The Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant Program provides grants of up to $4,000 per year to undergraduate and graduate students who intend to teach full-time in high-need subject areas at a public or private elementary or secondary school that serves students from low-income families. Students may receive up to $16,000 for undergraduate study and up to $8,000 for graduate study.
All TEACH Grant recipients must receive initial and subsequent entrance counseling prior to receiving grant funds from their school. All counseling must be conducted in person, by audio visual presentation, or by interactive electronic means. You can fulfill your entrance counseling requirement by completing the following interactive online process:
To begin your online TEACH Grant entrance counseling session you must first identify the State University of New York state-operated campus that you will be attending for the 2008-09 award year.
Please select the SUNY campus that you will be attending from the drop down box below:
If your campus is not listed as a participating campus, please exit and contact that campus directly.
Please confirm your identity by providing the following personal information:
Parents: Please do not complete the counseling session on behalf of your son or daughter, as this federal requirement helps the student understand his or her terms, conditions, rights and responsibilities under the TEACH Grant program.
By checking this box, I certify that I have read, understand and accept the above electronic entrance counseling conditions.
For each year that you receive a TEACH Grant, you must sign a legally binding Agreement to Serve. You can electronically access the Agreement to Serve at Federal Student Aid - ATS Home. The TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve specifies the conditions under which the grant will be awarded, the teaching service requirements, and includes an acknowledgment by you that you understand that if you do not meet the teaching service requirements, you must repay the grant as a Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan, with interest accruing from the date the grant funds were disbursed. Specifically, the TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve will require the following:
You must perform the teaching service as a highly-qualified teacher, which is defined in federal law. The definition can be found online at http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/pg107.html.
Schools serving low-income students include any elementary or secondary schools that are listed in the Department of Education’s Annual Directory of Designated Low-Income Schools for Teacher Cancellation Benefits. To access the Directory, please go to https://www.tcli.ed.gov/CBSWebApp/tcli/TCLIPubSchoolSearch.jsp.
IMPORTANT REMINDER If you receive a TEACH Grant but fail to complete the required teaching service, as explained above, you will be required to repay the full amount of each grant as a Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loan, with interest accruing from the date of each TEACH Grant disbursement.
By checking this box, I confirm that I have read, understand and accept the above listed terms and conditions of the TEACH Grant that I am about to receive.
For each TEACH Grant-eligible program for which you received TEACH Grant funds, you must serve as a full-time teacher for a total of at least four academic years within eight calendar years after you complete or withdraw from the academic program for which you received the TEACH Grant.
A grant recipient must apply for a suspension in writing, on a form approved by the Secretary of the Department of Education, prior to being subject to any of the conditions that would cause the TEACH Grant to convert to a Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan. Suspensions are granted to eligible individuals in one year increments for a maximum combined total of 3 years. A military suspension ends upon the completion of the military service.
If the Department discharges your service obligation under one of these two conditions, your TEACH Grant(s) will not be converted to a Direct Unsubsidized Loan, and neither you nor your family will be required to repay any TEACH Grant funds that you received.
If you ask your institution to cancel a TEACH Grant outside the timeframe described above, but within 120 days of the TEACH Grant disbursement date, the institution may return the TEACH Grant funds to the Department, but is not required to do so. However, you may at any time request that the Department convert a TEACH Grant to a Direct Unsubsidized Loan that you can then repay.
If you violate your eight-year service obligation, your grant will convert to an interest bearing unsubsidized loan. TEACH Grants converted to a loan due to service obligation violation, cannot be converted back to a grant.
You may seek to appeal a grant you believe to be wrongly converted to a loan by contacting the Department of Education’s Student Loan Ombudsman’s office at http://ombudsman.ed.gov or by phone at (877) 557-2575.
By checking this box, I confirm that I have read, understand and accept the above listed eight year service obligation facts for the TEACH Grant that I am about to receive.
If the TEACH Grant that you receive is converted to a Direct Unsubsidized Loan, you are responsible for repaying the full amount of the TEACH Grant, with interest. Interest will be charged from the date of each TEACH Grant disbursement. If a TEACH Grant is converted to a Direct Unsubsidized Loan, you will receive a six-month grace period on repayment. You do not have to make loan payments during the grace period, but interest will continue to accrue. The repayment period on the loan begins on the day after the end of the six-month grace period.
At the time a TEACH Grant is converted to a loan, you will be given the opportunity to pay the interest that has accrued. If you do not pay the accrued interest, it will be added to the loan principal balance when the loan enters repayment after the six-month grace period. This is called "capitalization." Capitalization increases the unpaid principal balance of your loan, and interest will be charged on the increased principal balance.
The interest rate on a Direct Unsubsidized Loan is a fixed rate of 6.8%. Interest is charged on a TEACH Grant that is converted to a Direct Unsubsidized Loan during all periods, including deferment and forbearance periods. The maximum repayment period is 10 years. The minimum monthly payment is $50.
If you receive a TEACH Grant but fail to complete the required teaching service, as explained throughout this entrance interview, you will be required to repay the full amount of each grant as a Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loan, with interest accruing from the date of each TEACH Grant disbursement.
The following chart calculates your monthly payment obligation on a Direct Unsubsidized Loan. We have provided examples both with and without accrued interest. The examples without accrued interest added to the loan amount assume you exercised your option to pay the accrued interest in full prior to the Direct Unsubsidized Loan going into repayment. The accrued interest examples all assume a 10 year accrual period from initial date of grant disbursement. The monthly payments in the examples provided are calculated at a fixed interest rate of 6.8% over a 10 year repayment period.
Please refer to the following loan repayment calculation website to estimate your monthly loan repayment obligation. http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/DirectLoan/RepayCalc/dlentry1.html
By checking this box, I confirm that I have read, understand and accept all of the TEACH Grant Terms and conditions as explained during this online entrance counseling session. I understand that I have specific rights and responsibilities when I receive a TEACH Grant and that if the grant is converted to a student loan, I must repay it.
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