Teacher Loan Forgiveness for Private and Charter School Teachers

Teacher Loan Forgiveness is the U.S. Department of Education's forgiveness program for teachers, written into the federal loan regulations at 34 CFR 685.217.

It forgives up to a combined total of $5,000 on eligible Direct Loan and FFEL Program loans after five consecutive complete academic years of full-time teaching at an eligible low-income school or educational service agency.

The combined total rises to $17,500 for highly qualified secondary math and science teachers and for special education teachers, over the same five years of service.

Three questions decide a claim: the school's status, the years of service, and the teacher's certification standing.

• The school test: the school must be an eligible school as the regulation defines it — public or nonprofit private — and must be listed in the Department's annual low-income directory, the Teacher Cancellation Low Income (TCLI) Directory.
• The service test: five consecutive complete academic years of full-time teaching at an eligible low-income school or educational service agency.
• The certification test: Federal Student Aid's "highly qualified" standard for Teacher Loan Forgiveness; the certification section below covers the routes.

Federal Student Aid publishes the current requirements on its Teacher Loan Forgiveness page.

Nonprofit private schools are not excluded from Teacher Loan Forgiveness by definition.

The regulation defines an eligible elementary or secondary school as a public or nonprofit private school, so a for-profit school is out while a nonprofit private school can be in.

Definition is only the first gate.

The school must also be listed in the Department's annual low-income directory, the TCLI Directory.

State education agencies decide which schools are reported for inclusion in that directory.

Which private schools make the list in practice is not something our research confirmed, because the directory is built from state-by-state submissions.

Check the current TCLI Directory for your school, and ask your state education agency if the listing is unclear.

Certification adds a second private-school wrinkle: the regulation gives teachers at private nonprofit schools who are exempt from state certification their own route to qualifying, built on subject competency tests and covered in the certification section below.

If you are weighing a move into private schools, our private school teacher career guide covers what the job involves and how these schools hire.

Charter teachers appear in Federal Student Aid's published guidance by name: it addresses the teacher at a public charter school directly.

The school-side gate is the same one every school faces: the eligible-school definition covers public and nonprofit private schools, and the school must be listed in the TCLI Directory.

Two checks follow for a charter teacher: the school's TCLI listing, and the certification standard in the state's charter law.

Certification is where charters differ.

That guidance states that a teacher at a public charter school is considered to have received full state certification when they meet the requirements of the state's public charter school law.

That points the certification question at the state's own charter law: whatever that law requires of charter teachers is what Federal Student Aid reads as full certification.

Charters also show up on the PSLF side of the comparison: public charter schools that are government entities can qualify as PSLF employers, as can 501(c)(3) nonprofit private or charter schools.

Teacher Loan Forgiveness looks for a "highly qualified" teacher, and the $17,500 amounts are further limited to secondary math and science and special education teachers.

Federal Student Aid sets the highly qualified standard: at least a bachelor's degree, plus full state certification as a teacher that is not waived on an emergency, temporary or provisional basis.

Charter teachers get an explicit reading of that requirement: meeting the requirements of the state's public charter school law counts as full state certification.

Private school teachers who are exempt from state certification have their own route, in the regulation at 34 CFR 685.217(c)(7).

A teacher at a private nonprofit elementary or secondary school who is exempt from state certification requirements, unless state law says otherwise, may qualify by passing subject competency tests recognized by five or more states, at or above those states' average passing score.

What a state requires of the teachers at each kind of private school is state law, so the input to this test differs by state and by school category.

PSLF and Teacher Loan Forgiveness are separate programs with different tests, and the same teaching service cannot count toward both.

PSLF is employer-based.

Its qualifying employers under 34 CFR 685.219 include federal, state, local and Tribal government organizations and 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations; for-profit organizations, including for-profit contracted organizations, do not qualify.

For a private school teacher, that makes the school's legal form the PSLF question: a 501(c)(3) nonprofit school can qualify as an employer, while a for-profit school does not.

Teacher Loan Forgiveness is school- and role-based instead, with fixed caps: five consecutive academic years of service, then a combined total of $5,000 or $17,500 depending on the role.

PSLF works on a different clock: it requires the equivalent of 120 qualifying monthly payments while employed full time by a qualifying employer, and you must still work for a qualifying employer when you apply.

Which program fits depends on the school, the employer's status, the subject taught and the loan balance, and borrowers cannot double-count: the regulation bars Teacher Loan Forgiveness and PSLF credit for the same period of teaching service.

Confirm your employer's status with Federal Student Aid before relying on either program; its PSLF page sets out the employer test.

Federal Student Aid's Teacher Loan Forgiveness page is where the current requirements live, but everything that decides an application happens at the school and in the state first.

A related federal program works in the other direction.

The TEACH Grant pays up to $4,000 a year while you are still preparing to teach, in exchange for four years of full-time teaching in a high-need field at a low-income school or educational service agency within eight years.

An unmet obligation converts the grants to Direct Unsubsidized Loans with interest, which is the program's risk side.

Its rules use the same TCLI Directory standard for low-income schools, and count nonprofit day or residential schools, including public elementary charter schools, as elementary schools.

Career information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Forgiveness rules change; confirm the current Teacher Loan Forgiveness, PSLF and TEACH Grant requirements with Federal Student Aid before you make decisions about your loans.