N.Y. EDN Law § 679-J

§ 679-j. The New York state teacher loan forgiveness program. 1.\nPurpose. The president shall grant student loan forgiveness awards for\nthe purpose of increasing the number of teachers serving in the state.\n 2. Eligibility. To be eligible for an award pursuant to this\nsubdivision, applicants shall (a) be certified as a teacher; (b) be\nemployed full time in this state in an elementary or secondary school;\n(c) comply with subdivisions three and five of section six hundred\nsixty-one of this part; (d) have an outstanding student loan debt; and\n(e) meet one of the following criteria:\n (i) teach in a shortage subject area;\n (ii) teach in a hard to staff district; or\n (iii) the applicant is economically disadvantaged, as defined by the\ncorporation.\n 3. Definitions. For the purposes of this section, the term "shortage\nsubject area" shall mean a curriculum subject matter or practice of\nteaching where there is a shortage of teachers in New York state, as\ndesignated by the department, and the term "hard to staff school\ndistricts" shall mean school districts that have a shortage of teachers,\nas designated by the department.\n 4. Priority. Such awards shall be made annually to applicants in the\nfollowing priority:\n (a) First priority shall be given to applicants who have received\npayment of an award pursuant to this section in a prior year and who, in\nthe year prior to application, are teachers in (i) a subject shortage\narea, or (ii) a hard to staff school district;\n (b) Second priority shall be given to applicants who have not received\npayment of an award pursuant to this section in a prior year and who are\nteachers in (i) a subject shortage area, or (ii) hard to staff school\ndistrict in the year prior to such application; and\n (c) Third priority shall be given to applicants who are economically\ndisadvantaged as defined by the corporation.\n 5. Awards. The corporation shall grant awards pursuant to the amount\nappropriated for such purpose and based on availability of funds in an\namount up to five thousand dollars to individuals who are employed\nfull-time as teachers for the school year prior to such application,\nprovided that no recipient shall receive an award that exceeds the total\nremaining balance of the student loan debt pursuant to this section, in\nexcess of twenty thousand dollars.\n 6. Rules and regulations. The corporation is authorized to promulgate\nrules and regulations and may promulgate emergency regulations necessary\nfor the implementation of the provisions of this section. In the event\nthat there are more applicants who have the same priority, as provided\nin subdivision four of this section, than there are remaining awards,\nthe corporation shall provide in regulation the method of distributing\nthe remaining number of such awards, which may include a lottery or\nother form of random selection.\n