Education Allowance and Educational Travel

Education Allowance: The purpose of the education allowance is to assist an employee in defraying those costs necessary to obtain educational services (grades K-12) that would normally be free of charge in the U.S. The allowance is based on the least expensive "adequate" school at post. A school is deemed adequate if, upon completion of a grade at the school, a child of normal ability could enter the next higher grade at a public school in the United States. When a school is adequate, the rates for attending a school "at post" and attending a school "away from post" will be the same. The "away-from-post" education allowance can be used to pay for tuition, room and board, unaccompanied air baggage and periodic transportation between the post and the school.

The regulations also provide a "special-needs" education allowance in lieu of the "at-post" or "away-from-post" education allowances listed by country/post in DSSR 920. There is also education allowance funding for children who are home-schooled.  DOD employees come under separate authority for education benefits. Note: the transportation portion of the "away-from-post" rate should not be confused with the separate benefit of educational travel described below. See DSSR section 270 for more information on the education allowance.

Education Allowance reimbursement reminder:  Suspension and Debarment specifically prohibits excluded parties from soliciting, conducting, or participating in business with the Federal Government.  Similarly, the Federal Government shall not enter into, renew, or extend award for any procurement or covered transactions.  Education Allowances are considered covered transactions under 2 C.F.R. 180 ("The Non-procurement Common Rule").  Therefore, payments may not be made directly or indirectly by Agencies to listed parties.  To ensure that you receive reimbursement for allowable Education Allowances check SAM.gov before acquiring services from an educational vendor to make sure they are not excluded from receiving Federal funds.

Educational Travel: This allowance permits one round trip annually between a school attended and the foreign post of assignment. This benefit is primarily intended to reunite a full-time post-secondary student attending college (including the post-baccalaureate level), technical or vocational school with the employee/parent serving the U.S. government in the foreign area. However, educational travel may be paid for a child in secondary school (grades 9 through 12) instead of the education allowance described above.

Educational travel cannot be paid at the same time as the education allowance and should not be confused with the transportation component of the "away-from-post" education allowance. Educational travel can commence from either the school or the post, but only one round trip between school and post is allowed annually.  Based on a change in law, the DSSR changed effective July 22, 2007 eliminating the restriction that the school attended full-time had to be in the United States.  The educational travel benefit ceases once the student dependent reaches the age of 23, except for in limited cases when the child's education is delayed by military service (See DSSR 284 for further information).


MORE INFORMATION:

Guidance on Preparing Education Allowance Surveys (4/2023) (Intranet ONLY)

Find the "Base School" (2019) (Intranet ONLY)

*List of all schools used as basis for at post allowance

Foreign Service Assignment Notebook


FORMS:

SF-1190 (07/2009) - Foreign Allowances Application, Grant and Report - filled out individually for each child

DS-0063 (03/2015) - Education Allowance Questionnaire (myData version/Intranet ONLY)
  Form to complete Education Allowance survey; Open the myData version with Cerenade Filler

DSSR 960 - Education Allowance Worksheet
  Worksheet that Employee can attach to the SF-1190 for an Education Allowance claim for each child


LINKS:

Education Allowance Rates

Allowances by Location
*To view Reporting Schedule select Allowances by Location and enter your post name

Survey Status by Post (Intranet ONLY)


RESOURCES:


Overseas Schools (Internet & Intranet) 

The Child and Family Program (SNEA)