Receive a TEACH Grant To Pay for College

You’ll have special teaching service requirements if you accept a TEACH Grant, so make sure you understand your obligation.

A Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant is different from other federal student grants because it requires you to agree to complete a teaching service obligation as a condition for receiving the grant, and if you don't complete the service obligation, the TEACH Grant will be converted to a loan that you must repay, with interest.

TEACH Grant recipients will now communicate directly with the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to

submit and manage TEACH Grant certification forms, and upload suspension and discharge requests on StudentAid.gov;
request a voluntary TEACH Grant conversion or reconsideration of loan conversion at 1-888-303-7818; and
mail or fax requests for suspension, discharge, and reconsideration of loan conversion to

Federal Student Aid Programs - TEACH
P.O. Box 300010
Greenville, TX 75403
Fax: 540-212-2415

TEACH Grant Eligibility

To be eligible for a TEACH Grant, you must

meet the basic eligibility criteria for the federal student aid programs;
complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA^®) form;
be enrolled at a school that participates in the TEACH Grant Program;
be enrolled in a TEACH-Grant-eligible program;
meet certain academic achievement requirements (generally, scoring above the 75th percentile on one or more portions of a college admissions test or maintaining a cumulative GPA of at least 3.25). For specific information about the academic requirements, talk to the financial aid office at your college or career school;
receive TEACH Grant counseling that explains the terms and conditions of the TEACH Grant service obligation. You must complete counseling each year that you receive a TEACH Grant; and
sign a TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve or Repay.

TEACH Grant Information

The TEACH Grant Program provides grants of up to $4,000 a year to students who are completing or plan to complete course work needed to begin a career in teaching.

The Budget Control Act of 2011 (the sequester law) requires a reduction in the TEACH Grant award amount for which a student would otherwise have been eligible. For any TEACH Grant with a first disbursement on or after Oct. 1, 2020, and before Oct. 1, 2026, the award amount must be reduced by 5.7 percent, as shown in the following chart.

TEACH Grant Awards
Impacted Awards	Statutory Maximum Scheduled Award Amount	Percentage Reduction from Statutory Award Amount	Dollar Reduction Amount from Maximum Award Amount	Adjusted Maximum Award Amount
First disbursed on or after Oct. 1, 2020, and before Oct. 1, 2026	$4,000	5.70%	$228.00	$3,772

To receive a TEACH Grant, you must sign a TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve or Repay in which you agree to

serve as a full-time teacher for four elementary or secondary school years at a school or educational service agency that serves low-income students,
teach in a high-need field, and
complete the required four years of teaching within eight years after you graduate from or otherwise cease to be enrolled at the institution of higher education where you received your TEACH Grants.

TEACH Grants Can Convert Into Loans

If you do not meet the requirements of your service obligation, all TEACH Grants you received will be converted to Direct Unsubsidized Loans. You must repay these loans in full, with interest charged from the date of each TEACH Grant disbursement.

Can a TEACH Grant that has been converted to a loan be changed back to a grant?

TEACH Grant-Eligible Programs

A TEACH Grant-eligible program is a program of study that is designed to prepare you to teach in a high-need field and that leads to a bachelor’s or master’s degree or is a postbaccalaureate program. A two-year program that is acceptable for full credit toward a bachelor’s degree is considered a program that leads to a bachelor’s degree. A postbaccalaureate program is not TEACH Grant-eligible if it is offered by a school that also offers a bachelor’s degree in education.

Schools that participate in the TEACH Grant Program determine which of the programs they offer are TEACH-Grant-eligible. A program that is TEACH-Grant-eligible at one school might not be TEACH-Grant-eligible at another school. Additionally, even if a program meets the eligibility requirements to be a TEACH-Grant-eligible program, it may not be designated as TEACH-Grant-eligible by the school. Contact the financial aid office at the school you are attending (or that you plan to attend) to find out which programs at that school are eligible.

How to Get a TEACH Grant

Contact the financial aid office at the school where you will be enrolled to find out whether the school participates in the TEACH Grant Program and to learn about the programs of study at the school that are TEACH-Grant-eligible.

What Are High-Need Fields?

High-need fields are

mathematics;
science, including, but not limited to, computer science;
foreign language;
bilingual education;
English language acquisition;
reading specialist;
special education; or
any other field that has been identified as high-need in the annual Teacher Shortage Area Nationwide Listing (Nationwide List).

If you plan to teach in a high-need field that is included in the Nationwide List, that field must be listed for the state where you are teaching

at the time you begin teaching in that field, even if that field is later removed from the Nationwide List; or
at the time you signed your Agreement or received your TEACH Grant, even if that field is no longer designated as high-need when you begin teaching.

TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve or Repay

Each year that you receive a TEACH Grant, you must sign an Agreement to Serve or Repay (Agreement) on the TEACH Grant page. The agreement explains the terms and conditions for receiving a TEACH Grant. By signing the Agreement, you agree to these terms and conditions and acknowledge that if you do not fulfill the service obligation described in the Agreement, the TEACH Grant funds you received will be converted to a loan that you must repay.

