General Information

The Teacher Loan Forgiveness is for teachers who have taught full-time for five complete and consecutive academic years in a low-income school or educational service agency, and meet other qualifications, may be eligible for up to $17,500 of loan forgiveness on your Family Federal Education Loan Program (FFELP) loans and Direct Loans.

The maximum forgiveness amount is either $17,500 or $5000, depending on the subject area taught. If you have eligible loans under both the FFELP and Direct Loans programs, $17,500 or $5000 is a combined maximum forgiveness amount for both programs.

Eligible Loans:

• Stafford (FFELP or Direct)
• Federal Consolidation Loan (outstanding portion of the consolidation loan that repaid and eligible Stafford loan)
• Spousal Consolidation Loans

Ineligible Loans:

• Parent PLUS
• Consolidation Loans including Parent PLUS loans
• Private student loans, state loans or other loans not guaranteed by the federal government
• Defaulted Loans

Eligibility Requirements:

• Must not have had an outstanding balance on any FFELP or Direct loans as of 10/1/98 or have new loans before a pre-October 1, 1998 loan is paid off.
• Must have been employed as a full time, highly qualified teacher for five complete and consecutive academic years, and at least one of those years must have been after the 1997-98 academic year.
• Must have been employed at an elementary school, secondary school, or educational service agency that serves low-income students.
• The loan(s) must have been made before the end of your five academic years of qualifying teaching service.

Forgiveness Amounts:

You may receive up to $17,500 in loan forgiveness if

• You are a highly qualified full-time mathematics or science teacher who taught students at the secondary school level; or
• You are a highly qualified special education teacher (at either the elementary or secondary level) whose primary responsibility was to provide special education to children with disabilities, and you taught children with disabilities that corresponded to your area of special education training and demonstrated knowledge and teaching skills in the content areas of the curriculum that you taught.

You may receive up to $5000 in loan forgiveness if

• Your qualifying teaching service began before 10/30/04.
• You are a highly qualified full-time elementary or secondary education teacher.

You may verify your school’s eligibility on the Annual Directory of Designated Low-Income Schools for Teacher Cancellation Benefits (TCLI Directory) at https://studentloans.gov/myDirectLoan/tcli.action.

For additional information regarding Teacher Loan Forgiveness, visit studentaid.ed.gov.