SETTW Eligibility Requirements

To qualify for an Illinois Special Education Teacher Tuition Waiver, all applicants must:

• be a U.S. citizen or an eligible non-citizen;
• be a resident of Illinois;
• meet one of the following conditions: graduated (or are scheduled to graduate) from an approved high school in the academic year in which the award is made and performing in the upper half of the graduating class according to performance-based academic data provided by the high school; or graduated from an approved high school prior to the academic year in which the award is made and do not hold a valid teaching certificate; or 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 an 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;
• meet satisfactory academic progress criteria established by the eligible postsecondary institution;
• remain in attendance at the school on a continuous basis for up to four years (unless granted an approved leave of absence);
• not be in default on any federal student loan nor owe a refund or repayment on any state or federal grant or scholarship;
• comply with federal Selective Service registration requirements; and
• not be a prior recipient of this waiver or be awarded a Minority Teachers of Illinois (MTI) Scholarship or an Illinois Future Teacher Corps (IFTC) Scholarship for the same academic year.

Applicants who will graduate from high school during the 2007-08 academic year must:

• be a graduate of an approved high school or be scheduled to graduate from an high school by the end of the term in which the award is made, and
• have ranked in the top 50% of their Illinois high school graduating class (for students who have not yet graduated from high school, rank in the top 50% at the end of the sixth semester); and
• have taken the ACT or SAT I college entrance examination.

Note:  Students who are General Educational Development (GED) Certificate recipients are not eligible for this waiver