Title 34
SECTION 686.40
686.40 Documenting the service obligation.
§ 686.40 Documenting the service obligation. Link to an amendment published at 85 FR 49826, Aug. 14, 2020.(a) Except as provided in §§ 686.41 and 686.42, within 120 days of completing or otherwise ceasing enrollment in a program of study for which a TEACH Grant was received, the grant recipient must confirm to the Secretary in writing that -
(1) He or she is employed as a full-time teacher in accordance with the terms and conditions of the agreement to serve described in § 686.12; or
(2) He or she is not yet employed as a full-time teacher but intends to meet the terms and conditions of the agreement to serve described in § 686.12.
(b) If a grant recipient is performing full-time teaching service in accordance with the agreement to serve, or agreements to serve if more than one agreement exists, the grant recipient must, upon completion of each of the four required elementary or secondary academic years of teaching service, provide to the Secretary documentation of that teaching service on a form approved by the Secretary and certified by the chief administrative officer of the school in which the grant recipient is teaching. The documentation must show that the grant recipient is teaching in a low-income school. If the school at which the grant recipient is employed meets the requirements of a low-income school in the first year of the grant recipient's four elementary or secondary academic years of teaching and the school fails to meet those requirements in subsequent years, those subsequent years of teaching qualify for purposes of this section for that recipient.
(c)(1) In addition to the documentation requirements in paragraph (b) of this section, the documentation must show that the grant recipient -
(i) Taught a majority of classes during the period being certified in any of the high-need fields of mathematics, science, a foreign language, bilingual education, English language acquisition, special education, or as a reading specialist; or
(ii) Taught a majority of classes during the period being certified in a State in another high-need field designated by that State and listed in the Nationwide List, except that teaching service does not satisfy the requirements of the agreement to serve if that teaching service is in a geographic region of a State or in a specific grade level not associated with a high-need field of a State designated in the Nationwide List as having a shortage of elementary or secondary school teachers.
(2) If a grant recipient begins qualified full-time teaching service in a State in a high-need field designated by that State and listed in the Nationwide List and in subsequent years that high-need field is no longer designated by the State in the Nationwide List, the grant recipient will be considered to continue to perform qualified full-time teaching service in a high-need field of that State and to continue to fulfill the service obligation.
(d) Documentation must also provide evidence that the grant recipient is a highly-qualified teacher.
(e) For purposes of completing the service obligation, the elementary or secondary academic year may be counted as one of the grant recipient's four complete elementary or secondary academic years if the grant recipient completes at least one-half of the elementary or secondary academic year and the grant recipient's school employer considers the grant recipient to have fulfilled his or her contract requirements for the elementary or secondary academic year for the purposes of salary increases, tenure, and retirement if the grant recipient is unable to complete an elementary or secondary academic year due to -
(1) A condition that is a qualifying reason for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) (29 U.S.C. 2612(a)(1) and (3)); or
(2) A call or order to active duty status for more than 30 days as a member of a reserve component of the Armed Forces named in 10 U.S.C. 10101, or service as a member of the National Guard on full-time National Guard duty, as defined in 10 U.S.C. 101(d)(5), under a call to active service in connection with a war, military operation, or a national emergency.
(f) A grant recipient who taught in more than one qualifying school during an elementary or secondary academic year and demonstrates that the combined teaching service was the equivalent of full-time, as supported by the certification of one or more of the chief administrative officers of the schools involved, is considered to have completed one elementary or secondary academic year of qualifying teaching.
(Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1070g, et seq.)