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Teacher Loan Forgiveness Calculator

A teacher loan forgiveness calculator estimates student loan forgiveness for teachers: how much of a teacher's federal loans Teacher Loan Forgiveness (TLF) and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) could cancel and what the teacher pays on each path.

What could be forgiven on my loans?

What you owe on your federal student loans today. Type a plain number like 35000, with no dollar sign or commas. We accept $0 to $500,000.

The average interest rate on those loans, as a plain number like 6.5. We accept 0 to 15.

What you teach

It sets the Teacher Loan Forgiveness cap. Secondary math and science teachers, and special education teachers at any level, can have up to $17,500 forgiven. Other full-time teachers can have up to $5,000.

Your pay for a year before taxes, as a plain number like 48000. We keep it the same every year and use it in place of adjusted gross income. We accept $0 to $1,000,000.

More options

The number of people in your household, counting you, as a whole number. We accept 1 to 12. RAP takes $50 a month off for each dependent, and we count everyone but you as one. IBR uses the size for the poverty guideline.

How many qualifying PSLF payments you have already made, as a whole number. We accept 0 to 119. Payments made during the years that earn Teacher Loan Forgiveness do not count.

Repayment plan

The plan for the PSLF path. RAP is the Repayment Assistance Plan, open since July 1 2026. IBR is Income-Based Repayment, open only if every loan was first paid out before July 1 2026.

How Does a Teacher Loan Forgiveness Calculator Work?

A teacher loan forgiveness calculator runs one loan through two separate paths and adds up what you pay on each. On the Teacher Loan Forgiveness path you make 10-year Standard payments for 5 years, and then a capped amount is forgiven. On the PSLF path you make income-based payments until 120 are made, and whatever is left is forgiven. In the Standard formula, B is the balance, i the interest rate for one month (the yearly rate divided by 12) and n the number of payments, 120.

payment = B × i ÷ (1 - (1 + i)^-n)

RAP payment = the larger of $10 and (base payment ÷ 12 - $50 × dependents). The base payment is a flat $120 a year at an AGI up to $10,000. Above that it is a share of your whole AGI, from 1% for $10,001 to $20,000 up to 10% above $100,000.

IBR payment = the smaller of (10% or 15%) × (AGI - 1.5 × poverty guideline) ÷ 12, and the 10-year Standard payment.

  1. Enter what you owe, your interest rate, what you teach and your yearly salary. More options hold your household size, the PSLF payments you have made and the repayment plan.
  2. We find the 10-year Standard payment from the balance and the rate. For the default loan it is $397.42 a month.
  3. On the Teacher Loan Forgiveness path we make 60 of those payments, then forgive the smaller of your cap and what you still owe. The default cap is $5,000, so $5,000 is forgiven. The rest is paid at the same monthly payment until it is gone.
  4. On the PSLF path under RAP we figure the monthly payment from your salary. For the default salary it is $160. Each month the unpaid interest is waived, and the Department's matching principal payment lowers the balance by $50, or by your payment if that is smaller.
  5. Under IBR the payment comes from your discretionary income instead, and interest builds each month and is paid first. After the last of the 120 payments, whatever is still owed is forgiven.
  6. Total you pay adds up your own payments only, never the Department's match. The result leads with the path where you pay less in total.
  7. The table shows both paths at the end of every year, up to the year the longer one ends.
Year by year for a teacher with a $35,000 balance at 6.5% and a $48,000 salary. This is an estimate, not an official result.
YearTLF paid so farTLF forgivenPSLF paid so farPSLF forgiven
0$0$0$0$0
1$4,769$0$1,920$0
2$9,538$0$3,840$0
3$14,307$0$5,760$0
4$19,076$0$7,680$0
5$23,845$5,000$9,600$0
6$28,614$5,000$11,520$0
7$33,383$5,000$13,440$0
8$38,152$5,000$15,360$0
9$41,065$5,000$17,280$0
10$41,065$5,000$19,200$29,000

How Loan Forgiveness Programs for Teachers Compare

How do Teacher Loan Forgiveness and PSLF differ?

Teacher Loan Forgiveness and PSLF differ in how much they cancel and how long they take. Teacher Loan Forgiveness cancels a capped amount, up to $5,000 or $17,500 depending on the subject, after 5 years of teaching at a qualifying low-income school. PSLF cancels whatever is left after 120 qualifying payments, so it takes at least 10 years. Rapunzl's calculator runs both for a teacher with a $35,000 balance at 6.5% and a $48,000 salary: Teacher Loan Forgiveness cancels $5,000 and PSLF with RAP cancels $29,000, and the PSLF path costs $19,200 against $41,065. Both numbers are estimates.

Can a teacher use both Teacher Loan Forgiveness and PSLF?

A teacher cannot count the same years of teaching toward both Teacher Loan Forgiveness and PSLF. StudentAid.gov says payments made during the 5 years that earn Teacher Loan Forgiveness are not among the 120 PSLF payments, so a teacher who wants both has to find those 120 payments in other years. That route runs longer than PSLF alone. Rapunzl's calculator keeps the two as separate paths and does not calculate the combined route. On the default loan the Teacher Loan Forgiveness path ends after 104 months and the PSLF path after 120 months, and the two are never added together.

