Teacher Loan Forgiveness Application Form – Fill Out and Use This PDF

SECTION 4: GENERAL INFORMATION AND INSTRUCTIONS

The Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program is intended to encourage individuals to enter and continue in the teaching profession. Under this program, individuals who teach full time for five consecutive, complete academic years at certain elementary and secondary schools or for certain educational service agencies that serve low-income families and meet other qualifications may be eligible for forgiveness of up to a combined total of $17,500 in principal and interest on their Direct Loan and/or FFEL program loans. For complete terms and conditions, definitions, and eligibility requirements, see Sections 5 through 8.

Before completing Section 2, carefully read Sections 5 through 8. Be sure to provide all requested information. Type or print using dark ink. Show dates as mm-dd-yyyy (for example, show “January 31, 2011” as “01-31-2011”).

The chief administrative officer of the school or educational service agency at or for which you performed your qualifying teaching service must complete Section 3. If you taught at more than one school or for more than one educational service agency during the same academic year, the chief administrative officer from one of the schools or educational service agencies may complete Section 3. If you taught at different schools or for different educational service agencies during different academic years, the chief administrative officers from all of the schools or educational service agencies must certify your eligibility. If you need more than one chief administrative officer's certification, the additional certifications, containing the information in Section 3, may be provided on a separate piece of paper and submitted with your completed form.

Return the completed form to the address shown in Section 9. If you are applying for forgiveness of loans that are held by different loan holders, you must submit a separate form to each loan holder.

SECTION 5: TERMS AND CONDITIONS

•If you are determined to be eligible for loan forgiveness under this program, your loan holder will not refund any payments that you made or that were made on your behalf before the determination of eligibility.

•You are not eligible to receive forgiveness for more than a combined total of $17,500 of principal and interest of your Direct Loan and/or FFEL program loan(s). You are responsible for repaying any loan balance that remains after the forgiveness has been granted.

•Unless you instruct your loan holder otherwise, the forgiveness amount will be applied to your loans in the following order: (1) Direct Unsubsidized Loan(s) or unsubsidized Federal Stafford Loan(s),

(2) Direct Subsidized Loan(s) or subsidized Federal Stafford Loan(s), and (3) Direct Unsubsidized Consolidation Loan, Direct Subsidized Consolidation Loan, or Federal Consolidation Loan.

•If you receive loan forgiveness based on any false, fictitious, or fraudulent statements that you make on this form or on any accompanying documents, you may be subject to civil and criminal penalties under applicable federal law.

SECTION 6: DEFINITIONS

•An academic year is:

OOne complete school year at the same school or for the same educational service agency, or

OTwo complete and consecutive half years at different schools or for different educational service agencies, or

OTwo complete and consecutive half years from different school years at either the same school or for the same educational service agency or at different schools or for different educational service agencies.

Half years exclude summer sessions. Two half years generally fall within a 12-month period. For schools or educational service agencies that have a year-round program of instruction, a minimum of nine months is considered an academic year.

•Capitalization is the addition of unpaid interest to the principal balance of a loan. This will increase the principal and total cost of the loan.

•The chief administrative officer is the official who has access to employment records that establish your eligibility for loan forgiveness in accordance with the requirements explained on this form, and who is authorized to verify your qualifying employment at a school or by an educational service agency. Depending on your employer, the chief administrative officer may be a principal, assistant principal, superintendent, or other school or educational service agency official.

•A child with a disability is a child who needs special education and related services because the child has mental retardation, a hearing impairment (including deafness), a speech or language impairment, a visual impairment (including blindness), a serious emotional disturbance, an orthopedic impairment, autism, a traumatic brain injury, another health impairment, or a specific learning disability. For a child age 3 through 9, the term a child with a disability may, at the discretion of the state and the local educational agency, include a child who needs special education and related services because the child is experiencing developmental delays, as defined by the state and as measured by appropriate diagnostic instruments and procedures, in one or more of the following areas: physical development, cognitive development, communication development, social or emotional development, or adaptive development.

