Students must obtain a teaching position at a school serving low-income students including any elementary or secondary school that is listed in the Department of Education’s Annual Directory of Designated Low-Income Schools for Teacher Cancellation Benefits. High need subject areas are defined as follows:
- Bilingual Education and English Language Acquisition
- Foreign Language
- Mathematics
- Reading Specialist
- Science
- Special Education
- Other identified teacher shortage areas as of the time you begin teaching in that field. These are teacher subject shortage areas (not geographic areas) that are listed in the Department of Education’s Annual Teacher Shortage Area Nationwide Listing.
In the event that a student is unable to fulfill the teaching service requirements, the student must be aware that there are serious financial consequences. If a TEACH grant is disbursed to a student, but the student later does not fulfill the reaching service requirements, the amount of money awarded as a TEACH grant becomes a loan to be repaid with interest (at the same rate as the federal Unsubsidized Stafford Loan), and the interest is compounded from the time the grant was initially disbursed. (Note: once a grant is converted into a loan, the recipient will be given a six-month grace period prior to entering into repayment of this loan.) Once a grant has been converted to a loan, it cannot revert back to a grant. Students must file an annual certification of their status to prove their teaching service requirements are being fulfilled.