Loan Forgiveness and Cancellation - ode.state.or.us

1 loan Forgiveness and Cancellation Updated June 9, 2016 This guide is to help eligible educators reap the benefits of the Federal loan Forgiveness Program. Steps for Teachers looking to qualify for loan Forgiveness or loan Cancellation Step 1: Identify your type of loan (s) A Direct Subsidized loan , Direct Unsubsidized loan , Subsidized Federal Stafford loan , and Unsubsidized Federal Stafford loan all qualify for loan Forgiveness . A Perkins loan qualifies for loan Cancellation . Step 2: Determine if you are an eligible educator Eligibility Requirements for loan Forgiveness Any educator who: Has 5 consecutive years of full time service in an eligible school as listed in the teacher Cancellation Low Income (TCLI) Directory, or at an eligible Educational Service District after August 14th 2008. o For School Eligibility information please visit the Oregon Department of Education s School Eligibility for the teacher loan Forgiveness Program webpage.

2 Began teaching after the 1997-1998 school year Has no outstanding balances or is in default on any loans Has loans that have been created before the end of the 5-year commitment Eligibility Requirements for loan Cancellation Any educator who: Has 1 year of full-time teaching service in an eligible school as listed in the teacher Cancellation Low Income (TCLI) Directory; or at an eligible Education Service District after August 14th 2008, or in the area of Special Education; or a Shortage Area. o Special Education includes: teaching of infants, toddlers, children and/or youth with disabilities; speech therapy; physical therapy; occupational therapy; psychologists and counseling services; and recreational therapy o Shortage Area includes: Mathematics, Science, World Languages, Bilingual Education, or any other field of expertise determined by a state education agency to have a shortage of qualified teachers in that state.

3 Has applied to defer loan payments while teaching Step 3: Request an application: loan Forgiveness : Access the application HERE. Note: Section 2, Requirement 1 on this application is referring to the teacher s certification. Teachers certified by TSPC with a specialization in Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education (EI/ECSE) have licensure that covers age 3 through early elementary. Therefore ECSE teachers with ECSE specialization meet the requirement for highly qualified special education teacher for elementary school children with disabilities . loan Cancellation : Request the form from the school that administered your Perkins loan loan Forgiveness and Cancellation Updated June 9, 2016 Step 4: Submit documentation with the loan provider: loan Forgiveness : The amount of Forgiveness varies on the subject you teach, when you taught, and whether or not you were considered a Highly Qualified full-time teacher .

4 loan Cancellation : 15% for 1st year and 15% for 2nd year 20% for 3rd year and 20% for 4th year 30% for 5th year, totaling 100% over 5 years Trouble-Shooting If you have completed AmeriCorps DO NOT USE or APPLY any of the AMERICORPS funding towards any loans prior to receiving Forgiveness . Using any kind of AmeriCorps grants or funding will disqualify an educator from being able to receive Forgiveness . If you have already applied some of your grant money, you may still be able to apply for Cancellation for only your Perkins loans. If you are a Teach for America TFA corps members qualify after their coursework is complete. Corps members that already have their teaching certificate will only have to teach for 5 years, but an uncertified corps member needs to teach for 7 years to be able to qualify for Forgiveness ; this is because during the first two years your loans were not in repayment. DO NOT USE or APPLY any of your AMERICORPS funding towards your loans- this includes interest payments- otherwise you are no longer eligible for Forgiveness .

5 If you have already applied some of your grant money, you may still be able to apply for Cancellation for only your Perkins loans. If you have changed schools multiple You must have ALL administrators from ALL of your schools sign off on the application. o For example: You are requesting Forgiveness for 5 years of service and during that 5 years you were at 3 different yet eligible schools. Therefore, you must have each of those 3 administrators confirm your service at their school during those years. If you stopped teaching in the middle of a school For that year to count towards eligibility you must prove that at least half of the year was served and your employer considered it a full year for pension, retirement or salary applications ; or your FMLA was approved; or you had active duty for more than 30 days; or you were a part-time student in area they are teaching. If you consolidated your Only the Direct and FFEL Consolidation loan programs are approved for any Forgiveness .

6 Also, only the portion of the consolidation loan used to repay the eligible loans (see top) qualifies for loan Forgiveness . loan Forgiveness and Cancellation Updated June 9, 2016 Terms loan Forgiveness : A process by which the Federal Government forgives a part of specific loans once an educator s loans have entered into repayment loan Cancellation : A process by which educators can qualify for part or all of the total amount of the loan to be canceled while still in deferment. Cancellation is considered on a yearly basis and educators must re-apply each year. Subsidized loan : A loan where the federal government pays the accrued interest before loans are paid back Unsubsidized loan : A loan where the borrower is completely responsible for all interest accrued teacher : A teacher is a person who provides direct classroom teaching or classroom-type teaching in a non-classroom setting including special education teachers (see below).

7 Note: School librarians, guidance counselors, and other administrative staff are not considered teachers for the purposes of this loan Forgiveness program. Special Education means specially designed instruction, at no cost to parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability (see below), including instruction conducted in the classroom, in the home, in hospitals and institutions, and in other settings; and instruction in physical education (see below). o A child with a disability is a child who needs special education and related services because the child has an intellectual disability, 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 healthy 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.

8 O 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. Helpful Links Oregon School Eligibility for the teacher loan Forgiveness Program teacher Cancellation Low Income (TCLI) Directory To check if a school is listed on the teacher Cancellation low Income (TCLI) Directory: Click on the link to go to the TCLI directory site Select state (Oregon) Select the School Year you are verifying (current school year is updated in May at the end of the year) Enter the School Name Click Search teacher loan Forgiveness Application Note: Section 2, Requirement 1 on this application is referring to the teacher s certification. Teachers certified by TSPC with a specialization in Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education (EI/ECSE) have licensure that covers age 3 through early elementary.

9 Therefore ECSE teachers with ECSE specialization meet the requirement for highly qualified special education teacher for elementary school children with disabilities . Institution ID Search (look up institution information from our Institution Boundary Database) loan Forgiveness and Cancellation Updated June 9, 2016 Education Department Links: US Department of education: Student Loans Federal Student Aid: teacher loan Forgiveness Federal Student Aid: teacher Cancellation for Federal Perkins Loans teacher Shortage Areas Student loan Forgiveness for Full-Time Public Service Jobs Peace Corps, AmeriCorps Volunteer, or Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) loan Forgiveness Child Care loan Forgiveness Program Federal Student Aid: TEACH Grants Federal Student Aid: TEACH Grant Program informational document Contacts For Oregon School Eligibility please contact Emily Swope, 503-947-5642, Education Department: Type of call: Who to Contact: Phone: Garnishments Dept.

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