•An educational service agency is a regional public multiservice agency (not a private organization) authorized by state statute to develop, manage, and provide services or programs to local educational agencies (such as public school districts), as defined in section 9101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended.

•An elementary school is a public or nonprofit private school that provides elementary education as determined by state law or, if the school is not in a state, by the U.S. Department of Education.

•A forbearance is a temporary cessation of payments, an extension of time for making payments, or temporary acceptance of smaller payments than previously scheduled. You are responsible for any interest that accrues on a loan during forbearance. If you do not pay the interest that accrues on the loan, the interest may be capitalized.

•Full time means the standard used by a state in defining full-time employment as a teacher. If you teach in more than one school or educational service agency, full time is based on the combination of all of your qualifying employment.

•The holder of a Direct Loan Program loan is the U.S. Department of Education. The holder of a FFEL Program loan may be a lender, guaranty agency, secondary market, or the U.S. Department of Education.

•Loans that are eligible for forgiveness are Federal Direct Stafford/Ford Loans (Direct Subsidized Loans), Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford/Ford Loans (Direct Unsubsidized Loans), Federal Stafford Loans (subsidized and unsubsidized), and any portion of a Federal Direct Consolidation Loan or Federal Consolidation Loan that paid off an eligible Direct Subsidized Loan, Direct Unsubsidized Loan, or Federal Stafford Loan.

•A secondary school is a public or nonprofit private school that provides secondary education as determined by state law or, if the school is not in a state, by the U.S. Department of Education.

•Special education means specially designed instruction, at no cost to parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability, including instruction conducted in the classroom, in the home, in hospitals and institutions, and in other settings; and instruction in physical education. Physical education means the development of physical and motor fitness, fundamental motor skills and patterns, and skills in aquatics, dance, and individual and group games and sports (including intramural and lifetime sports), and includes special physical education, adapted physical education, movement education, and motor development.

•A teacher is a person who provides direct classroom teaching or classroom-type teaching in a non-classroom setting, including special education teachers. School librarians, guidance counselors, and other administrative staff are not considered teachers for the purposes of this loan forgiveness program.

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SECTION 7: DEFINITION OF HIGHLY QUALIFIED

Public school teachers (including teachers employed by educational service agencies) and private school teachers may meet different criteria in order to be considered “highly qualified” for the purposes of the Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program, as explained below.

Public School Teachers

To be a highly qualified teacher, a teacher of public elementary or secondary school students must:

•Have obtained full state certification as a teacher (including certification obtained through alternative routes to certification) or passed the state teacher licensing examination, and hold a license to teach in that state, except that when used with respect to teaching in a public charter school, the term “highly qualified teacher” means that the teacher meets the requirements set forth in the state’s public charter school law; and

•Not have had certification or licensure requirements waived on an emergency, temporary, or provisional basis.

In addition:

A teacher of elementary school students who is new to the profession also is considered highly qualified if the teacher:

•Holds at least a bachelor’s degree; and

•Has demonstrated, by passing a rigorous state test, subject knowledge and teaching skills in reading, writing, mathematics, and other areas of the basic elementary school curriculum (which may consist of passing a state-required certification or licensing test or tests in reading, writing, mathematics, and other areas of the basic elementary school curriculum).

A teacher of middle or secondary school students who is new to the profession also is considered highly qualified if the teacher:

•Holds at least a bachelor’s degree; and

•Has demonstrated a high level of competency in each of the academic subjects in which the teacher teaches by:

O Passing a rigorous state academic subject test in each of the academic subjects in which the teacher teaches (which may consist of a passing level of performance on a state-required certification or licensing test or tests in each of the academic subjects in which the teacher teaches); or

O Successful completion, in each of the academic subjects in which the teacher teaches, of an academic major, a graduate degree, coursework equivalent to an undergraduate academic major, or advanced certification or credentialing.

