TEA releases 2020-21 teacher shortage areas

The U.S. Department of Education has approved the following teacher shortage areas submitted by the Texas Education Agency for the 2020-21 school year:

• Bilingual/ESL – elementary and secondary levels
• Special education – elementary and secondary levels
• Career and technical education – secondary levels
• Technology applications and computer science – elementary and secondary levels
• Mathematics – secondary levels

The approved shortage areas give administrators the ability to recruit and retain qualified teachers and to help reward teachers for their hard work using the loan forgiveness opportunities. School principals can certify that a teacher has met the minimum qualifications required for certain loan forgiveness programs.

Federal, state, and public service loan forgiveness programs are available to teachers. All school personnel can take advantage of the public service program.

Information about federal teacher loan forgiveness can be found on the TEA website. Additional loan forgiveness options, including loan forgiveness for educators who are not classroom teachers, are found on the Student Loan Forgiveness for Teachers webpage.

Although the 2020-21 shortage information for Texas does not include science, some loan forgiveness programs accept other shortage areas, including science. Information can be found on the U.S. Department of Education Federal Student Aid website. Additional information is available by contacting your loan servicer if you have questions about what subject areas they accept. The Teach for Texas Loan Repayment Assistance contact information is available on their website.