Teacher Loan Forgiveness: Eligibility and How It Differs From PSLF

What Teacher Loan Forgiveness pays

Teacher Loan Forgiveness cancels part of your federal student loan balance after five complete and consecutive academic years of full-time teaching. At least one of those years must fall after the 1997-98 academic year. The program pays up to $17,500 for highly qualified math, science, or special education teachers working at the secondary level, and up to $5,000 for other qualifying full-time teachers at eligible elementary or secondary schools, according to MOHELA, a federal loan servicer .

Only Direct Loans and Federal Stafford Loans under the FFEL Program qualify. Parent PLUS and Grad PLUS loans do not count toward this benefit. You also cannot have had an outstanding balance on these loans as of October 1, 1998, though that rule affects almost no current teachers given how long ago that date was.

Which schools qualify

Your teaching position has to meet all three conditions at once.

• The school sits in a school district that qualifies for Title I funds.

• More than 30% of enrolled students qualify for Title I services.

• The school appears in the Department of Education's Annual Directory of Designated Low-Income Schools, or it is operated by the Bureau of Indian Education.

You can check whether your school qualifies in a given year using the low-income school directory search on studentaid.gov . A school that qualifies one year can drop off the list later, but once you start your five-year clock at a qualifying school, later changes to that school's status do not disqualify you.

Special exception

Teachers in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands whose service was interrupted by Hurricanes Maria or Irma between September 2017 and September 2018 can have that one-year gap waived from the consecutive service requirement.

Why you cannot combine it with PSLF

Public Service Loan Forgiveness cancels your remaining balance after 120 qualifying monthly payments while working for a government or nonprofit employer, including most public schools. Teacher Loan Forgiveness cancels a lump sum after five years of service instead of counting payments.

Federal rules do not let you apply the same five years of teaching to both programs. If you use a period of service to qualify for Teacher Loan Forgiveness, none of the payments you made during those five years count toward your 120 PSLF payments, according to guidance summarized by the National Education Association . You have to pick a lane for any given stretch of your career.

In practice, most teachers choose one path early. If you plan to teach for a full career at a qualifying employer, PSLF usually forgives more since it wipes out your entire remaining balance rather than a capped amount. If you expect to leave teaching or move to a school outside the PSLF employer list within five to ten years, Teacher Loan Forgiveness gives you a guaranteed payout sooner.

A bill introduced in Congress in 2026, the Teacher Debt Relief Act, would let teachers count the same years of service toward both programs. It has not passed and is not current law, so plan around the existing rule until that changes.

How to apply

You cannot apply until you finish your five years of qualifying service. At that point, download the Teacher Loan Forgiveness application from studentaid.gov , have the chief administrative officer at each qualifying school certify your employment dates, and submit it to your loan servicer. Keep your own records of your start and end dates at each school in case a school closes or a principal who could certify your service leaves before you apply.