A teacher of elementary, middle, or secondary school students who is not new to the profession also is considered highly qualified if the teacher holds at least a bachelor’s degree and:

•Meets the applicable standards of a teacher of elementary, middle, or secondary school students who is new to the profession; or

•Demonstrates competence in all the academic subjects in which the teacher teaches based on a high objective, uniform state standard of evaluation that: O Is set by the state for both grade appropriate academic subject matter knowledge and teaching skills;

O Is aligned with challenging state academic content and student academic achievement standards and developed in consultation with core content specialists, teachers, principals, and school administrators;

O Provides objective, coherent information about the teacher’s attainment of core content knowledge in the academic subjects in which a teacher teaches; O Is applied uniformly to all teachers in the same academic subject and the same grade level throughout the state;

O Takes into consideration, but is not based primarily on, the time the teacher has been teaching in the academic subject; O Is made available to the public upon request; and

O May involve multiple, objective measures of teacher competency.

Private School Teachers

To be a highly qualified teacher, a teacher in a private, non-profit elementary or secondary school who is not a highly qualified teacher as defined above must:

•Be permitted to and satisfy rigorous subject knowledge and skills tests by taking competency tests in applicable grade levels and subject areas. The competency tests must be recognized by five or more states for the purposes of fulfilling the highly qualified teacher requirements under section 9101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965; and

•Achieve a score on each test that equals or exceeds the average passing score for those five states.

SECTION 8: ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

•To qualify for loan forgiveness under this program, you must not have had an outstanding balance on a Direct Loan or FFEL program loan on October 1, 1998, or on the date that you obtained a Direct Loan or FFEL program loan after October 1, 1998. This means that if you had an outstanding balance on one or more Direct Loan or FFEL program loans on October 1, 1998, or on any Direct Loan or FFEL program loans that you obtained while you had an outstanding balance on a Direct Loan or FFEL program loan made on or before October 1, 1998, you may qualify for loan forgiveness if you later paid all of those loans in full so that you had no outstanding balance on any Direct Loan or FFEL program loan at the time you obtained a new Direct Loan or FFEL program loan after October 1, 1998.

•If you are in default on a Direct Loan and/or FFEL program loan(s), you must have made satisfactory repayment arrangements with the holder of the defaulted loan(s) to be eligible for forgiveness of the loan(s).

•The loan(s) for which you are seeking forgiveness must have been made prior to the end of your five academic years of qualifying teaching service.

•You must not have received benefits through the AmeriCorps Program under Subtitle D of Title I of the National and Community Service Act of 1990 or loan forgiveness under the Direct Loan Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program for the same teaching service for which you are seeking forgiveness on your Direct Loan and/or FFEL program loan(s).

•You must have been employed as a full-time teacher for five consecutive, complete academic years at an elementary or secondary school or for an educational service agency that: O Is in a school district that qualifies for funds under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended;

O Has been selected by the U.S. Department of Education based on a determination that more than 30 percent of the school’s or educational service agency’s total enrollment is made up of children who qualify for services provided under Title I; and

O Is listed in the Annual Directory of Designated Low-Income Schools for Teacher Cancellation Benefits (See website address at http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/cancelstaff.jsp). If this directory is not available before May 1 of any year, the previous year’s directory may be used.

If your school or educational service agency meets the above requirements for at least one year of your teaching service, but does not meet these requirements during subsequent years, your subsequent years of teaching at the school or educational service agency may be counted toward the required five consecutive, complete academic years of teaching.

Note: All elementary and secondary schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) or operated on Indian reservations by Indian tribal groups under contract with the BIE qualify as schools serving low-income students. These schools are qualifying schools for purposes of this loan forgiveness program.

•You may qualify for forgiveness based on qualifying teaching service for five consecutive, complete academic years at any combination of eligible elementary schools, secondary schools, or educational service agencies. However:

O Teaching at an eligible elementary or secondary school may be counted toward the required five consecutive, complete academic years only if at least one of the five years of teaching was after the 1997–1998 academic year.

O Teaching for an eligible educational service agency may be counted toward the required five consecutive, complete academic years only if the consecutive five-year period includes qualifying service for an eligible educational service agency performed after the 2007–2008 academic year.

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