20 U.S.C. § 1087j — Loan cancellation for teachers

(a) Statement of purpose. This section is meant to encourage people to enter and remain in teaching. (b) Program authorized. The Secretary must run a program canceling, under subsection (c), a qualified amount owed on a Federal Direct Stafford Loan or Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loan made under this part to a new borrower on or after October 1, 1998, who (1) worked full time as a teacher for five consecutive complete school years (A) at a school or location qualifying under section 1087ee(a)(2)(A) for Perkins-loan cancellation; and (B), if an elementary or secondary teacher, is “highly qualified” as defined in section 9101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 [20 U.S.C. 7801], or satisfies subsection (g)(3); and (2) is not in default on the loan for which cancellation is sought. (c) Qualified loan amounts. (1) In general. After the fifth complete school year, the Secretary may cancel no more than $5,000 total of the outstanding loan obligation. A borrower cannot receive a reduction under both this section and section 1078–10. (2) Consolidation loans. A consolidation-loan amount qualifies only to the extent it repaid a Federal Direct Stafford Loan, Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loan, or a loan under section 1078 or 1078–8 for a borrower meeting subsection (b), as regulations specify. (3) Additional amounts. The total may be up to $17,500 for (A) a secondary teacher who meets subsection (b) and teaches mathematics or science full time; or (B) an elementary or secondary teacher who meets subsection (b), works as a special-education teacher whose main duty is educating children with disabilities (the section says those terms are defined in section 1401), and is certified by the school or educational-service-agency chief administrator as teaching children matching the teacher’s training and as knowing and teaching the curriculum content. (d) Regulations. The Secretary may issue needed regulations. (e) Construction. This section does not authorize refunding a canceled loan. (f) List. If the qualifying-school list is unavailable by May 1, the Secretary may use the preceding year’s list. (g) Additional eligibility provisions. (1) Continued eligibility. A teacher may keep teaching and remain eligible if the school qualified in any service year but later stops qualifying. (2) Prevention of double benefits. For the same voluntary service, a borrower cannot receive a benefit under this section and section 1078–11, section 1087e(m), or subtitle D of title I of the National and Community Service Act of 1990 [42 U.S.C. 12601 et seq.]. (3) Private school teachers. A private-school teacher exempt from State certification may use this rule instead of subsection (b)(1)(B) if the teacher is allowed to, and does, pass rigorous subject-knowledge and skills tests for the relevant grades and subjects. At least five States must recognize those tests for the highly-qualified-teacher requirement, and the teacher’s score on each must meet or exceed those States’ average passing score. (h) “Year” defined. Here, “year” of teaching service means an academic year as the Secretary defines it.