Assistance program
Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education Grants (TEACH Grants)
$644.4 Million committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Office of Federal Student Aid, Education, Department of
- Assistance
- Direct Payments for Specified Use
- CFDA number
- 84.379
- What it does
- To provide annual grants of up to $4,000 to eligible undergraduate and graduate students who agree to teach specified high-need subjects at schools serving primarily disadvantaged populations for four years within eight years of graduation. For students who do not fulfill their service requirements, grants convert to Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loans with interest accrued from the date of award.
- Who benefits
- To be eligible for a TEACH Grant award, students must meet certain academic achievement requirements, scoring above the 75th percentile on one or more portions of a college admissions test or maintaining a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.25. In addition, teachers, retirees from another occupation with expertise in a field in which there is a shortage of teachers, or current or former teachers using a high-quality alternative route to certification are eligible to receive TEACH awards to obtain a graduate degree. A student applying for a grant to obtain a graduate degree must be a teacher or a retiree from another occupation with expertise in a field in which there is a shortage of teachers; grants for graduate education may also be obtained by a student who is or was a teacher who is pursuing high-quality alternative certification. In addition, students must sign an agreement to serve as a full-time teacher for not less than four years within eight years of completing the course of study for which they received a TEACH Grant. Service must be performed at a school serving a primarily disadvantaged population and must be in one of the following fields: mathematics, science, a foreign language, bilingual education, special education, as a reading specialist, or in another field documented as high-need. Students must also agree to provide evidence of qualifying employment upon completion of each year of service. Failure to complete the service requirements results in the student's TEACH Grants being treated as Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loans, with interest accrued from the date of award. Students must also sign a statement of educational purpose, not owe a refund on a Title IV grant, and not be in default on a Title IV loan. Eligible males that are at least 18 years old and born after December 31, 1959, can receive aid only if they have registered with the Selective Service.
- Who applies
- Undergraduate and graduate students completing coursework or other requirements necessary to begin a career in teaching. Students must attend an institution of higher education that provides high quality teacher preparation and professional development services, including extensive clinical experience as part of preservice preparation; be financially sound; provide pedagogical coursework, or assistance in the provision of such coursework, including the monitoring of student performance, and formal instruction related to the theory and practice of teaching; and provide supervision and support services to teachers, or assistance in the provision of such services, including mentoring focused on effective teaching skills and strategies.
- Authorized by
- Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, Subpart 9
- Program site
- https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/ ↗
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments