Scholarship Deadline to Apply

Annual Deadline
July 1

 Award Amount

Waives in-state tuition, mandatory fees, and on-campus room charges

 Who May Apply:

Undergraduates who are dependent children or spouses of persons killed or permanently disabled in the line of duty as a law enforcement officer, firefighter, forester, correctional officer, Community Punishment Department or Transportation Department employees, and teachers.

 Detailed Description

General Information

The Law Enforcement Officers’ (LEO) Dependents Scholarship program provides an eight-semester scholarship to any state-supported college, university, or technical institute in Arkansas to dependents of Arkansas residents in one of the categories below who were killed or permanently disabled in the line of duty:

• Law enforcement officers
• Full-time or volunteer firefighters
• Municipal and/or college or university police officers
• Sheriffs or deputy sheriffs
• Constables
• Game Wardens
• Certain Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department employees
• State forestry employees engaged in fighting forest fires
• State correction employees killed or totally disabled due to contact with inmates or parolees
• State park employees who are commissioned law enforcement officers or emergency response employees
• Emergency Medical Technicians
• Department of Community Punishment employees

Basic Eligibility Criteria

An applicant must:

• Be a bona fide Arkansas resident
• Be a citizen of the United States or a permanent resident alien
• Be the biological, stepchild, legally adopted child, OR spouse of an eligible Arkansas law enforcement officer
  • NOTE: Spouses are ineligible if they remarry.
  • Eligible law enforcement officers include those listed in the categories below who were killed or permanently disabled in the line of duty
    • Law enforcement officers
    • Full-time or volunteer firefighters
    • Municipal and/or college or university police officers
    • Sheriffs or deputy sheriffs
    • Constables
    • Game Wardens
    • Certain Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department employees
    • State forestry employees engaged in fighting forest fires
    • State correction employees killed or totally disabled due to contact with inmates or parolees
    • State park employees who are commissioned law enforcement officers or emergency response employees
    • Emergency Medical Technicians
    • Department of Community Punishment employees
• Provide required documentation as determined by the ADHE
  • Scholarship application
  • Death certificate
  • Order and Finding of Facts from the Arkansas State Claims Commission
  • Copy of birth certificate (if dependent child)
  • Copy of marriage license (if spouse)

Continuing Eligibility Criteria

• Student must maintain a minimum GPA of 2.0 on a 4.0 scale.

Award Amounts

• The scholarship will reimburse the institution the cost of tuition, fees and dormitory room charges when provided in campus-owned facilities. The scholarship will not pay the cost of books, food, school supplies and materials, or fees for extracurricular activities. Dependent children are eligible to receive benefits for eight semesters and must be less than twenty-three (23) years of age on or before the first day of the semester or quarter. Spouses are entitled to an eight-semester scholarship. The spouse will no longer be eligible if he or she remarries. The benefits will cease at the end of the semester in which the spouse is currently enrolled at the time of the remarriage.