Your Teachers Qualify for Student Loan Forgiveness. Most of Them Don't Know It.
A note for independent school business officers, HR directors, and operations leaders
Here's something worth knowing before going into the next school year:
A meaningful number of your teachers, counselors, and support staff are likely eligible for federal student loan forgiveness through Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). Many of them are silently mismanaging it, losing thousands of dollars in qualifying credit, or sitting in default without ever telling you.
That last part matters for reasons beyond their personal finances.
In states including Tennessee, Texas, Georgia, and several others, professional license renewal can be denied to educators in student loan default. A teacher who can't renew their license is a teacher you can't keep in the classroom and a staffing problem that started quietly in the HR blind spot.
This article covers what independent school administrators should understand about PSLF and Teacher Loan Forgiveness, why it matters to your school's operations, and how SavvyFi - a MISBO consortium partner - can help you address it as a staff benefit.
Yes. If your school is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, your employees qualify as working for a PSLF-eligible employer.
That includes teachers, counselors, school psychologists, librarians, instructional coaches, paraprofessionals, and administrative staff (not just credentialed faculty). Any full-time employee making qualifying payments on an income-driven repayment plan while employed at your school is accruing progress toward PSLF's 120-payment threshold.
After 120 qualifying payments (i.e. 10 years) the remaining federal loan balance is forgiven, tax-free, with no cap on the amount.
For a teacher carrying $60,000 in loan debt who has been at your school for eight years, that may mean $30,000 or more in forgiveness is two years away. They may not know it.
Wrong repayment plan. PSLF requires payments on a qualifying income-driven repayment plan. A teacher who enrolled in a standard or graduated repayment plan, even while faithfully making payments for years at your school, has been accruing zero qualifying PSLF payments. Every month on the wrong plan is a month lost. This is the single most common mistake we see.
Wrong loan type. PSLF only applies to Direct Loans. Teachers who borrowed before 2010 may have FFEL loans that don't qualify unless consolidated first. Consolidation resets the payment count, so timing matters enormously, but an unconsolidated FFEL loan makes every payment effectively invisible to PSLF.
Uncertified employer history. PSLF requires Employment Certification for each qualifying employer. A teacher who worked at two prior schools and has only certified their current position may have years of qualifying payments not showing on their tracker. Those payments exist. However, they haven't been submitted. We see educators discover 20, 30, even 50+ uncertified payments in a single coaching session.
Servicer changes and administrative confusion. Federal student loan servicing has changed hands multiple times in recent years. Many borrowers have lost track of their status, their plan type, or whether their certifications were processed correctly.
None of these problems require bad intent or financial carelessness to develop. They're the natural result of a complicated federal program that most people navigate entirely alone
Yes, and the difference matters to your HR communications.
Teacher Loan Forgiveness (TLF) is a separate federal program that forgives up to $17,500 for math, science, and special education teachers and up to $5,000 for other subjects after five consecutive years of full-time teaching at a qualifying low-income school. FFEL loans are also eligible for TLF, unlike PSLF.
The critical nuance: these two programs do not run in parallel. Pursuing TLF first and then PSLF can be the right sequence for some teachers — but only with a plan. Without one, a teacher might inadvertently sacrifice PSLF qualifying time by misunderstanding how the programs interact.
If your school is on the federal Low-Income School Directory, your teachers have access to both programs. Whether and how to use them together is a planning question, not a form-filling question.
If your school is not on the Directory, your staff may have previous work experience at a qualifying school, so supporting them is crucial.
Two developments are worth noting in your planning calendar.
The SAVE plan has been repealed. SAVE was the federal government's newest income-driven repayment plan, and many borrowers were enrolled in it. It has been struck down, and borrowers currently in SAVE-related administrative forbearance need to actively select a new qualifying plan. The Department of Education is expected to begin sending notices on July 1, 2026, with a 90-day window to select a replacement. Borrowers who don't act will lose qualifying payment months. If any of your staff mention being in forbearance, this is why.
A new PSLF employer eligibility rule takes effect July 1, 2026. The Department of Education published a final rule granting the Secretary authority to disqualify employers whose activities have a "substantial illegal purpose." Core PSLF requirements remain unchanged. For most 501(c)(3) independent schools, this is unlikely to affect status, but it's worth confirming your school's eligibility in the PSLF Employer Search tool, particularly if your school has any policy-sensitive affiliations or advocacy activities.
The business case is straightforward.
Student loan stress is consistently cited as a top driver of financial anxiety among working adults, as well as among educators, who often carry significant debt relative to their salaries, it's acute. A faculty member who is quietly managing default, garnishment risk, or a repayment plan that feels permanent is carrying that burden into your classrooms and your retention conversations.
Offering access to student loan coaching (even once, even as a single webinar) signals that your school understands what your staff is carrying. In a competitive independent school hiring environment, that matters.
There's also a risk management angle. Default-related license issues are a real, if underappreciated, exposure for schools in states with license-default linkage laws. An HR director who knows which staff members are at risk has options. One who doesn't, doesn't.
SavvyFi is a MISBO consortium partner offering student loan coaching to independent school staff. As a MISBO member, your school has access to SavvyFi's services at negotiated rates — including both individual coaching sessions for staff and group programming designed for schools.
Staff benefit model: Your employees access SavvyFi individually and confidentially. Each person receives a personalized assessment of their loan situation, a clear picture of their PSLF or forgiveness eligibility, and hands-on help executing the next steps — certifications, plan changes, IDR recertifications, or default resolution.
Educational webinar model: SavvyFi facilitates a live session for your staff covering PSLF, Teacher Loan Forgiveness, income-driven repayment plans, and default recovery, in plain language, with real examples. Staff who need individual coaching can sign up at a discounted rate on the spot. This is a high-value, low-lift way to introduce the benefit.
Either model can be implemented quickly, requires no ongoing administrative overhead from your business office, and can be offered as part of your benefits communications, onboarding, or professional development calendar.
Learn more about your MISBO member benefit: resources.misbo.com/26j92n1
To explore bringing SavvyFi to your school as a staff benefit or webinar, contact us directly: savvyfi.co/contact-us
Mandy Wallace began her career as a classroom teacher in Mississippi before moving into curriculum development, program management, and grant writing for a series of nonprofits focused on children and families. Today, as Director of Growth Operations at SavvyFi, she works with schools and organizations to help the people serving our communities tackle the student loan debt that comes with the jobs they've chosen. She's passionate about connecting mission-driven institutions with practical financial solutions that actually move the needle for their people.