Certification
Florida Financial Aid Program
This year's legislative session appropriated no budge for the 2010-11 year for two programs that assisted employees in Florida publicly-funded schools with educational funding: the CTS Student Loan Forgiveness program and CTS Tuition Reimbursement program. The Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) will therefore not be providing awards to initial or renewing teachers for their CTS teaching service.
Listed below are additional financial assistance programs for teachers that may be of interest to teachers.
Loan Forgiveness
- The Florida Department of Education, OSFA continues to administer the Stafford Loan Forgiveness Program for Teachers to assist with educational funding which may provide up to $17,500 to teachers in principal and interest on Federal Family Education Loans and/or Direct Loans for teaching for five consecutive years in a designated low-income school. Contact OSFA Customer Service at OSFAStudentLoans@fldoe.org, call our toll-free number at 1-800-366-3475, or visit the Federal Student Aid website for qualifications and listing of eligible low-income schools.
- There is a new Federal loan forgiveness program for public service employees. Under this program, the amount forgiven is the remaining outstanding balance of principal and accrued interest on an eligible Direct Loan for a borrower who is not in default and who makes 120 monthly payments on the loan after October 1, 2007. The borrower must be employed full-time in a public service job during the same period in which the qualifying payments are made and at the time that the cancellation is granted. You may wish to visit the Federal Student Aid website for more information about Loan Forgiveness for Public Service Employees and a listing of eligible public service jobs.
Tuition Reimbursement
- Through the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007, Congress created the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher education (TEACH) Grant Program that provides grants of up to $4,000 per year to students who intend to teach in a public or private elementary or secondary school that serves students from low-income families. You may visit the Federal Student Aid website for additional information on this federal program and eligibility requirements prior to contacting the financial aid office at the college where you plan to attend.
Should you have questions regarding the unfunded Florida CTS programs, please contact Catherine Hall or call toll-free at 1-888-827-2004.