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(Grants) Subject: 2019 TEACH Grant Program Changes – Standardized Annual Certification Date and Reconsideration Process

Posted Date:December 10, 2018

Author: Federal Student Aid

Subject: 2019 TEACH Grant Program Changes – Standardized Annual Certification Date and Reconsideration Process

We are pleased to announce two changes to the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant Program that will begin in 2019.

  • Standardized Annual Certification Date – We have adopted a standardized annual certification date for all TEACH Grant recipients. This change simplifies the annual certification requirement by having only one certification date—Oct. 31—for all TEACH Grant recipients.

    See below for additional information about the new annual certification date.

  • Reconsideration Process – We are finalizing a process for certain TEACH Grant recipients whose TEACH Grants were converted to Direct Unsubsidized Loans to request reconsideration of the conversions. Recipients will be able to request a reconsideration if they met or are meeting the TEACH Grant service requirements within the eight-year service obligation period, but had their grants converted to loans because they did not comply with the annual certification requirement. By Jan. 31, 2019, we plan to complete our process work and provide instructions on how TEACH Grant recipients may apply for reconsideration of their converted TEACH Grants.

    For updates on the reconsideration process, monitor StudentAid.gov/teach-reconsideration.

Oct. 31 Annual Certification Date for All TEACH Grant Recipients

The TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve requires TEACH Grant recipients to annually provide (1) documentation showing that they have completed a full school year of qualifying teaching service, or (2) a certification that they intend to satisfy the terms and conditions of their TEACH Grant service obligation. The documentation of teaching or certification of intent must be submitted to the Department’s TEACH Grant servicer, FedLoan Servicing, by an annual certification date. The new annual certification date for all TEACH Grant recipients is Oct. 31.

Note: This requirement for TEACH Grant recipients to annually provide documentation showing that they have completed a year of qualifying teaching service or to certify their intent to satisfy the TEACH Grant service obligation is separate from the initial 120-day certification requirement. The Oct. 31 annual deadline does not apply to the 120-day certification requirement.

The Department has adopted the standardized annual certification date for all current and future TEACH Grant recipients to make it easier for recipients to remember the annual certification. Before Nov. 1, 2018, the annual certification date was based on the date when a TEACH Grant recipient ceased to be enrolled (graduated or withdrew) from the school where the recipient received a TEACH Grant. Therefore, annual certification dates varied among TEACH Grant recipients.

The next deadline for all TEACH Grant recipients to submit documentation of completed teaching service or to certify intent to satisfy the service obligation is Oct. 31, 2019.

Starting in 2019, each year at the beginning of October, the TEACH Grant servicer, FedLoan Servicing, will notify all TEACH Grant recipients subject to the annual certification requirement and tell them how to submit their documentation of progress towards completing their TEACH Grant service obligation, or their certification of intent to satisfy the service obligation.

If a TEACH Grant recipient does not submit the documentation of progress or certification of intent by Oct. 31 and does not respond to reminder notices from FedLoan Servicing, all TEACH Grants that recipient received will be converted to Direct Unsubsidized Loans. The TEACH Grant recipient must then repay these loans to the Department, with interest charged from the date the TEACH Grants were disbursed. FedLoan Servicing will notify the TEACH Grant recipient if TEACH Grants are converted to Direct Unsubsidized Loans.

Additional information about the new TEACH Grant annual certification date is available on the TEACH Grant information page.

Contact Information

We appreciate the financial aid community’s support as we implement these two improvements for TEACH Grant recipients.

For questions that are not addressed on the TEACH Grant information page, contact the TEACH Grant servicer, FedLoan Servicing, at 1-800-699-2908 from 8 a.m.–9 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday.