Did you enter any education expenses on the federal return? You need to have unused federal educators expenses (the limit is $300 on the federal return). You can't deduct expenses that were deducted on the federal return. If you had $800 in educator expenses on the federal return, you would have $500 left over to claim on the VA return. You can also take the VA credit for professional development courses you did not get a credit for on the federal return. But those still need to be entered on the federal return to transfer to the VA return.
Eligible Educators - See VA Deductions
You may qualify to claim this deduction if:
How much is the deduction?