ACA UPDATE: Congress Gives Final Approval to Higher Education Bill; Adds New Loan Forgiveness Program for School Counselors!

On July 31st, Congress gave final approval to compromise bill to overhaul the Higher Education Act. The bill, the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (H.R. 4137), was passed by the House by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 380-49. The Senate also approved the bill by a bipartisan vote of 83-8.  The measure is the first comprehensive, long-term overhaul of the Higher Education Act in a decade. The bill now heads to the President for his signature. Following that, the Department of Education must issue regulations to implement the new law.

ACA is very pleased to announce that H.R. 4137 creates a new “Loan Forgiveness for Service in Areas of National Need” program.  The loan forgiveness program covers 17 areas of “national need,” including school counselors working full time in low-income schools (see definition of low-income school below).

To qualify for the new “Loan Forgiveness for Service in Areas of National Need” program, eligible borrowers must be:

1. employed full time in an area of national need (see list below), and


2. not in default on the loan for which they are seeking forgiveness.

The program permits the U.S. Department of Education to:

1. forgive up to $2,000 in Federal Stafford Loan or Federal Direct Stafford Loan debt, for each school year or calendar year of full-time employment in area of national need, up to 5 years, for a maximum of $10,000 per eligible borrower.

(Note: Federal PLUS Loans borrowed on behalf of a dependent student are not eligible)

Please note the new loan forgiveness program will:

2.  be available only after the legislation is signed into law by the President,

3.  not be available for previous years worked,

4.  be provided on a first-come, first-served basis, and

5.  be subject to the availability of annual funding by Congress.

Areas of national need include: early childhood educators; foreign language specialists; librarians; highly-qualified teachers serving students who are limited English proficient, low-income and underrepresented populations; child welfare workers; speech-language pathologists and audiologists; school  counselors; public sector employees; nutrition professionals; medical specialists; mental health professionals; dentists; applied sciences, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) employees; physical therapists; superintendents, principals, and other administrators; and occupational therapists.

Low-Income School

To be considered a “low-income school,” the school must be in a school district that qualified for federal funds in the year for which the cancellation is sought. Also, more than 30 percent of the school’s enrollment must be made up of children from low-income families.

To find out if the school that employs you is classified as a low-income school, you can check the U.S Department of Education’s online database for the year(s) that you have been employed as a school counselor. Go to: https://www.tcli.ed.gov/CBSWebApp/tcli/TCLIPubSchoolSearch.jsp.

This is all the information we have available on the loan forgiveness program at this time.  We will attempt to provide more details from the Department of Education as they become available in the months ahead.

Finally, thank you to the thousands of ACA members who have been diligently advocating for loan forgiveness for school counselors over the last two years!