You must document your teaching service, and your documentation must be certified by the chief administrative officer at the school where you teach.

Each year that you receive a TEACH Grant, you must sign a TEACH Grant Agreement to serve or repay (ATS) which is available electronically beginning 2021 on the U.S. Department of Education web site upon Kent State University’s confirmation of your enrollment in an eligible major. When you sign the service agreement, you are agreeing to repay the grant as a Federal Direct Unsubsidized Student Loan, with interest accrued from the date that the grant funds were disbursed, if you do not complete the teaching obligation.

Schools serving low-income students include any elementary or secondary school that is listed in the Department of Education’s Teacher Cancellation Low Income (TCLI) Directory. All elementary and secondary schools and educational service agencies operated by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) in the Department of the Interior or operated on Indian reservations by Indian Tribal groups under contract or grant with the BIE qualify as schools or education service agencies serving low-income students.

You must meet the state's definition of a full-time teacher and spend the majority (at least 51 percent) of your time teaching one of the high-need subject areas. Elementary teachers who teach many subjects may not be able to fulfill their service agreement.

You must perform the teaching service as a highly qualified teacher, which is defined by the U.S. Department of Education.

A TEACH Grant recipient is required to teach in a high-need field. 

• Bilingual education and English language acquisition;
• Foreign language;
• Mathematics;
• Reading specialist;
• Science, and
• Special education

Any other field that has been identified as high-need by the federal government, a state government, or a local education agency, and that is included in the national Teacher Shortage Area Nationwide Listing (Nationwide List).

TEACH Grant recipients must agree to teach for at least four full years within eight years of finishing their teacher preparation program, and to teach high-need subjects in designated schools that serve low-income students. If you do not complete the teaching obligation, your grants will convert to a Direct Unsubsidized Loan, which you must repay with interest from the time of disbursement.