To determine if you are teaching in an eligible "teacher shortage area", refer to the report for Teacher Shortage Areas by school year, subject area and discipline. If you have any questions about teacher shortage areas, contact Kelly Royer with the SD Department of Education at 605-773-8415.

Elementary and secondary schools (public and private) and educational service agencies serving low-income students are listed in the annual Teacher Cancellation Low-Income (TCLI) Directory in accordance with federal guidance. In addition, all elementary or secondary schools operated by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Education or operated on Indian reservations by Indian tribal groups under contract or grant with the BIE qualify as low-income schools, even if they’re not listed in the TCLI Directory.

The directory is updated by the South Dakota Department of Education throughout the school year, typically December and April of the current school year, and July of the most recent school year. We do this to consider students who receive free or reduced-price lunch throughout the year.

If you have any questions about the TCLI Directory, contact Jake Cummings with the SD Department of Education at 605-295-3322.

The South Dakota Department of Education is unable to answer questions as to your loans and qualification for forgiveness. Borrowers should direct questions to either their school where they received the grant or loan or to their loan service provider. Borrowers can also contact the Federal Student Aid Information Center (FSAIC) at 1-800-433-3243 or via live chat or email.

The South Dakota Department of Education submits information for schools that have greater than 30 percent of students receiving free or reduced lunch.

Thus, a school being designated "Title I" does not automatically qualify that school for TCLI directory inclusion. It is possible for a school to be Title I and not exceed the 30 percent rate needed for TCLI.

Schools' student demographics, including poverty rates, evolve over time. These fluctuations can impact whether a school exceeds the 30 percent TCLI threshold.

Moreover, the TCLI Directory relies on schools to accurately report the students who are receiving free or reduced-price lunch in Infinite Campus. A school failing to accurately report students' meal status will impact whether a school appears in the TCLI directory.

Also, the federal government allowed schools flexibility to serve free meals to all students during the pandemic. Therefore, free or reduced lunch records may not have offered an accurate measure of school poverty. As a result, states were authorized to either use prior TCLI directory data or to capture school poverty through another measure. South Dakota used this flexibility to allow for the most accurate count of low-income schools for the 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2021-22 TCLI directory submissions. See guidance from U.S. Department of Education for more information.

The TEACH grant program agreement to serve or repay states:

"If the school or educational service agency where you teach is listed in the TCLI Directory for all or a part of one of your required four school years of teaching, but it no longer qualifies to be listed in the TCLI Directory for your subsequent years of teaching at that school or educational service agency, your subsequent years of teaching at that school or educational service agency will still qualify for purposes of satisfying your TEACH Grant service obligation."

You can look at the prior year's fall enrollment "Meal Status" data to get an estimate of their student demographics. You can also research current and historical TCLI Directory listings to determine schools' listing histories. Regardless, SD DOE recommends discussing student demographics with the school to ascertain the likelihood they will exceed the 30 percent threshold in the upcoming school year.

Not necessarily. How a school qualifies for school-wide Title I designation differs from the rules for the TCLI directory.

The TCLI Directory requires the school to have greater than 30 percent of students receiving free or reduced lunch. Conversely, the school-wide Title I program has various ways to qualify. Some schools qualify because their public low income percentage, often based on free or reduced lunch data, is at least 40 percent. Yet other schools qualify because they are "grandfathered in" based on school-wide Title I in previous years, or they received a waiver from the SD Department of Education.

Many Title I schools will be listed in the TCLI Directory. However, because the requirements are different between the two programs, it is possible that a school-wide Title I school may not qualify for TCLI Directory listing.

• Federal Student Aid - Teacher Loan Forgiveness
• Federal Student Aid - TEACH Grant
• Federal Student Aid - Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)
• Federal Student Aid - Teacher Cancellation Low-Income (TCLI) Directory
• Federal Student Aid - Federal Student Aid Information Center (FSAIC) Contact Page
• BIE School Directory