Illinois Special Education Teacher Tuition Waiver (SETTW) Program

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Program Description
Eligibility
How to Apply (and Obtaining the Application)
     Application Priority Consideration Date: March 1
Details
Processing Updates
Eligible Public Four-year Institutions in Illinois

If you are a teacher or an academically talented student pursuing a career in special education as a public, private or parochial preschool, elementary or secondary school teacher in Illinois, you may be eligible for the Illinois Special Education Teacher Tuition Waiver Program. This program will exempt you from paying tuition and mandatory fees at an eligible institution, for up to four calendar years.

By receiving the tuition waiver, you must teach in Illinois in the field of special education. If this teaching commitment is not fulfilled, the amount of benefits received converts to a loan, and you must repay the entire amount plus interest.

Eligibility

To be eligible, you must:

• Be a U.S. citizen or an eligible non-citizen
• Be an Illinois resident
• Meet one of the following conditions: you graduated (or are scheduled to graduate) from an approved high school in the academic year in which the award is made and you performed in the upper half of your graduating class according to performance-based academic data provided by the high school; or you graduated from an approved high school prior to the academic year in which the award is made and you do not hold a valid teaching certificate; or you hold a valid teaching certificate that is not in the discipline of special education
• Be enrolled, or accepted for enrollment, at one of the eligible public four-year colleges in Illinois (providing the institution offers a concentration in Special Education) as an undergraduate or graduate student seeking initial certification in any area of special education
• Be enrolled in a program of special education within 10 days after the beginning of the term for which the waiver was initially awarded
• Not at any time have received cumulative Illinois Special Education Teacher Tuition Waiver benefits that equal or exceed the program maximum of four academic years
• Maintain satisfactory academic progress as determined by your college
• Remain in attendance at the college on a continuous basis for up to four years (unless granted an approved leave of absence)
• Not be in default on any student loan, nor owe a refund on any state or federal grant
• Comply with federal Selective Service registration requirements
• Not receive funds from the Illinois Future Teacher Corps (IFTC) or Minority Teachers of Illinois (MTI) Scholarship programs during the same term(s) for which you receive funds from the Illinois SETTW Program.

In addition to eligibility requirements, applicants should also be aware of the rights and responsibilities for program recipients. 

How to Apply

To apply, you must obtain an Illinois Special Education Teacher Tuition Waiver Application by clicking here, or by requesting it from ISAC, eligible institutions or offices of Regional Superintendents of Education in Illinois, or state legislative and federal congressional offices. Submit your complete application to ISAC's Deerfield office postmarked on or before March 1 immediately preceding the initial academic year for which you are requesting the tuition waiver, in order to receive priority consideration. Applications postmarked after that date will be given consideration for the award if, after the initial round of awarding, funding all 250 available tuition waivers have not been awarded. Once you're eligible for the program, you do not need to reapply for consideration for additional years. If you are eligible for the Illinois Special Education Teacher Tuition Waiver, you will receive a notice of eligibility by July 1.

When a new Illinois SETTW recipient is named, the college must provide ISAC with verification of the student's enrollment and program eligibility. The college is also asked to verify the recipient's enrollment and continued eligibility status for each academic year that the tuition waiver is renewed.

Details

• ISAC annually awards 250 tuition waivers.
  • A maximum of 40 tuition waivers is awarded to qualified applicants who hold valid teaching certificates that are not in the discipline of special education. If more than 40 applicants qualify under these provisions, a lottery is used to select 40 recipients.
  • A maximum of 105 tuition waivers is awarded to qualified applicants who have graduated from an approved high school prior to the academic year in which the award is made. If more than 105 applicants qualify under these provisions, a lottery is used to select 105 recipients.
  • A minimum of 105 tuition waivers is awarded to qualified applicants scheduled to graduate from an approved high school in the academic year in which the award is made and who perform in the upper half of their class according to performance-based academic data provided by the high school at the end of the sixth semester. Recipients for this group are selected from among qualified applicants based on the highest ACT or SAT test scores from the appropriate time period. Any of the 145 tuition waivers not awarded under the provisions outlined in the two preceding bullets are awarded to this group. If the number of applicants who qualify under these provisions is greater than the available number of tuition waivers to be awarded, a lottery is used to select the appropriate number of recipients.

Processing Updates

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 2008-09 Academic Year (last updated on
April 11, 2008)

The priority application consideration date for the 2008-09 academic year was March 1, 2008. All 2008-09 tuition waivers have been awarded, with priority consideration given to those complete applications postmarked on or before March 1, 2008.

Award notifications and 2008-09 Illinois Special Education Teacher Tuition Waiver (SETTW) Rights and Responsibilities documents were sent to 250 eligible applicants on April 10, 2008. ISAC will notify all other qualified applicants that they were not selected the week of April 14, 2008.

The process from this point forward for all complete applications is as follows:

• ISAC obtains verification of enrollment and program eligibility from the college of each qualified applicant selected to receive a tuition waiver. In addition, the qualified applicant is responsible for providing a copy of the Notice of Eligibility to the college.
• Additional 2008-09 recipients will only be chosen if students decline the award or are determined ineligible through the college certification process. Should this occur, ISAC will select recipients from the existing qualified pool of applicants who were not previously awarded.

Eligible Public Four-year Institutions in Illinois
(providing the institution offers a concentration in special education)

001694 Chicago State University
001674 Eastern Illinois University
009145 Governors State University
001692 Illinois State University
001693 Northeastern Illinois University
001737 Northern Illinois University
001758 Southern Illinois University – Carbondale
001759 Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville
001776 University of Illinois – Chicago
009333 University of Illinois – Springfield
001775 University of Illinois – Urbana
001780 Western Illinois University

ISAC offers three programs designed specifically for individuals studying to become teachers: the Illinois SETTW Program, the Illinois Future Teacher Corps (IFTC) Program, and the Minority Teachers of Illinois (MTI) Scholarship Program. A comparison chart provides a side-by-side view of the IFTC, MTI Scholarship, and Illinois SETTW programs.