School Certifying Official (SCO) Training
Educational institutions must use VA Form 22-8794, “Designation of Certifying Official(s)” to assign an individual as a Designated Certifying Official or a Read-Only Certifying Official. The VA Form 22-8794 has been updated to include Item B for designating a "Read-Only" Certifying Official.
A Read-only SCO is an individual at an educational institution with permission to access enrollment information, request information, and submit inquiries to VA to assist an authorized SCO with obtaining accurate information to certify student’s enrollment. The educational institution must provide the ELR with the name(s) of the Read-Only SCOs on the VA Form 22-8794 before their information is entered in WEAMS.
Read-Only SCOs:
Designated and Read-only SCOs will appear:
Yes - SCO training is recommended and will be available for any SCO with less than 20 students who wishes to take it.
Yes, a read-only SCO is an individual at an educational institution with permission to access read-only or inquiry only information. He/she is authorized to call VA with questions and/or student inquiries; however, “Read-Only” SCOs are not authorized to provide enrollment information to VA and are exempt from the training requirement.
ELRs will not input Read-Only certifying officials in VA-ONCE. SCOs at the facility can set up user accounts for those individuals that need access to VA-ONCE information.
The SCOs will be notified of the training requirements by VA through e-mail notification and through the School Administrator’s page on the GI Bill website.
The VA Form 22-8794 has been updated to include Item B for identifying "Read-Only" Certifying Officials. Individual listed as Read-Only Certifying Officials are not required to take the training. Conversely, all individuals listed as a Designated Certifying Official and working at a covered educational institution or facility will be required to take the training.
All new individuals listed as a Designated Certifying Official who and started in the position on or after August 1, 2019, will be required to take the training prior to submitting their VA Form 22-8794 to their ELR of Jurisdiction. The ELR will verify the completion of the online training prior to entering the SCO’s contact information into WEAMS and granting access to VA-ONCE.
You will be able to update your profile after logging into the training. If you need further assistance, contact your Education Liaison Representative (ELR) of Jurisdiction for updates to your name. A new 22-8794 will be required.
New SCOs
Facility Type |
Number of Modules Required |
Institution of Higher Learning (IHL’s) | 10 |
Non College Degree (NCD) programs | 10 |
High School and Residency Programs | 1 |
OJT/Apprenticeship Program | 1 |
Vocational Flight | 1 |
Existing SCOs
Note: The three (3) electives are not required if only one (1) training module is needed to meet compliance
Facility Type |
Number of Modules |
Institution of Higher Learning (IHL’s) | 4 |
Institution of Higher Learning (IHLS) with Flight | 4 |
Institutions of Higher Learning (IHLs) with NCDs | 4 |
Vocational Flight | 4 |
High School and Residency Programs | 1 |
The current list can be found on the GI Bill Website under School Training Resources . Remember, a covered institution is one with 20 or more individuals enrolled during the previous calendar year. This includes institutions with 20 or more and/or institutions and facilities with multiple branch locations and extension campuses. The list of covered institutions will be generated annually and may change depending on the number of students enrolled and receiving VA educational benefits.
The law defines a “School Certifying Official”, for the purposes of these provisions, to mean an employee of an educational institution with the primary responsibility for certifying Veteran enrollment at the educational institution.
Those designated as a “read-only” Certifying Officials on the VA Form 22-8794 are exempt from the annual training requirement. A “read-only” Certifying Official is identified as an individual at an institution that the school has identified to access read-only or inquiry only information.
Work-study students may assist with the certification process; however, since they are not employees of the educational institution, they should not actually certify information to VA. As such, they will not be required to complete the training, however, it will be available for them to complete. If a temporary employee is designated as an SCO to certify enrollment information, he/she will be subject to the training requirements.
Yes, individuals listed in WEAMS as Designated Certifying Officials and works for a covered educational institution are subject to the SCO training requirement effective August 1, 2019.
New SCOs are required to submit a copy of their certificate of completion along with the VA Form 22-8794 to their ELR of Jurisdiction.
REMINDER: The submission of the VA Form 22-8794 must include all active assigned designated school certifying officials and “read only” SCOs.
Existing SCOs - The online training has a built-in feature that tracks the SCOs progress. It will be monitored by VA and reported to congress as requested. National and State conferences training will be tracked through self-certification. The SCOs must complete the self-certification form and print their certification of completion to receive credit for the training session.
To obtain credit for conference training SCOs must:
Yes, there will be general training for an SCO and specialized training based on the type of facility.
If SCOs at Covered Institutions fail to complete the annual training, VA will:
Yes - Completion of the new SCO training will fulfill the training requirement until August 31st. SCOs at covered institutions (20 or more enrolled Veterans) are required to take the existing SCO training between August 1st – August 31st annually.