TEACH Grant Proposed Regulatory Language: Amendatory Format

X. Section 686.2 is amended by:

A. In paragraph (d), adding in alphabetical order, a 

definition of the term “Education Service Agency”.

B. In paragraph (d), revising the definition of “School 

serving low-income students.”

The revisions read as follows:

§686.2 Definitions

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(d) ***

Educational Service Agency means a regional public 

multiservice agency authorized by State statute to develop, 

manage, and provide services or programs to local educational 

agencies, as defined in section 9101 of the Elementary and 

Secondary Education Act of l965, as amended.

***

School or educational service agency serving low-income 

students (low-income school): An elementary or secondary school 

or educational service agency that-
(1) Is in the school district of an LEA that is eligible 

for assistance pursuant to title I of the ESEA;

(2) Has been determined by the Secretary to be a school or 

educational service agency in which more than 30 percent of the 

school's or educational service agency’s total enrollment is 

made up of children who qualify for services provided under 

title I of the ESEA; and

(3) Is listed in the Department's Annual Directory of 

Designated Low-Income Schools for Teacher Cancellation Benefits. 

The Secretary considers all elementary and secondary schools and 

educational service agencies operated by the Bureau of Indian 

Education (BIE) in the Department of the Interior or operated on 

Indian reservations by Indian tribal groups under contract or 

grant with the BIE to qualify as schools or educational service 

agencies serving low-income students.

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X. Section 686.11 is amended by revising paragraph (d) to 

read as follows:

§686.11 Eligibility to receive a grant.

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(d) Students who received a total and permanent disability 

discharge on a TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve or a title IV, HEA 

loan. (1) If a student’s previous TEACH Grant service 

obligation or title IV, HEA loan was discharged based on total 

and permanent disability, the student is eligible to receive a 

TEACH Grant if the student—

(i) Obtains a certification from a physician that the 

student is able to engage in substantial gainful activity as 

defined in 34 CFR 685.102(b);

(ii) Signs a statement acknowledging that neither the new 

service obligation for the TEACH Grant the student receives nor 

any previously discharged service agreement on which the grant 

recipient is required to resume repayment in accordance with 

paragraph (d)(1)(iii) of this section can be discharged in the 

future on the basis of any impairment present when the new grant 

is awarded, unless that impairment substantially deteriorates 

and the grant recipient applies for and meets the eligibility 

requirements for a discharge in accordance with 34 CFR 685.213; 

and

(iii) If the student receives a new TEACH Grant within 

three years of the date that any previous TEACH Grant service 

obligation or title IV loan was discharged due to a total and 
permanent disability in accordance with §686.42(b), 34 CFR 

685.213(b)(2)(ii), 34 CFR 674.61(b)(3)(i), or 34 CFR 682.402(c), 

acknowledges that he or she is once again subject to the terms 

of the previously discharged TEACH Grant agreement to serve in 

accordance with §686.42(b)(5) before receiving the new grant or 

resumes repayment on the previously discharged loan in 

accordance with §685.213(b)(4), 34 CFR 674.61(b)(5), or 34 CFR 

682.402(c)(5) unless the grant recipient’s impairment 

substantially deteriorates and the grant recipient applies for

and meets the eligibility requirements for a discharge in

accordance with 34 CFR 685.213.

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X. Section 686.12 is amended by:

A. In paragraph (b)(1)(i), adding the words “or a lowincome educational service agency” immediately after the word 

“school”.

B. In paragraph (b)(2), adding the words “or educational 

service agency” immediately after the word “school”.

C. Revising paragraph (d) to read as follows:

§686.12 Agreement to Serve.

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(d) Majoring and serving in a high-need field. In order 

for a grant recipient’s teaching service in a high-need field 

listed in the Nationwide List to count toward satisfying the 

recipient’s service obligation, the high-need field in which he 

or she prepared to teach must be listed in the Nationwide List 

for the State in which the grant recipient begins teaching in 

that field-

(1) At the time the grant recipient begins teaching in that 

field; or

(2) For teaching service performed on or after July 1, 

2010, at the time the grant recipient begins teaching in that 

field or when the grant recipient signed the agreement to serve 

or received the Grant.

