§ 608. World trade center memorial scholarships. 1. Notwithstanding subdivisions three and five of section six hundred sixty-one of this title, children, spouses and financial dependents of innocent victims who have died or have been severely and permanently disabled, or those innocent victims who have become severely and permanently disabled as a direct result of an injury sustained in the impact area of the September eleventh, two thousand one attack on the United States of America, shall be eligible to receive a scholarship in an annual amount determined pursuant to subdivision two of section six hundred sixty-eight-d of this title. The attack on the United States of America shall consist of the attack on the world trade center, the attack on the Pentagon and the hijackings and crashes of United Airlines flights 93 and 175 and American Airlines flights 11 and 77.

2. Awards under this section shall be payable for each of not more than four academic years of undergraduate study or five academic years if a program normally requires five years, as defined by the commissioner pursuant to this article.