Posted Date: May 08, 2009
Author: William Leith, Service Director, Program Management, Federal Student Aid
Subject: TEACH Grant Counseling (Initial and Subsequent Counseling and Exit Counseling)
In a March 20, 2009 Electronic Announcement posted on the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site, we provided preliminary information about Initial and Subsequent counseling and Exit counseling for the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education Grant (TEACH Grant) Program. A student must complete TEACH Grant Initial and Subsequent counseling prior to receiving the first disbursement of the student's first TEACH Grant (initial counseling) and, if the student receives more than one TEACH Grant, prior to receiving the first disbursement of each subsequent TEACH Grant (subsequent counseling). A student must complete TEACH Grant Exit counseling before he or she leaves school. For complete information about counseling requirements for the TEACH Grant Program, schools should refer to the June 23, 2008 final regulations.
Note: Our TEACH Grant Initial and Subsequent counseling session covers both initial counseling for students who are receiving their first TEACH Grant as well as subsequent counseling for students receiving subsequent TEACH Grant awards.
In an attachment to the March 20th announcement, we informed schools of the following counseling availability and location information:
- As of March 28, 2009, TEACH Grant Initial and Subsequent counseling is available on the TEACH Grant Web site.
- As of March 31, 2009, TEACH Grant Exit counseling is available on the Direct Loan Servicing Online Web site.
In this announcement, we provide additional operational guidance related to TEACH Grant counseling in two separate attachments. We encourage schools to read this announcement and both attachments in their entirety.
Note: As an attachment to a June 27, 2008 Electronic Announcement, we provided schools a TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve (ATS) User Guide. With the addition of TEACH Grant Initial and Subsequent counseling to the TEACH Grant Web site, the guide is no longer accurate and it has been removed from the IFAP Web site. We plan to revise the guide and will post a new version in the near future.
Contact Information
If you have questions about TEACH Grant Initial and Subsequent counseling, contact the COD School Relations Center at 800/848-0978. You may also e-mail CODSupport@acs-inc.com.
If you have questions about the electronic TEACH Grant Exit counseling, contact the Direct Loan Servicing Center's School Services Division at 888/877-7658.