TEACH Grant Service Obligation

In exchange for receiving a TEACH Grant, you must agree to

serve as a full-time teacher for four elementary or secondary school years at a school or educational service agency (ESA) that serves low-income students;
meet all state certification requirements for teaching;
teach in a high-need field; and
complete the required four years of teaching within eight years after you graduate from or otherwise cease to be enrolled at the institution of higher education where you received your TEACH Grants.

You must complete one four-year service obligation for all TEACH Grants you receive for undergraduate study, and one four-year service obligation for all TEACH Grants you receive for graduate study.

If you have more than one service obligation, in some cases the same teaching service can satisfy some or all of each obligation. Refer to your TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve or Repay for more information and examples.

Schools or ESAs That Serve Low-Income Students

Elementary and secondary schools (public and private) and educational service agencies serving low-income students are listed in the annual Teacher Cancellation Low-Income (TCLI) Directory. In addition, all elementary or secondary schools operated by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) or operated on Indian reservations by Indian tribal groups under contract or grant with the BIE qualify as low-income schools, even if they’re not listed in the TCLI Directory.

TEACH Grant Service Obligation Suspensions

You may request a temporary suspension of the period for completing your service obligation if you are unable to teach for one of the following reasons: 

You are enrolled in a TEACH Grant eligible program of study, or a program of study that has been determined by a state to satisfy the requirements for certification or licensure to teach in the state's elementary or secondary schools. 
You are receiving state-required instruction or otherwise fulfilling requirements for licensure to teach in a state's elementary or secondary schools. 
You have a condition that is a qualifying reason for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
You are called or ordered to federal or state active duty, or active service as a member of a reserve component of the Armed Forces named in 10 U.S.C. 10101, or service as a member of the National Guard on full-time National Guard duty, as defined in 10 U.S.C. 101(d)(5). 
Your spouse has received military orders for a deployment with a military unit or as an individual in support of a military operation for a period of not less than 180 days or has received military orders for a change of permanent duty station from a location in the continental United States to a location outside the continental United States, or from a location in a state to any location outside of that state.
You reside in or are employed in a federally-declared major disaster area.

TEACH Grant service obligation suspension forms are available in the Forms Library.

On a case-by-case basis, we may also temporarily suspend the eight-year period for completing your service obligation if we determine that you were unable to complete a full school year of teaching or were unable to begin the next school year of teaching due to exceptional circumstances significantly affecting the operation of the low-income school where you were employed or your ability to teach.

The conditions above are the only conditions under which you may receive a suspension of the eight-year period for completing your service obligation.

If you qualify for a suspension of the eight-year period for completing your service obligation, you may receive a suspension for periods of one year at a time. However, there are limits on the maximum period of time that you can receive a suspension of your service obligation period for the various qualifying suspension conditions, as shown below. 

Suspension Type(s)	Maximum Suspension Period
Qualifying program suspension, State-required instruction suspension, or FMLA suspension	Three years  (combined limit for all three suspension types)
Military service suspension	Three years
Military spouse suspension	Three years
Disaster area suspension	Three years

Your TEACH Grant service obligation may be canceled (discharged) if you die or if you become totally and permanently disabled.

You may also receive a discharge of some or all of your four-year teaching requirement if you have received the maximum three-year suspension of the period for completing your service obligation based on qualifying military service and you are subject to an extended call or order to active military status that exceeds three years.

How to Document Your Qualifying Teaching Service

After you have completed each one of your four years of required teaching, you must provide documentation of that teaching service.

You can submit and manage TEACH Grant certification forms online.

You also can mail or fax paper certification forms to:

Federal Student Aid Programs - TEACH
P.O. Box 300010
Greenville, TX 75403
Fax: 540-212-2415

This form must be certified by the chief administrative officer (CAO) of the school or educational service agency (ESA) where you taught and must confirm for each school year:

You taught in a low-income school or ESA.
You met all state certification requirements for teaching.
More than half of the classes that you taught during the school year being certified were in a high-need field.

Option to Convert Your Grants to Loans

If at any time you determine you won't fulfill your service obligation (because you have decided not to teach, or you have decided not to teach at a low-income school or in a high-need field, or for any other reason), you may contact us and request the grant be converted to a Direct Unsubsidized Loan.

If you aren't planning to complete your service obligation (teaching service), it is best to convert your grants into loans and repay them as soon as possible to avoid accruing excessive interest. Interest will accrue from the date of each TEACH Grant disbursement.

FAQs About Documenting Your TEACH Service

What if a school I’m teaching at is no longer listed in the TCLI Directory?

What if my school is not in the TCLI Directory, but I think it should be?

TEACH Grant Certification Questions

If you have questions about your TEACH Grant certification, contact Loan Discharge and Forgiveness Customer Support at 1-888-303-7817 during the following times:

Monday: 8 a.m.–9 p.m. Eastern time (ET)
Tuesday–Wednesday: 8 a.m.–8 p.m. ET
Thursday–Friday: 8 a.m.–6 p.m. ET

Closed on Saturdays, Sundays, and all federal holidays.