Teaching Service --
Loan Cancellation/Deferment Opportunities
1999-2000

4-page Fact Sheet

Borrowers of certain U.S. Department of Education loans may quality for deferment or cancellation of all or part of their loans for teaching service in a designated low-income school or in a designated teacher shortage area, depending on the type of loans and when the loans were made. Deferment is a temporary postponement of payments (principal and, in some cases, interest) on the loan. Cancellation means that the borrower will no longer be responsible for repaying all or a portion of the loan, including interest, once he or she has performed qualifying teaching service.

• Perkins cancellation provisions. Teachers who lave a loan from the Federal Perkins Loan Program may be eligible for loan cancellation for full-time teaching in a designated low-income school or in a subject-matter teacher shortage area.
• FFEL/Direct Loans deferment and cancellation provisions. Full-time teachers with a loan or multiple loans from the Federal Direct Loan Program or the Federal Family Education Loan program (FFEL) may be eligible for deferment if teaching in a subject-matter teacher shortage area. [These loans include Federal Stafford Loans, Federal Supplemental Loans for Students (SLS), Federal PLUS Loans, Federal Consolidation Loans, and loans offered in earlier years through the Guaranteed Student Loan Program]. The deferment programs for these loans are only available to teachers whose first loan was made on or after July 1, 1987 but before July 1, 1993, along with any additional FFEL they may have taken out at later dates. NEW: Only teachers who took out their first Stafford Loan after October 1, 1998, may be eligible for loan cancellation benefits.
• Douglas Scholarship reduced service. Teachers with a Paul Douglas Teacher Scholarship may be eligible for reduced service obligations, such as only one year of teaching service per year of scholarship assistance instead of two years of teaching service. [Note: the last scholarships were awarded in 1995-96. Scholarships are no longer being made under the Douglas Program.]

Important Warning: Teachers should be careful about consolidating student loans because loan consolidation may mean loss of loan cancellation/deferment benefits and their low interest rates!

Federal Perkins Loan Cancellation ...

Who qualifies for cancellation:

Federal Perkins Loan borrowers are eligible for cancellation for full-time teaching in three categories:

1. Teaching in an elementary or secondary school that serves low-income students (Perkins/NDSL loans made on or after July 1, 1987)

To be eligible for Perkins teaching cancellation, you must be teaching full-time at a low-income school, as determined by the State Education Agency. To find out if the school that employs you is classified as a Low Income School, you can check the U.S. Dept. Of Education Office of Student Financial Aid Programs on-line database for the year(s) that you have been employed as a teacher. Usually you will want to check the database for the most recent year in which you taught at the school. (http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP) (Updated Oct. 99 TEA)

Note that if you have had a portion of your loan cancelled for teaching at a low-income elementary or secondary school in one year, you can continue to have portions of your loan cancelled for teaching at that school, even if it is no longer listed as a low-income school in later years. Under certain circumstances, the school that holds your Perkins Loan may permit retroactive cancellation, if you can demonstrate that you qualified for cancellation in a prior year.

To be considered a "low-income school," the school must be in a school district that qualified for funds--in the year for which the cancellation is sought--under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended. The school also must have more than 30% of its enrolled children counted in the Title I funding formula. Questions about the inclusion or omission of a particular school should be directed to the State Education Agency contact in the state where the school is located, and not to the U.S. Department of Education.

2. Teaching in an elementary or secondary school system that has a shortage of teachers in a designated subject-matter area (Perkins Loans made on or after July 23, 1992).

Federal Perkins Loan borrowers can also have their loans canceled for full-time teaching if there is a shortage of teachers in their subject area. Each year the State Education Agency determines the subject-matter shortage areas in the elementary and secondary schools within the state. The designated subject-matter shortage areas nationwide include mathematics, science, foreign languages, and bilingual education. You should check with your local school system or State Education Agency to find out if your subject-matter area has been designated as a teacher shortage area in your state, or check the U.S. Department of Ed. Office of Student Financial Aid Program website (http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP).

New legislation: Effective October 7, 1998, borrowers previously ineligible for cancellation on loans made prior to July 23, 1992, are now eligible for cancellation benefits on outstanding balances, based on qualifying teaching service in a subject-matter shortage area starting October 7, 1998 regardless of the fact that the loan was made before July 23, 1992. (Cancellation is not retroactive for service prior to October 7, 1998.)

3. Teaching disabled students in a public or other nonprofit elementary or secondary school (Perkins/NDSL loans made on or after July 1, 1987)

You must have an official at the school certify that you are teaching handicapped or learning disabled students, either on the postponement/cancellation form itself, or on an official letter from the school bearing the school's seal or letterhead. For Perkins Loans made on or after July 23, 1992, this cancellation includes special education teachers, including teachers of infants, toddlers, children, or youth with disabilities.

