Illinois Teachers and Child Care Providers Loan Repayment Program

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Program Description
Eligibility
How to Apply (and Obtaining the Application)
Processing Updates

The Illinois Teachers and Child Care Providers Loan Repayment Program provides awards to encourage academically talented Illinois students to teach in Illinois schools in low-income areas and to enter the early child care profession and serve in low-income areas in Illinois.  If these obligations are met by a Federal Stafford loan borrower who has qualified for the federal government’s loan forgiveness programs, Illinois may provide an additional matching award of up to $5000 to the qualifying teacher to repay their student loan debt.

Eligibility

To be eligible, you must:

• Be a U.S. citizen or an eligible non-citizen
• Be an Illinois resident
• Be a borrower who has had an amount of your educational loans forgiven under the federal government’s loan forgiveness programs *
• Have fulfilled your five-year teaching obligation in an Illinois elementary or secondary school designated as a low-income school or have worked full time for 2 consecutive years in a child care facility that serves a low-income area in Illinois.

*  Note that the federal Child Care Provider Loan Forgiveness Program is a demonstration program for which no additional funding has been provided. Consequently, the federal government is not accepting new applicants. Further details are provided within the "Child Care Provider Loan Forgiveness Program" section of the Discharge/Cancellation page at Student Aid on the Web.

How to Apply

To apply, you must obtain either an Illinois Teacher Loan Repayment Application or an Illinois Child Care Provider Loan Repayment Application. You must submit your application, along with the letter indicating you have been approved for the federal government’s loan forgiveness program, to ISAC’s Deerfield office as indicated on the application. The completed application (including all corresponding documentation) must be submitted to ISAC within six months of receiving loan forgiveness from the federal government. If funding in any given year is insufficient to pay all eligible applicants, funds will be awarded first come, first served, based on the receipt date of the application.

Note that ISAC routinely updates this section as new information becomes available. Be sure to check back periodically for the current processing status.

For the 2011-12 Academic Year
(last updated on September 12, 2011):

ISAC is currently accepting Illinois Teachers Loan Repayment Program applications for the 2011-12 academic year. There is currently a minimum 4-5 week turnaround from the date ISAC receives an application to when funds are disbursed for approved recipients. Depending on the volume of payment vouchers being processed by the State of Illinois Comptroller's Office, this timeframe may increase. 

Because applications are not being accepted for the federal Child Care Provider Loan Forgiveness Program (see Note under the "Eligibility" section, above), no Illinois Child Care Provider Loan Forgiveness Program awards can be made.

Click here to download the Illinois Teachers Loan Repayment Program application.