SECTION 6: TEACH GRANT PROGRAM TERMS AND CONDITIONS
• In a high-need field (see Section 5) in more than half of the classes that you teach during each academic year.
• An academic year or its equivalent is one complete elementary or secondary school year, or two complete and consecutive half-years from different school
years (excluding summer sessions) that generally fall within a 12-month period. If a school or educational service agency has a year-round program of
instruction, a minimum of nine months is considered to be the equivalent of an academic year.
• An authorized official who may complete Section 3 is an official of the school at which you are/were enrolled in a TEACH Grant-eligible program.
• The Chief Administrative Officer for a school or educational service agency is the individual who has access to the employment records which establish that the
grant recipient’s teaching service met the requirements of the TEACH Grant Program, as explained in Section 6, and who is authorized to verify the grant
recipient’s qualifying teaching service. The Chief Administrative Officer may vary depending on the teacher’s employer, and could include (but is not limited to)
the principal or assistant principal of the school where the grant recipient taught, the superintendent, assistant superintendent, or human resources director for
a school district or educational service agency, or the chief executive officer of an educational services agency.
• An eligible program of study is one that is TEACH Grant-eligible and is designed to prepare an individual to teach as a highly-qualified teacher in a high- need
field and leads to a baccalaureate or master’s degree, or is a post-baccalaureate program of study. A two-year program of study that is acceptable for full credit
toward a baccalaureate degree is considered to be a program of study that leads to a baccalaureate degree. An eligible program of study is also a program of
study that has been determined by a state to satisfy the requirements for certification or licensure to teach in the state’s elementary or secondary schools.
• A high-need field includes the following: (1) bilingual education and English language acquisition; (2) foreign language; (3) mathematics; (4) reading specialist;
(5) science; (6) special education; and (7) any other field listed in the U.S. Department of education's (the Department's) annual Teacher Shortage Area
Nationwide Listing (Nationwide List).
• Special education means specially designed instruction, at no cost to parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability, including instruction
conducted in the classroom, in the home, in hospitals and institutions, and in other settings; and instruction in physical education, i.e., physical therapy. A child
with a disability is a child who needs special education and related services because the child has mental retardation, a hearing impairment (including
deafness), a speech or language impairment, a visual impairment (including blindness), a serious emotional disturbance, an orthopedic impairment, autism, a
traumatic brain injury, another health impairment, or a specific learning disability. For a child age 3 through 9, the term a child with a disability may, at the
discretion of the state and the local educational agency, include a child who needs special education and related services because the child is experiencing
developmental delays, as defined by the state and as measured by appropriate diagnostic instruments and procedures, in one or more of the following areas:
physical development, cognitive development, communication development, social or emotional development, or adaptive development.
• A post-baccalaureate program of study is a program of instruction for individuals who have completed a baccalaureate degree that, (1) does not lead to a
graduate degree ; (2) consists of courses required by a State in order for a student to receive a professional certification or licensing credential that is required
for employment as a teacher in an elementary school or secondary school in that State, except that it does not include any program of instruction offered by a
TEACH Grant-eligible institution that offers a baccalaureate degree in education; and (3) is treated as an undergraduate program of study for the purposes of
title IV of the Higher Education Act.
• A school or educational service agency serving low-income students (low-income school or low-income educational service agency) is an elementary
or secondary school or educational service agency that: (1) is in the school district of a local educational agency that is eligible for assistance under title I of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act; (2) has been determined by the Department to be a school in which more than 30 percent of the school’s total
enrollment is made up of children who qualify for services provided under title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; and (3) is listed in the
Department’s Annual Directory of Designated Low-Income Schools for Teacher Cancellation Benefits. All elementary and secondary schools operated by the
U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) or operated on Indian reservations by Indian tribal groups under contract or grant with the
BIE qualify as low-income schools. If the school or educational service agency where you teach meets the low-income requirements during all or a part of a
school year of my required four school years of teaching, but does not meet those requirements in subsequent school years, those subsequent years of
teaching at that school or educational service agency will still qualify for purposes of satisfying my TEACH Grant service obligation.
• An elementary school is a nonprofit institutional day or residential school, including a public elementary charter school, that provides elementary
education as defined under State law.
• A secondary school is a nonprofit institutional day or residential school, including a public secondary charter school, that provides secondary
education, as determined under State law, except that the term does not include any education beyond grade 12.
• The Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant Program provides funds to students who are completing or who
plan to complete coursework that is required to begin a career in teaching.
• A teacher is a person who provides direct classroom teaching or classroom-type teaching in a non-classroom setting, including special education teachers and
reading specialists. School librarians, guidance counselors, and other administrative staff are not considered teachers for the purposes of fulfilling the TEACH
Grant service obligation.
• A full time teacher is a teacher who meets the standard used by a State in defining full-time employment as a teacher. For an individual teaching at
more than one school or educational service agency, the determination of full-time is based on the combination of all qualifying employment.
• The highly-qualified teacher requirements are specified in section 9101(23) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended,or,
for special education teachers, in section 602910) of the individuals with Disabilities Act.
• For each academic program for which you receive TEACH Grant funds, you must complete a service obligation by teaching full time for a total of at least four
academic years:
• As a highly-qualified teacher (see Section 5);
• At a school or educational service agency serving low-income students (see Section 5); and
• You must complete the required four years of teaching within eight years after you complete or otherwise cease to be enrolled in the program for which you
received the TEACH Grant.
SECTION 5: DEFINITIONS
• Bilingual education is an educational program in which two languages are used to provide content matter instruction. English language acquisition is the
process of acquiring English as a second language.
• An educational service agency is a regional public multiservice agency authorized by State statute to develop, manage and provide services or programs to
local educational agencies, as defined in section 9101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 as amended.
