John R. Justice Student Loan Repayment Program

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Program Description
Eligibility
How to Apply (and Obtaining the Application)
How Funds are Awarded and Disbursed
Processing Updates

The John R. Justice Student Loan Repayment Program provides for the payment of eligible educational loans (both Federal Family Education Loan Program [FFELP] and Federal Direct Loans) for state and federal public defenders and state prosecutors who agree to remain employed as public defenders and prosecutors for at least three years. The annual awards to qualified defenders and prosecutors may be up to $4,000, up to an aggregate total of $60,000, to repay their student loan debt. Due to a significant reduction in funding ($198,510 for FY2012), 2011-12 awards will be less than $4,000 in order to serve as many recipients as possible.) If the employment commitment is not fulfilled, any amount received must be repaid. 

Eligibility

To be eligible, an individual must:

• be a U.S. citizen or an eligible non-citizen
• have an outstanding balance due on an eligible FFELP and Direct educational loan(s) (includes Federal Stafford loans, Graduate PLUS loans, and consolidation loans) and Federal Perkins loans
• be an attorney (or have accepted an employment offer) continually licensed to practice law, and
  • a full-time employee of the state of Illinois or unit of local government (including tribal government) who prosecutes criminal or juvenile delinquency cases at the state or unit of local government level, including supervision, education, or training of other persons prosecuting such cases. (Prosecutors who are employees of the federal government are not eligible.), or
  • a full-time employee of the state of Illinois or unit of local government (including tribal government) who provides legal representation to indigent persons in criminal or juvenile delinquency cases including supervision, education or training of other persons providing such representation, or
  • a full-time employee of an nonprofit organization operating under a contract with Illinois or unit of local government who devotes substantially all of the employee's full-time employment to providing legal representation to indigent persons in criminal or juvenile cases including supervision, education, or training of other persons providing such representation, or
  • employed in Illinois as a full-time federal defender attorney in a defender organization pursuant to Subsection (g) of section 3006A of Title 18, United States Code, that provides legal representation to indigent persons in criminal or juvenile delinquency cases.
• not be in default on an federal guaranteed educational loan, nor owe a refund on any scholarship or grant program administered by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC).

How to Apply

To apply for this program, the attorney must submit a complete John R. Justice Student Loan Repayment Program Application and a John R. Justice Student Loan Repayment Program Service Agreement to ISAC as soon as possible after it becomes available. The priority application consideration date for the 2011-12 John R. Justice Student Loan Repayment Program is Wednesday, November 30, 2011. For each subsequent year, a separate application must be completed; service agreements remain in effect for three years and need not be signed again until expired. Both the application and service agreement may be downloaded and printed from collegezone.com. The application and service agreement must be submitted to ISAC's Deerfield office as indicated on the application.

If the application and/or service agreement are incomplete, ISAC will notify the applicant who will have the opportunity to furnish missing information. The application will be considered for processing as of the date it is complete and all required information has been received at ISAC's Deerfield office.

How Funds are Awarded and Disbursed

Recipients are selected from among qualified new applicants, as well as those who file timely renewal applications by the priority application consideration date. The total amount of awards each year is contingent upon available funding. Applications received after the due date will only be considered if funding remains. First preference will be given to renewal applicants provided that the recipient continues to meet the eligibility requirements. Additionally, applicants not receiving benefits under another program that provides loan repayment assistance for the eligible loans covered by the Justice Program will receive priority consideration.

Allocation of program funds is equally distributed between prosecutors and public defenders. A formula that ranks each applicant according to ability to repay his/her student loans is used to distribute awards within each of five statewide appellate districts and a sixth category for statewide prosecutors (assistant attorneys general and assistant appellate prosecutors). The amount of the award is also determined by the formula.

The amount of funding for each of the five appellate districts is allocated according to the number of prosecutors and defenders in each district, based on the percentage of the state's total number of prosecutors and public defenders that are employed within each of the districts. Funding for the additional statewide prosecutor category is based on the percentage of the total number of prosecutors that are employed in a statewide capacity.     

The award amount is based on the applicant's remaining balance on eligible educational loans, not to exceed $4,000 per year (depending on available funds, the maximum award may be less than $4,000 in any given year). Proceeds will be remitted directly to the holder(s) of the loan(s) to be repaid in a one-time payment. Recipients must contact the loan holder(s) to arrange for payment to be applied to the loan(s). Responsibility for making the monthly loan payments and fulfilling the terms of the repayment agreement remains with the recipient.

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 2011-12 Academic Year
(last updated on October 12, 2011)

The 2011-12 John R. Justice Student Loan Repayment Program application is available to download and print via the Applications page of this website.

The priority application consideration date for the 2011-12 academic year is Wednesday, November 30, 2011.

Due to a significant reduction in funding, it is anticipated that 2011-12 awards will be limited to eligible renewal applicants, and that awards will be less than the program's annual maximum of $4,000. Recipients will be notified of the actual dollar amount when they receive confirmation of their award.

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