Cancellation amounts for years of service

If a borrower is eligible for teacher cancellation under any of the three categories listed above, up to 100% of the Perkins loan may be canceled for teaching service, in the following increments:

• 15% canceled per year for the first and second years of service
• 20% canceled per year for the third and fourth years, and
• 30% canceled for the fifth year (Updated Oct. 99 TEA)
  

How to apply for teacher loan cancellation for a Perkins Loan:

To apply for loan cancellation for a Perkins loan, you must request the appropriate forms from the office that administers the Perkins loan program at the college or university that holds your loan. You must submit two forms for each year for which you seek cancellation: a postponement/deferment request at the beginning of the school year, and a cancellation request at the end of the school year. You must also provide any documentation the college requests to show that you qualify for cancellation. It is the college's responsibility to determine whether you qualify for cancellation, and its decision cannot be appealed to the U.S. Department of Education or the State Education Agency.

See your loan promissory note for information on other Perkins/NDSL cancellation provisions for Head Start, Peace Corps, or VISTA workers, nurses or medical technicians, military personnel serving in areas of imminent danger, or certain types of law enforcement, family service or early intervention work. Note that some of these cancellation provisions were added to Perkins Loans made after 1990 and 1992, and some of them offer partial rather than full cancellation. You should consult your Perkins Loan promissory note to see if you meet all of the requirements for cancellation. If you have further questions, contact the office that administers the program at your former college or university.

Deferments for FFEL and Direct Loans ...

Repayment of loans from the FFEL or Direct Loan programs (Federal Stafford Loans, Federal PLUS Loans, and Federal Consolidation Loans) may be deferred for full-time teaching in a federally-designated teacher shortage area for a maximum of three years if:

• you received an FFEL Program Loan for enrollment in classes that started between July 1, 1987 and June 30, 1993, and
• you had no outstanding FFEL Program Loan on the date you signed the promissory note for the loan.

If you qualify for teacher service deferment of an FFEL Program loan for enrollment between July 1, 1987 and June 30, 1993, you may also defer any additional FFEL Program loan or Direct Loan that you received after June 30, 1993. If your loan is unsubsidized, you must still pay the interest that accumulates on the loan during eligible periods of deferment, either during the deferment period or as an increase in the amount or number of your monthly payments when you resume making payments.

To obtain a targeted teaching deferment you must submit a deferment form to your lender for each school year of teaching service for which you apply for deferment. Under the FFEL and Direct Loan programs, a federally designated teacher shortage area is a shortage of elementary or secondary school teachers and can be a grade level, subject-matter, discipline classification, or geographic area as identified by the State Education Agency and approved by the U.S. Department of Education (in Texas, the designation is subject-matter teacher shortage areas).

The principal at the school where you are teaching must certify on the deferment form that you are teaching in a federally-designated teacher shortage area. Please remember that you must reapply each school year for a targeted teaching deferment.

If you continue to teach in the same shortage area for which you obtained the original deferment, you may continue to receive the deferment for a maximum of three years, even if your position is no longer considered to be in a teacher shortage area for those subsequent years. To receive the continuing deferment you must provide the lender with a completed deferment form, certified by the school principal, indicating that you continue to teach full time, and continue to teach in the same teacher shortage area for which the deferment was received the previous school year.

For more information about targeted teaching deferments for the FFEL Program, you should consult your loan promissory note, contact the lender or guarantor holding you loan, or contact the State Education Agency in the state where you are teaching. Direct Loan borrowers should contact the direct Loan Servicing center.

New Cancellation Provision for NEW Stafford Borrowers:

The law established a loan forgiveness program, starting October 1, 1998 for new Stafford Loan borrowers (with no outstanding balance on a loan from the SFA Programs as of that date) who serve as teachers in designated low-income schools. (There is no cancellation benefit for Stafford borrowers unless they have taken out their first Stafford Loan on or after October 1, 1998.) The borrower must teach in a low-income school for five consecutive, complete school years to qualify for cancellation. This program will repay loans up to $5,000. The regulations to implement this program are still being negotiated, but it is likely that the Perkins low-income school list will also be used to determine if qualifying Stafford loans can be cancelled.

Reduction of Teaching Service Requirement for Douglas Scholars who teach in a subject-matter shortage area ...

If you received a scholarship under the Paul Douglas Teacher Scholarship Program (formerly the Congressional Teacher Scholarship Program), you are generally required to teach for two years for every year of scholarship assistance received. However, if you are teaching in a federally-approved subject-matter teacher shortage area, you are required to teach only one year for each year of scholarship assistance received. [Note: the last scholarships were awarded in 1995-96. Scholarships are no longer being made under the Douglas Program. However, former scholarship recipients who have not fulfilled the scholarship agreement must continue to do so.]

If you teach in a shortage area one year, but it is not designated as such the next year, you will still be eligible for the teaching reduction if you provide the state office with the appropriate forms certifying that you are continuing to teach in the area for which the original teacher loan cancellation benefit was received. Under certain circumstances, you may receive credit for substitute teaching service performed in accordance with the state policy in effect at the time.

If a scholar fails to fulfill the teaching obligation, he or she will be required to repay, on a pro rata basis, the amount of the scholarships received as well as accrued interest and any required collection costs.

For more information about the teaching service requirements in Texas under the Paul Douglas Teacher Scholarship Program, contact Connie Cooper at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in Austin, TX (1-800-242-3062).
(Updated Oct. 99 TEA)

Attachment B:  Deferment Request Form (Adobe Acrobat Format)

For further information on this topic, contact the Division of Educator Development Projects at (512)264-3939.

Back to TEA Correspondence Homepage