The College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 led Congress to make the Teach Education Assistance for College and Higher Education Grant Program (TEACH), providing potential future teachers with $4,000 each year in grants in order to pay for their education, particularly if they come from a family with not much income. Wen you want to find out more about the TEACH Grant Program, you just have to check out your college's financial aid office, as they can help you get started on your journey.
When you get a TEACH Grant, it is with the proviso that you have to start work as a full-time teacher, educating low income students at a public or private secondary school or elementary. After your TEACH Grant is awarded, you have to teach around four years in the next eight years after you finish your degree that you got through the TEACH Grant. You have to keep in mind that, if you do not get this service obligation met within the allotted time, it will switch to a federal unsubsidized Stafford loan. You will then have to repay your grant to the Department of Education. You will also have to pay the back interest from the disbursement date.
If you want to get a TEACH Grant, you have to qualify on the following grounds:
- Fill out your FAFSA form, though you do not require it in order to prove your financial need.
- Have a status as a US citizen.
- Enroll yourself in any part of the higher education process, given that you have an appropriate school that works with the TEACH program.
- Take a course of study that will lead you to the classes needed to have a teaching career. Provided your preferred field of teaching, you have to take courses that will facilitate your ability to educate there.
- Maintain a GPA of 3.25 or higher, or otherwise meet the requirements that are given to you by the school in order to keep in good standing.
- Get your TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve signed.
You can get TEACH Grants in such high need fields as English Language Acquisition, Foreign Language, Reading Specialist, Science, Special Education, Bilingual Education, Mathematics, and many more fields of study that have shortages of qualified teachers in the nation when you get the grant.
If you are working in a low income school, you will know if it is listen in the Annual Directory of Designated Low-Income Schools for Teacher Cancellation Benefits created by the Department of Education. The tcll.ed.gov Website is a great place to find this Directory.
You have to sign your TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve each year that you get the grant; you can use the Department of Education Website to find this agreement each time. In the TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve, you can find the conditions that you have to meet in order to get the grant, as well as what you need to qualify for teaching service; this can include saying that you recognize that you consent to having the TEACH Grant switched to an unsubsidized federal loan in the event that you do not get a teaching job in the right time period.
