The Department of Education (ED) recently approved teacher shortage areas for Texas for the 2000-2001 school year. Full-time teachers in public or nonprofit private elementary or secondary schools may be eligible for the Teacher Shortage Area deferment on certain Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) loans if they are teaching in one of ED's designated shortage areas. For the 2000-2001 school year, these designated shortage areas for Texas are Mathematics, Special Education, Bilingual/ESL, Science, Foreign Language, and Technology Applications.

Borrower Eligibility
The Teacher Shortage Area deferment is available to a borrower only if he or she has an outstanding FFELP loan that was first disbursed on or after July 1, 1987, but before July 1, 1993. It is available to Federal Stafford and Federal Supplemental Loans for Students (SLS) borrowers only; PLUS and Consolidation loan borrowers are not eligible for this deferment. A qualifying teacher can apply for the deferment at any time during the life of the loan. If the teacher continues to teach in the area for which they received the original deferment, he or she may request and receive subsequent deferments (up to a cumulative total of three years), even if the subject in which he or she is teaching is no longer designated as a shortage area.

Certification
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) authorizes school principals to act on behalf of the Chief State School Officer and certify a teacher's deferment request form for Federal Stafford or Federal SLS loans. Some teachers who received aid under the Paul Douglas Teacher Scholarship Program may also qualify for a reduction in their teaching obligation by teaching in a designated shortage area. For more information on Texas Teacher Shortage Area benefits, go to TEA's web site at www.tea.state.tx.us/taa/eddev000921.html.

Questions For questions regarding the Teacher Shortage Area deferment, call TG Customer Services at(800) 252-9743, ext. 4444, or send an e-mail message to customer.services@tgslc.org.