My daughter is going on her 3rd year at a local college here in Arizona (Maricopa county). She’s majoring in “bachelors of science in elementary education”. She’s been going to the same college for the past 2 years (going on her 3rd) and upon entering her freshman year, she applied and was approved for the TEACH Grant. She got her award letter (from the college she attending) granting the TEACH Grant for both her freshman and sophomore years of which she accepted. Going into her 3rd year and not hearing back regarding the grant for her junior year, she reached out to the college to see if she was approved. The college informed her the grant has not been awarded yet this year and she will have to pay back last years as her degree did not qualify for the grant.
This is causing stress due to her now having to pay not just for this years fee’s, but the college is now forcing her to payback the (almost) $4,000.00 from last year as well.
As a parent, I don’t understand how this can be legal. She has email’s from the school stating the grant was awarded for last year and now they are reversing it and forcing her to pay it within a year.
We talked with a manager at the schools Financial aid department and he confirmed my daughter is responsible for paying it back.
Is this common? Is there anything we can do to correct this? This is no fault of her own. She applied online through the fafsa.gov website and the school informed her she was approved.
“From internal reports, from the work that [NPR] did, it was abundantly clear to us that there was a problem with TEACH Grants,” says the Education Department’s Jones, who served in the same role in 2007, when the TEACH rules were first written. “We realized that there were certain things that seemed like a good idea when we wrote the [regulation], but they were just too cumbersome for students. And unfairly so.”
The number of teachers getting help is likely to rise. According to the department, since it rolled out its fix in January nearly 6,000 teachers have applied for relief. So far, nearly 2,300 have been approved for the fix and are getting their loans turned back into grants and fewer than 20 teachers have been denied. In short, the vast majority of teachers who apply for the fix are getting their grants back."
It appears Dept. of Education changed rules, or maybe the loan servicer is in error. Maybe Congressional Representative or U.S. Senator can help , look into the case.
It seems the Dept. Of Education has some rule changes - see https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/grants-scholarships/teach
See eligibility https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/grants-scholarships/teach#eligibility
Or contact state attorney general for help on lending laws and consumer rights https://www.azag.gov/consumer/debt-collections
I think that there is miscommunication and errors on both sides.
Many of the students I know who apply for teach grant usually apply during junior year, because it is only a 2-year grant and you have to be taking course work toward a teaching degree. I do not understand why your daughter applied for the grant as an incoming freshman.
If you daughter applied for an was given a grant freshman year, she most likely did not meet the requirements for the grant because she would be taking gen ed courses freshman and sophomore year. She will most likely have to repay the federal government because she did not meet the conditions of the grant.
The key is that the school has to certify the program as TEACH-Grant-eligible: “Additionally, even if a program meets the eligibility requirements to be a TEACH-Grant-eligible program, it may not be designated as TEACH-Grant-eligible by the school.” You can get the grant for all 4 years, if your school considers you to be in a qualifying program.
Your D needs to find out exactly what is going on. It’s weird that she would be told after the fact that her program didn’t qualify last year & that she now needs to repay the money. The school had all of her info last year, so they should have caught it then. It sounds like they never did catch it … they are telling her this based on the fact that she is now asking about the lack of a grant for this year. She should find the person who actually administers the grant & ask them about it.
For what it’s worth, we used to call them “Groans” when I worked at an undergrad school. Grant that too often becomes a loan. One of the requirements of the program is that the student has to sign a new agreement to serve every year … because it’s a really tricky grant-that-turns-into-an-unsubsidized-loan-if-you-don’t-do-everything-required. We encouraged our students to wait until junior year to apply for a TEACH grant, because too many students changed their minds about teaching before they got to that point. By the way, we did not award the TEACH grant in students’ financial aid packages - we waited until they came to request the grant. We then went through all of the requirements with them so they could make an informed decision.
Some “for profit” colleges have financial aid issues. This is well documented and the department of education is being very cautious about disbursing money to these schools.
I’m wondering if this is part of the problem.
@kelsmom could the “for profit” status of this school put it under added scrutiny?
@kelsmom@SoloCon
Sure looks confusing, if this is it the college in question in Phoenix https://arizonachristian.edu/admissions/financial-aid/grants/
“Federal TEACH Grant ($4,000)
The Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant Program provides up to $4,000 per year in grants for undergraduate students who intend to teach full-time in high-need subject areas for at least four years at schools that serve students from low-income families. Students may receive up to $16,000 for undergraduate study. Part-time students are eligible, but the maximum grant will be reduced.” @thumper1 I agree, but College Navigator shows it as private not-for-profit.
@Hippobirdy@thumper1@kelsmom
The college in question is Grand Canyon university https://www.gcu.edu/
The college is saying the grant was awarded incorrectly due to her degree no longer being accepted.
This is just such a mess.
** I stand corrected, " GCU is a private, non-profit," **
Did your daughter sign?
Then there may also be a problem with federal government accepting her if the federal government has changed its rules.
Furthermore, GCU has this requirement:
"Counseling
You are required to complete entrance counseling through the Department of Education site each year that you accept a TEACH Grant. You will also be required to attend exit counseling when you graduate or leave school.
Documentation
Within 120 days of completing your program or ceasing enrollment in your program, you must notify the U.S. Department of Education that you are fulfilling (or plan to fulfill) the terms and conditions of your service agreement. You must document your teaching service annually; the chief administrative officer at the school where you teach must certify your documentation."
It doesn’t seem right to me that GCU and the federal government may have processed your daughter 's TEACH grant, yet, now say she is ineligible.