Department of Education

TEACH Grants

Fiscal Year 2022 Budget 

CONTENTS

Page

TEACH Grants .......................................................................................................................... Q-1

Program Description............................................................................................................. Q-1

FY 2022 Budget.................................................................................................................... Q-2

Program Output Measures ................................................................................................... Q-4

Program Performance Information ....................................................................................... Q-4
TEACH GRANTS

Q-1

TEACH Grants

(Higher Education Act of 1965, Title IV, Part A, Subpart 9)

(dollars in thousands)

FY 2022 Authorization: To be determined

Mandatory Budget Authority:1

2021 2022 Change from 

2021 to 2022

TEACH new loan subsidies1 $27,285 $82,090 $54,805

TEACH net re-estimate 75,056 0 -75,056

TEACH net modification2 42,127 0 -42,127

TEACH Total net subsidy 144,467 82,090 -62,378

1 For budget and financial management purposes, this program is operated as a loan program under the Federal 

Credit Reform Act of 1990; budget authority reflects the estimated net present value of future Federal nonadministrative costs for awards made in a given fiscal year. 2 The upward net modification for fiscal year 2021 reflects costs related to the extension of COVID-19 emergency 

relief measures on federal student loans through Sept. 30, 2021 and the cost of updated program regulations to 

improve the certification process and reduce grant to loan conversions.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The TEACH Grant program is intended to create incentives for postsecondary students to teach 

in in-demand fields and high-need schools. The program awards annual grants of up to $4,000 

to eligible undergraduate and graduate students who agree to serve as full-time teachers in 

mathematics, science, foreign language, bilingual education and English language acquisition, 

special education, reading, or other in-demand fields at a high-need school, for not less than 4 

years within 8 years of graduation. To be eligible for a TEACH Grant award, students must meet 

certain academic achievement requirements, scoring above the 75th percentile on one or more 

portions of a college admissions test or maintaining a cumulative grade point average of at least 

3.25. In addition, teachers, retirees from another occupation with expertise in a field in which 

there is a shortage of teachers, or current or former teachers using a high-quality alternative 

route to certification are eligible to receive TEACH awards to obtain a graduate degree. 

TEACH Grant recipients are required to meet the service obligation described above and certain

reporting requirements. For students who fail to fulfill these requirements, grants are converted 

to Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loans with interest accrued from the date the grants were 

awarded. All applicants must sign a TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve acknowledging that 

grants will be converted to loans if the required service obligation is not completed. For all grant 

recipients, loan conversion will occur only if the recipient asks the Secretary to convert his or her 

TEACH Grants to loans, or if the recipient fails to begin or maintain qualifying teaching service 
TEACH GRANTS

Q-2

within a timeframe that would allow the recipient to satisfy the service obligation within the eightyear service obligation period.

Participating institutions of higher education must provide high quality teacher preparation and 

professional development services, including extensive clinical experience as part of preservice 

preparation; be financially sound; provide pedagogical coursework, or assistance in the 

provision of such coursework, including the monitoring of student performance, and formal 

instruction related to the theory and practice of teaching; and provide supervision and support 

services to teachers, or assistance in the provision of such services, including mentoring 

focused on effective teaching skills and strategies.

Total net subsidy costs for the past 5 fiscal years were:

Fiscal Year (dollars in thousands)

2017..................................................................... ...............$153,342

2018..................................................................... ...................74,946

2019..................................................................... ...................33,039

2020..................................................................... ...................19,399

2021..................................................................... .................144,467

NOTE: Subsidy costs include net reestimates (combined upward and downward) of prior cohorts and net 

modifications, which may produce significant annual fluctuations.

FY 2022 BUDGET

The Administration proposes to expand the TEACH Grant program to cover the average cost of 

a comprehensive teacher preparation program and strengthen the program to reduce the 

likelihood and harm of grant-to-loan conversions. The Budget proposes to double the grant 

amount from $4,000 to $8,000 per year for juniors, seniors, and graduate students. The Budget 

proposes to double the grant amount from $4,000 to $8,000 per year for juniors, seniors, and 

graduate students. In addition, the Budget proposes to increase access to the program by 

removing the GPA requirement and expanding it to early childhood educators that go on to 

serve in programs that disproportionately serve low-income students. These changes are 

expected to increase the number of recipients by over 50 percent. The Administration also 

seeks to reduce the repayment burden on recipients who fail to complete their service 

requirement through reforms including 1) not capitalizing interest upon conversion to a loan, 2) 

reducing the amount that converts to a loan for each year of service completed, and 3) allowing

promotions into schoolwide roles (e.g., principal) in a high-needs school to count toward the 

service obligation. Finally, the Administration would ensure better outcomes for recipients and 

the students they teach by phasing in quality guardrails on program eligibility based on grant 

recipient outcomes. These TEACH Grant proposals were introduced in the Administration’s 

American Families Plan proposal as part of a larger effort to address teacher shortages and
TEACH GRANTS

Q-3

increase the access that students from low-income backgrounds have to comprehensive

teacher preparation.

