MyCAA eligibility in 2026: who qualifies for SpouseWorks
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- Your service member’s status decides it
- Official pages differ on the Coast Guard
- It pays tuition for licenses, certifications and associate degrees
- Other aid can pay what SpouseWorks doesn’t
- Apply through a career coach before your class starts
- Your time limits start with your first class
- Frequently asked questions
- Your next step: check your plan in a minute
As of October 2026, you qualify for the SpouseWorks Scholarship, formerly MyCAA, if you are married to an active-duty service member of any rank, or to a Guard or Reserve member while they are on Title 10 orders. It pays tuition for a license, certification or associate degree you need for a job, up to $4,000 in all and $2,000 a fiscal year, but not for a bachelor’s degree.
Recommended next step
See whether SpouseWorks pays for the program you want
About a minute, no name, email or phone. Pick spouse, your service member's status and, if eligible, what you're working toward.
Check my SpouseWorksYou also need a high school diploma or GED, and your funding documents approved before your service member separates or leaves Title 10 orders.
You can’t be legally separated from the member or on Title 10 orders yourself, and money not used within 3 years of your first course is forfeited. Source · SpouseWorks FAQ
The program’s own page says it “is now available to eligible military spouses, including Coast Guard spouses, regardless of their service member’s rank or pay grade.” Source · Military OneSource, SpouseWorks No official page we read gives the date the rank limit ended.
The name MyCAA “is being retired” as the program moves to SpouseWorks, and the program says “There will be no changes to your funding or application status.” Source · SpouseWorks Scholarship home
Where does your income land on the Pell lines?
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Your service member’s status decides it
Rank no longer matters. What matters is whether your service member is on active duty or on qualifying Title 10 orders when your funding documents are approved.
| Your service member | Do you qualify? | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Active duty, any rank: Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force or Space Force | Yes, with a high school diploma or GED | Log in with myAuth; the system checks your eligibility |
| Active duty, Coast Guard | Yes on the program and get-started pages; the benefit page and FAQ leave the Coast Guard out | Confirm with a SpouseWorks career coach, 800-342-9647 |
| Guard or Reserve, on qualifying Title 10 orders | Yes, while the orders last | Get your funding documents approved before the member is released from orders |
| Guard or Reserve in warning orders or alert, post-deployment, demobilization or transition | No | Check again once the member is on qualifying Title 10 orders |
| Guard or Reserve, not on Title 10 orders | No | Check again once the member is on qualifying Title 10 orders |
| Leaving service soon, or being released from Title 10 orders | Yes, for documents approved before the separation or release date | Get your plan and funding requests approved before that date |
| Has left service, or been released from orders | Only for documents approved before that date | Ask a career coach what is still approved |
| Any status, and you are legally separated from the member | No | The get-started page and FAQ exclude legally separated spouses |
| Any status, and you are on Title 10 orders yourself | No | The FAQ excludes spouses who are members on Title 10 orders |
For Guard and Reserve spouses, the FAQ is exact: eligibility covers members “activated on qualifying Title 10 orders, not pre- or post-deployment.” Your financial assistance documents must be approved while those orders last. Source · SpouseWorks FAQ
Official pages differ on the Coast Guard
Four official pages describe who qualifies. All four say rank doesn’t count, but only two name the Coast Guard.
| Official page | Active duty | Guard and Reserve |
|---|---|---|
| SpouseWorks program page | Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force and Coast Guard | Same six services |
| Get-started page | Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force and Coast Guard | Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force, on Title 10 orders |
| Military OneSource benefit page | Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Space Force | Same five, under qualifying Title 10 orders |
| Spouse FAQ | Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Space Force | On Title 10 orders (no services listed separately) |
If your service member is in the Coast Guard, or in a Guard or Reserve component the get-started page doesn’t name, ask a SpouseWorks career coach at 800-342-9647 before you plan around it. Source · SpouseWorks get started
It pays tuition for licenses, certifications and associate degrees
SpouseWorks pays for “the pursuit or maintenance (including continuing education courses) of a license, certification, or associate’s degree necessary to gain employment in an occupation or career field.” Source · SpouseWorks Scholarship home
The program must match your career goal and come from a participating school. It also pays for the license or certification exam, and for national tests such as CLEP, College-Level Examination Program. College Board exams that can earn you college credit for what you already know, if your school accepts them. that may earn credit toward a degree on your approved plan. Source · SpouseWorks FAQ
A job doesn’t rule you out. The FAQ says “employed spouses can use the scholarship funding” for coursework toward a job that needs a license, certification or associate degree.
An associate degree course can’t run longer than 12 months, and a license or certificate program no longer than 18. The FAQ says “No exceptions can be made to exceed either of these time frames.”
Spouses “who already have advanced degrees” can still use it for coursework “leading to a recognized credential allowed by the scholarship.” Our guide to certificates or a degree compares the two paths, and our guide to online associate degrees covers cost and transfer.
