The U.S. Department of Education has designated the following areas as teacher shortage areas in Arkansas for the 1999-2000 school year.
Early Childhood Special Education; Deaf Education; Mildly Handicapped K-12;
Moderately/Profoundly Handicapped K-12;
Speech/Language Pathology;
Severely Emotionally Disturbed K-12;
Visually Impaired;
Secondary Mathematics;
Biology; Chemistry, Physic; Physical Science; General Science;
French; German; Latin; Spanish; Italian and ESL.
This federal designation of teacher shortage areas in our state enables borrowers who had no outstanding Federal Family Education Loan (FEEL) program loan on July 1, 1987, but who had an outstanding FEEL program loan on July 1, 1993, to qualify for deferment of loan repayment under the Federal Stafford & Federal Supplemental Loans for Students (SLS) programs anytime within the life of the borrower's loan(s). In addition, this designation allows Douglas Scholars to qualify for the reduction of teaching obligation under the Paul Douglas Teacher Scholarship Program permitted under 34CFR653.50 (a) (2) (ii).
Federal Stafford/SLS borrowers who have questions concerning their loans, including the teacher shortage area deferment, should be referred to the Federal Student Aid Hotline at1-800-4FED-AID. Douglas Scholars should be referred to the State agency that awarded the scholarship.