Overview
Full-time classroom teachers that have taught at low-income schools for five consecutive years may be eligible for reductions to their student loan balances through the federal Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program.
The California Department of Education (CDE) is responsible for compiling the annual list of California low-income schools that is provided to the Federal Student Aid Office for upload to the Teacher Cancellation Low Income (TCLI) Directory.
School Eligibility
The CDE uses student eligibility for Free and Reduced Price Meals (FRPM), part of the National School Lunch Program, as its measure of low income. Current year FRPM data is used to determine a school’s eligibility for the following school year.
For a school to be eligible, over 30 percent of its age 5 through 17 enrollment must be FRPM eligible, and the school must be part of a school district that is eligible to receive Title I funding. NOTE: Private non-profit schools or educational service agencies must also have at least 30 age 5 through 17 FRPM eligible pupils in lieu of Title I eligibility.
Private/Non-Private School Eligibility
This Private Non-Profit or Other Non-Public School Template serves as a CDE application for Private Non-profit, or Other Non-public School Types, to be designated as a low-income school that is eligible to participate in the Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program. This is used to determine their eligibility for inclusion on the federal low-income directory. This annual data is necessary for these types of schools to establish low-income status, since these data are not automatically collected by the CDE from these types of schools.
Search for the official name of a California school or school district in the CDE's California School Directory.
Student Loan Cancellation Application Process
Contact the student loan holder for specific questions regarding eligibility for teacher loan forgiveness. The CDE does not process teacher loan forgiveness applications.
For specific rules of the Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program, review the current Teacher Loan Forgiveness Application forms
(PDF).
After five consecutive years of full-time classroom teaching at a low-income school, or schools, the teacher can fill in the teacher portion of the application and give it to their school to complete the employment verification. If there was more than one low-income school in the five-year span, a separate application is required for each school. Once the school(s) return the application to the teacher, the application(s) is then forwarded to the teacher’s lending institution (i.e., loan servicer). The lending institution then proceeds with the review and approval process.
TCLI Directory Search
California's schools eligible for the Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program are listed in the federal online directory of eligible schools
for each school year beginning 1997–98. Search the directory to confirm whether a school is eligible for each year taught there.
Tips for searching the TCLI Directory are listed below:
- Either the school or the location field may be left blank.
- The location field is the school district’s name, not the city where the school is located.
- If a school cannot be found, confirm that the appropriate name is being used.
- Search using a brief form of the school’s name. The more generic name that is used either for the school’s name or location (school district) name, the greater the possibility of a successful search.
Additional search help is available on the TCLI Directory page: Federal Student Aid Contact Directory
.
Resources
Forgiveness, Cancellation, and Discharge
Teacher Loan Forgiveness and Cancellation
U.S. Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education--Teacher Shortage Areas