The Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant Program provides federal grants of up to $4,000* per year ($16,000 cumulative maximum) to students who are completing or plan to complete course work needed to begin a career in teaching.
Beginning Fall 2024, TEACH Grant recipients will communicate directly with the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and not a separate TEACH Grant servicer. Until then, there is a TEACH Grant Processing pause. To learn more about this pause, please visit the StudentAid.gov TEACH Grant page.
*Amounts will vary due to Sequestration.
More information regarding the TEACH Grant and eligibility requirements.
Eligibility requirements
To receive a TEACH Grant a student must meet the following criteria:
- Complete the FAFSA each year.
- Be a U.S. citizen or eligible noncitizen.
- Be enrolled at least half-time (6 credits for UGRD and 5 credits for GRAD) each semester – award amounts are prorated for less than full-time enrollment (12 credits for UGRD and 10 credits for GRAD)
- Be enrolled in an TEACH Grant eligible program at WSU.
- A student must be studying in a designated high need field when they receive the grant. Please note the high need field definitions on this page.
- Meet certain academic achievement requirements (generally, scoring above the 75th percentile on a college admissions test or maintaining a cumulative GPA of at least 3.25)
- Sign a TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve.
TEACH Grant agreement to serve
As a condition for receiving a TEACH Grant, a student must sign a TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve in which they agree to teach:
- In a high-need field;
- At an elementary school, secondary school, or educational service agency that serves students from low-income families; and
- For at least four complete academic years within eight years after ending the course of study for which you received the grant.
IMPORTANT: If a student does not complete their service obligation, all TEACH Grant funds they received will be converted to a Direct Unsubsidized Loan. The student must then repay this loan to the U.S. Department of Education, with interest charged from the date the TEACH Grant was disbursed.
How to apply
Students who are interested in applying for a TEACH Grant should:
- Speak with your academic advisor in the College of Education. Your advisor will notify our office or the appropriate department representative if you are in enrolled in a qualified program and eligible to receive the TEACH Grant.
- Complete and submit your FAFSA for the current aid year.
- Complete the U.S. Department of Education’s TEACH Grant Counseling and Agreement to Serve (ATS).
- Once all of the steps above are completed, submit the “TEACH Grant ATS & Counseling Completed” form set on your account at submitsfsdocs.wsu.edu. This will notify our office and the TEACH Grant will be added to your financial aid offer.
Exit counseling
If you are graduating or leaving your TEACH Grant program, you must complete TEACH Grant exit counseling online at nslds.ed.gov.
Your obligations
Each year you receive a TEACH Grant, you must electronically sign a TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve.
This agreement specifies the conditions under which the grant will be awarded, the teaching service requirements, and includes an acknowledgment that you understand that if the teaching service requirements are not met … your grant converts to a Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan.
Terms of the agreement
The TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve will require the following:
- You must serve as a full-time teacher for a total of at least 4 academic years within 8 calendar years after you complete or withdrew from the academic program for which you received the TEACH Grant.
- Perform the teaching service as a highly qualified teacher at a low-income school. The term “highly-qualified teacher” is defined in section 9101(23) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 or in section 602(10) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
- Teaching service must be in a high-need field.
- Comply with any other requirement that the U.S. Department of Education determines to be necessary.
- If you do not complete the teaching service obligation, TEACH Grant funds you received will convert to a Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan that you must repay, with interest charged from the date of each TEACH Grant disbursement.
What is a high need field?
To meet the service agreement for the TEACH Grant and avoid loan repayment, you must teach in a high need field as identified below. The field must be your primary teaching assignment for the majority of your time and not integrated as one part of your teaching assignments.
- Bilingual Education and English Language Acquisition
- Foreign Language
- Mathematics
- Reading Specialist
- Science
- Special Education
- Other identified teacher shortage areas as of the time you begin teaching in that field
These are teacher subject shortage areas (not geographic areas) that are listed in the Department of Education’s Annual Teacher Shortage Area Nationwide Listing. To count for your service requirement, the shortage area must be designated at the time you received the TEACH Grant, even if the field no longer has a high-need designation when you begin teaching.
Which schools serve low-income students?
To count for a TEACH Grant service requirement, the school you teach at must be listed in the U.S. Department of Education’s Annual Directory of Designated Low-Income Schools for Teacher Cancellation Benefits.
Search for schools on the Teacher Cancellation Low Income Directory.