The estimated loan subsidy for fiscal year 2022 is $82.1 million, an increase of $54.8 million 

from the fiscal year 2021 appropriation. Aid available to students in fiscal year 2022 is 

anticipated to reach approximately $172.2 million. 

Students at 741 institutions received awards under the TEACH Grant program in the academic 

year 2019–2020. The fiscal year 2021 upward reestimate of $75.1 million is due primarily to the 

updated grant to loan conversion assumption, indicating more teachers are successfully 

fulfilling, or will fulfill, the program’s requirements than previously assumed. One reason for this 

change is the regulatory changes the Department enacted in 2020, described below. Based on 

administrative program data, the Department projects that 55 percent of students receiving 

TEACH Grants in fiscal year 2022 will fail to complete their required service commitment and 

will have their grants converted to loans, a decrease from 64 percent for the grants issued in 

2021.

In 2018, the Department completed a quality review of TEACH Grants that were converted to 

loans to determine if the conversions were consistent with the program requirements. Through 

this review, the Department learned that a number of TEACH Grants may have been converted 

to loans prematurely. In 2019, the Department implemented corrective actions to restore grants 

that were improperly converted to loans and to restore time to those recipients to complete the 

service obligation following correction of the error. Recipients were eligible to request 

reconsideration if they met or are meeting the service requirements within the 8-year service 

obligation period, but had their grants converted to loans because they did not comply with the

annual certification requirement. More information about the reconsideration process is 

available online.1

As of January 2021, the Department had processed over 6,900 recipients through this effort, 

resulting in $46.1 million in loans being converted back to grants. 

In 2020, the Department published updated program regulations to codify many of the 

operational changes that allowed for a reconsideration process if a TEACH grant was 

erroneously converted to a loan. The regulations expand the fields in which grant recipients can 

work to fulfill their service obligation, simplify the employment certification requirements, require 

more information to be provided to recipients as part of entrance and exit counseling, create 

conversion counseling to education borrowers when their grants convert to loans, and provide 

processes to correct improper conversions of TEACH grants to loans.

Consistent with the requirements of the Credit Reform Act of 1990, budget authority for this 

program reflects the estimated net present value of all future non-administrative Federal costs 

associated with awards made in a given fiscal year.

1 See: https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/grants-scholarships/teach/teach-reconsideration.
TEACH GRANTS

Q-4

PROGRAM OUTPUT MEASURES

Output Measures 2020 2021 2022

Recipients 25,164 25,441 39,163

Aid available to students (dollars in 

thousands) $78,370 $79,400 $172,216

Maximum award (in whole dollars) $4,000 $4,000 $8,000

PROGRAM PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

This section presents selected program performance information, including, for example, GPRA 

goals, objectives, measures, and performance targets and data. Achievement of program 

results is based on the cumulative effect of the resources provided in previous years, and those 

requested in fiscal year 2022 and future years, as well as the resources and efforts invested by 

those served by this program. The Department will be reviewing GPRA program performance 

goals, objectives, and measures for the TEACH Grant Program for possible revision in future 

years to ensure alignment with Administration policy. Data on these measures is collected 

through the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS). 

Goal: To ensure the TEACH Grant program helps recruit teachers.

Objective: Ensure that more TEACH Grant recipients are fulfilling their service obligation 

through qualified teaching service.

Measure: TEACH Grant recipients with one or more years of qualified teaching service after 6 

or more years following their last TEACH award.

Year

Target: Total Percentage with 

Teaching Service

Actual: Total Percentage with 

Teaching Service

2013 31.0% 39.0%

2014 33.0 37.6

2015 35.0 38.7

2016 37.0

2017 39.0

2018 41.0

Additional Information: The percentage of TEACH Grant recipients with one or more years 

qualified teaching service after 6 or more years following their last TEACH award has increased

from under 30 percent before 2011 but has remained just below 40 percent in recent years. The 

rates observed for 2013 to 2015 are above targets established for this measure. The 

Department believes improvements in the certification process have made it easier for teachers 

to show participation and prevent unwarranted grant to loan conversions.
TEACH GRANTS

Q-5

Distribution of TEACH Grant Awards by Type of Institution

The table below shows the award year 2019–2020 distribution of TEACH Grant assistance by 

type of institution for total funding, percentage, number of recipients, and average award.

Distribution of TEACH Grants by Type of Institution 2019–2020

Institution Type Awards Recipients Average 

Award

Percent of TEACH 

Grant Aid

Public 4-Year $35,402,958 12,145 $2,915 44.26%

Public 2-Year 7,035 2 3,518 0.01%

Private 4-Year 32,047,921 11,003 2,913 40.07%

Proprietary 4-Year 12,526,589 3,748 3,342 15.66%

TOTAL 79,984,502 26,898 2,974 100.00%

NOTE: Percentage may not total to 100 percent due to rounding.