Other aid can pay what SpouseWorks doesn’t
The FAQ puts “Coursework in pursuit of a bachelors, masters or doctorate degree” at the top of what SpouseWorks doesn’t pay for. For costs above $4,000, it sends spouses to a career coach and to their school’s career services or financial aid office. Source · SpouseWorks FAQ
The FAQ also says “Two sources of federal education benefits can be used to pay for the same course or program,” and that SpouseWorks money goes to tuition only, with no refund to you. Your school’s aid office can tell you how the two would sit on your bill.
Your service member’s own benefit is separate: our guide to Military Tuition Assistance in 2026 shows what each branch pays them, and our military and financial aid guides cover the GI Bill and Pell.
Apply through a career coach before your class starts
The program’s flowchart has seven steps, grouped here into five with the get-started page. Start early: the plan review alone can take up to 14 business days. Source · SpouseWorks flowchart
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Create your SpouseWorks account with myAuth
Log in at SpouseWorks.mil, where you sign in with or create a myAuth account. The system checks your eligibility when you log in.
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Finish your profile and the scholarship registration
Add your experience and education, read the fact sheet and terms and conditions, and answer the quiz questions.
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Meet a SpouseWorks career coach
Book a coaching session by live chat on SpouseWorks.mil or at 800-342-9647. The coach helps you pick a program that fits your goal.
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Get the Education and Training Plan from your school
Ask the school for a SpouseWorks Scholarship Education and Training Plan, upload it, and allow up to 14 business days for review.
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Request funding for each course
Once the plan is approved, choose “Request Financial Assistance” in your account, for each course or program, from 60 days before it starts up to the day before.
Your time limits start with your first class
Hypothetical example: say your first approved course starts Tuesday, January 12, 2027. By our math from the FAQ’s rules, these dates follow, and the $2,000 yearly cap means the full $4,000 takes at least 2 fiscal years.
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Education and Training Plan approved
Review can take up to 14 business days, and you can’t request funding until it is approved.
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Request funding for that course
From 60 days before the course starts to the day before.
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First course starts
It counts in the fiscal year that runs October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027, because the start date sets the year. Courses starting in that year can use up to $2,000.
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The next fiscal year's cap opens
Courses starting from October 1, 2027 can use up to $2,000 more, toward the $4,000 total.
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Unused money is forfeited after 3 years
The yearly cap counts by “the start date of the course or program, not the date the financial assistance request is submitted or approved.” Money not used within 3 years of your first course’s start date is forfeited. Source · SpouseWorks FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is SpouseWorks (MyCAA) money taxable?
The FAQ says “the scholarship funding is considered a scholarship and is not subject to taxation.”
What happens if I fail or drop a course?
If you fail or withdraw from a course SpouseWorks paid for, your ability to request more funds stops until you talk to a career coach, and after a first failure or withdrawal you can request a grade waiver. A second failure or withdrawal “may result in permanently locking the account.”
Can I use it for remedial classes?
Yes, up to “a maximum of nine hours of remedial coursework,” if the courses are on your Education and Training Plan or your school gives a separate document saying you must take them.
Does the Military Benefits Check approve my funding?
No. It is a planning estimate, not an approval: SpouseWorks approves each request after your Education and Training Plan is approved.
Your next step: check your plan in a minute
The Military Benefits Check asks whether you’re a spouse, your service member’s status and, if eligible, what you’re working toward, then shows whether SpouseWorks pays for it. It is a planning check; SpouseWorks approves each request.
For a bachelor’s degree, or tuition SpouseWorks doesn’t cover, the aid check estimates your Pell Grant under the rules for the year you start (2026-27 or 2027-28). An estimate is not an award: your school decides its aid offer.
Check your plan against the SpouseWorks rules before you call a coach
About a minute, no name, email or phone. A planning check, not an approval: SpouseWorks approves each request.
Check my planWant your Pell lines by email? Go to the quick check
Sources
Every figure in this guide comes from one of these pages. How we check sources
- Military OneSource, SpouseWorks Scholarship (program page)
- SpouseWorks Scholarship, Get started (eligibility)
- SpouseWorks Scholarship (formerly MyCAA), home page
- Military OneSource, SpouseWorks Scholarship benefit page
- SpouseWorks Scholarship Spouse FAQ
- Steps for MilSpouses to Secure a SpouseWorks Scholarship (flowchart)
Related Resources
Military Tuition Assistance 2026: what each branch pays
Tuition Assistance pays the same rate a credit in every branch in 2026, but yearly caps differ. See your branch's limits, how to apply and what's left to pay.
Online associate degrees: cost, transfer and pay (2026)
At NOVA and SNHU, an online associate degree takes 60+ credits. BLS: $1,135 a week in 2025 vs $966 for high school. Costs by residency, and what transfers.
Certificate or degree in 2026? What each pays back
Certificate or degree? It depends on the job. BLS pay and entry education by job, certificate enrollment up 10.2% in spring 2026, and how to choose.