Minnesota Teacher Shortage Loan Repayment Program

If you have questions about this program, please contact the staff member listed on this page via email. If a staff member is not listed, please email info.ohe@state.mn.us and provide a detailed description of your question.

If you are going to apply for this program, you will be asked if you have read this page before you can apply.

The Minnesota Teacher Shortage Student Loan Repayment Program was established to provide student loan repayment assistance to teachers providing classroom instruction in a teacher shortage area in Minnesota. The purpose of the program is to encourage teachers to teach in Minnesota in designated shortage areas. Shortage areas include teacher licensure fields in high demand statewide, geographical regions within the state experiencing teacher shortages and teacher licensure fields in high demand within regions of the state. (See the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for a list of the current shortage areas).

Who is Eligible to Apply?

In general, applicants must currently:

• Hold a teaching license issued by the licensing division in the Minnesota Department of Education on behalf of the Board of Teaching
• Be employed by a school district to provide classroom instruction
• Teach in a designated teacher shortage area (see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for a list of the current shortage areas); and
• Have outstanding qualified educational loan debt

What's the Application Process?

The Minnesota Teacher Shortage Loan Repayment Program Application for 2019 is closed.

The Minnesota Teacher Shortage Loan Repayment Program Application for 2020 will be available in August and close at the end of September.

Applicants who meet the eligibility requirements will be notified if they are selected for application review in October. Those applicants will be asked to provide additional documentation to verify the information on the application by November 15th.

Awards will be disbursed in March through April 2021.

If you submitted a 2019 application and have been selected for verification, the documents below are required to complete the verification process:

What's the Selection Process?

Awards for this program are not made on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Office of Higher Education adopted administrative rules addressing the criteria for how participant awards will be prioritized. If there are insufficient funds available to award all eligible applicants, applications are prioritized based on the following:

• the financial need of an applicant, considering the applicant's income, household size, and total qualified educational loan;
• previous awards to the applicant from the Teacher Shortage Loan Repayment Program;
• whether the applicant is employed in an economic development region that is a teacher shortage area;
• whether the applicant is employed in a teacher shortage area within the applicant's economic development region;
• whether the applicant is employed in a statewide teacher shortage area;
• whether or not the applicant belongs to a racial or ethnic group underrepresented in the Minnesota teacher workforce; and
• the statewide distribution of funds

Teacher Shortage Student Loan Repayment rules

How much money can you get?

Annual awards are up to $1,000 in loan repayment assistance paid directly to selected applicants. Awardees are limited to $5,000 in total repayment assistance.

View Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about this program.

Related Reports

• Teacher Shortage Loan Forgiveness Program 2020 Report
• Teacher Shortage Loan Forgiveness Program 2019 Report
• Teacher Shortage Loan Forgiveness Program 2018 Report
• Teacher Shortage Loan Forgiveness Program 2017 Report