§686.32 [Amended]

X. Section 686.32 is amended by:

A. In paragraph (a)(3)(ii), adding the words “and lowincome educational service agencies” after the word “schools”.

B. In paragraph (a)(3)(iii)(B), adding the words “or when 

the grant recipient signed the agreement to serve or received 

the grant” immediately after the word “field” at the end of the 

sentence.
C. In paragraph (c)(4)(iii), adding the words “and lowincome educational service agencies after the word “schools”.

D. In paragraph (c)(4)(iv)(B), adding the words “or when 

the grant recipient signed the agreement to serve or received 

the grant” after the word “field” at the end of the sentence.

E. In paragraph (c)(4)(v), adding the words “or for a lowincome educational service agency immediately after the words 

“low-income school”.

X. Section 686.40 is amended by revising paragraphs (b) 

and (f) to read as follows:

§686.40 Documenting the service obligation.

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(b) If a grant recipient is performing full-time teaching 

service in accordance with the agreement to serve, or agreements 

to serve if more than one agreement exists, the grant recipient 

must, upon completion of each of the four required elementary or 

secondary academic years of teaching service, provide to the 

Secretary documentation of that teaching service on a form 

approved by the Secretary and certified by the chief 

administrative officer of the school or educational service 

agency in which the grant recipient is teaching. The
documentation must show that the grant recipient is teaching in 

a low-income school or low-income educational service agency. If 

the school or educational service agency at which the grant 

recipient is employed meets the requirements of a low-income 

school or low-income educational service agency in the first 

year of the grant recipient's four elementary or secondary 

academic years of teaching and the school or educational service 

agency fails to meet those requirements in subsequent years, 

those subsequent years of teaching qualify for purposes of this 

section for that recipient.

***

(f) A grant recipient who taught in more than one 

qualifying school or more than one qualifying educational 

service agency during an elementary or secondary academic year 

and demonstrates that the combined teaching service was the 

equivalent of full-time, as supported by the certification of 

one or more of the chief administrative officers of the schools 

or educational service agencies involved, is considered to have 

completed one elementary or secondary academic year of 

qualifying teaching.

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X. Section 686.42 is amended by revising paragraph (b) to 

read as follows:

§686.42 Discharge of agreement to serve.

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(b) Total and permanent disability. (1) A grant recipient's

agreement to serve is discharged if the recipient becomes 

totally and permanently disabled, as defined in 34 CFR 

682.200(b), and the grant recipient applies for and satisfies 

the eligibility requirements for a total and permanent 

disability discharge in accordance with 34 CFR 685.213.

2) If, at any time the Secretary determines that the grant 

recipient does not meet the requirements of the three-year 

period following the discharge in 34 CFR 685.213(b)(7), the 

Secretary notifies the grant recipient that the grant 

recipient’s obligation to satisfy the terms of the agreement to 

serve is reinstated. 

(3) The Secretary’s notification under paragraph (b)(2) of 

this section will —

(i) Include the reason or reasons for reinstatement; 

(ii) Provide information on how the grant recipient may 

contact the Secretary if the grant recipient has questions about 
the reinstatement or believes that the agreement to serve was 

reinstated based on incorrect information;

(iii) Inform the grant recipient that interest accrual will 

resume on TEACH Grant disbursements made prior to the date of 

the discharge; and

(iv) Inform the TEACH Grant recipient that he or she must 

satisfy the service obligation within the portion of the eight 

year period that remained after the date of the discharge.

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X. Section 686.43 is amended by revising paragraph (a)(1) 

to read as follows:

§686.43 Obligation to repay the Grant.

(a)***

(1) The grant recipient, regardless of enrollment status, 

requests that the TEACH Grant be converted into a Federal Direct 

Unsubsidized Loan because he or she has decided not to teach in 

a qualified school or educational service agency, or in a highneed field, or for any other reason;

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