

Under "If you became eligible on or after August 1, 2023"

I tweaked the list of bullet points to define who became eligible on or after August 1, 2023.

Private Zenhub Image

Under "If you became eligible before August 1, 2023"

Private Zenhub Image

katherine-fung commented 11 months ago

I followed up with the edu team to request an accuracy review of the compare page today.

katherine-fung commented 10 months ago

I've sent the edu team an invite for 2/7 to provide feedback on this draft.

katherine-fung commented 8 months ago

I haven't been able to return to this work since 2/7.

katherine-fung commented 3 months ago

Update on this: Jodie and Cinda gave us some feedback that some content may have to change to reflect guidance for family members that have DEA entitlement from multiple Veterans.

SME Jerome G. responded on Feb 16 (pasting his response below). I've followed up via Outlook now to try to understand how this information affects the copy we drafted. cc @aprocik1 @bethpottsVADEPO @d-beyer

Jerome's response:

• How many months of benefits can the eligible person receive? o An individual (spouse or child) may receive a maximum of 45 or 36 months of entitlement, regardless if they receive entitlement from multiple sources, depending upon when they first used chapter 35 benefits.  45 months of entitlement if first used before August 1, 2018.  36 months of entitlement if first used on or after August 1, 2018.

• Does the eligible person have to use the benefits in a certain order? Do they have to use benefits from both Veterans or service members in a row?
o No. Benefits can be used individually at the student’s direction (i.e. each period of enrollment the student can identify which entitlement source they wish to use). o If the student receives entitlement from multiple sources, the multiple entitlement sources can be used concurrently, though twice the entitlement will be charges for terms when this is done.  Example: A beneficiary with two sources of entitlement has 36 months of original entitlement. If they elect concurrent payments; an enrollment for 4 months of fulltime training paid will be paid at twice the fulltime rate. This beneficiary will have 28 months of chapter 35 remaining after this certification is processed).

Please Note: For Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance (Chapter 35) there is a statutory limit that a claimant can only use a max of 81 months of benefits if the individual uses more than one education benefit.

aprocik1 commented 1 month ago

Update: I followed up with Cinda, Jerome, Jodie, and Terry about this page via email. I asked them for a final accuracy review of the sections we updated based on Jerome's latest feedback. We hope to publish this page by the end of the year.

aprocik1 commented 2 weeks ago

Update: I just sent this email to cinda.quattrini@va.gov, jerome.golombek@va.gov, jodie.balder@va.gov, and terry.warren@va.gov:

The information on this page was originally part of a broader legacy page comparing all the education benefits that we migrated to VA.gov. The purpose of this page was to separate out the information for our non-Veteran audience. It's meant to be the family member version of this page: Compare VA education benefits

Beth and Cinda talked briefly about it yesterday and decided that it can wait since it's a busy time with Rudisill changes. We're happy to pick it back up when there's a little more bandwidth for your review.

We'll plan to check back in beginning of next calendar year. And of course, let us know if you do want to proceed with a review before the holidays. Either works for us!

I put a reminder on my calendar to return to this in January 2025. For now, I'm placing this ticket in backlog.