How does RAP change what a teacher pays under PSLF?

RAP sets a teacher's monthly payment as a share of income, so under PSLF it decides how much gets paid before the rest is forgiven. For the default salary of $48,000 the share is 4%, which is $1,920 a year or $160 a month, so 120 payments come to $19,200. Each dependent takes $50 off the monthly payment, and the lowest payment is $10. In Rapunzl's calculator a household of 4 at the same salary, with 3 dependents, pays $10 a month and $1,200 in all, and $33,800 is forgiven. Full, on-time RAP payments count toward the 120 PSLF payments, and RAP months spent in deferment or forbearance do not.

What is PSLF buyback?

PSLF buyback lets a teacher who already has 120 months of qualifying employment pay for months that did not count toward the 120. Months on RAP or Tiered Standard cannot be bought back. A month costs the income-driven payment the teacher would have made, never more than the 10-year Standard payment. The teacher asks through PSLF Reconsideration and gets 90 days to pay. Rapunzl's PSLF Buyback Calculator estimates the price.

Questions about the teacher loan forgiveness calculator

As an estimate, a teacher with a $35,000 balance at 6.5% and a $48,000 salary could have $5,000 forgiven through Teacher Loan Forgiveness ($17,500 for a secondary math or science teacher or a special education teacher) or $29,000 through PSLF with RAP. Teacher Loan Forgiveness comes after 5 years, and the loan is paid off after 104 months for $41,065 in all. PSLF comes after 120 payments of $160, for $19,200 in all. The two programs cannot count the same years of teaching.

Teacher Loan Forgiveness is for teachers who work full time for 5 complete and consecutive academic years at an elementary or secondary school, or an educational service agency, that serves low-income students. The school has to be on the Teacher Cancellation Low Income Directory for at least one of those years. The teacher also has to meet the highly qualified rules. Only Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans and the matching Stafford loans count, and PLUS loans and Perkins loans do not. It forgives up to $5,000, or up to $17,500 for secondary math and science teachers and special education teachers. This calculator assumes you meet every rule.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness cancels the remaining Direct Loan balance after 120 qualifying monthly payments made while working full time for a qualifying employer, such as a government agency or a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The payments do not have to be in a row. Full time means 30 hours a week on average, or a contract of at least 8 months a year, which covers a teacher on a school-year contract. A payment counts when it is full and on time and made under a plan that qualifies. RAP, IBR and the 10-year Standard plan do, and Tiered Standard does not.

According to the IRS, as StudentAid.gov reports, student loan amounts forgiven under PSLF aren't considered income for federal tax purposes, so this calculator treats PSLF forgiveness as not federally taxable. State taxes are outside what it covers. This calculator does not say how Teacher Loan Forgiveness is taxed, because the sources we read do not state it, and we make no claim either way.

Yes, but only after the teacher already has 120 months of qualifying employment and an outstanding balance. Months on RAP or Tiered Standard cannot be bought back, and neither can months on loans folded into a consolidation loan. Buyback reaches back to October 2007, or to the first disbursement of the consolidation loan if that is later. A month costs the income-driven payment the teacher would have made. Where the gap is under a year and the teacher was on an income-driven plan on either side, it is the lower of the two payments around the gap. Otherwise the Department of Education asks for that year's tax information and family size. The price never goes above the 10-year Standard payment. The teacher requests buyback through PSLF Reconsideration, and the agreement that comes back is payable within 90 days. This calculator does not include buyback.

No. It is an estimate for learning, not an official result. It holds your salary the same every year, assumes full, on-time payments at a qualifying school, and counts everyone in your household but you as a RAP dependent. It leaves out taxes, deferments, Parent PLUS loans and any raises. For a salary of $120,000, for example, the default loan is paid off in 39 months and PSLF has nothing left to forgive. StudentAid.gov has the official numbers for your loans.

Federal repayment rules changed in 2025 and 2026, and some details are still being settled. RAP has been open only since July 1 2026. The payment counters on StudentAid.gov are also still being changed after a March 2026 court order. We checked the figures on October 17 2026, and a number here may be out of date by the time you read it.

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Sources. Federal Student Aid: Teacher Loan Forgiveness: Teacher Loan Forgiveness cancels up to $5,000 or $17,500 after 5 complete and consecutive academic years of full-time teaching at a low-income school. Federal Student Aid: Teacher Loan Forgiveness: The years that earn Teacher Loan Forgiveness cannot also count toward PSLF. Federal Student Aid: Public Service Loan Forgiveness: PSLF forgives the remaining Direct Loan balance after 120 qualifying monthly payments made while working full time for a qualifying employer. Federal Student Aid: PSLF Buyback: Loan amounts forgiven under PSLF are not considered taxable by the IRS, according to Federal Student Aid. Federal Student Aid: PSLF Buyback: PSLF buyback needs 120 months of qualifying employment first, excludes months on RAP or Tiered Standard, reaches back to October 2007, and is requested through PSLF Reconsideration. Federal Student Aid: One Big Beautiful Bill Act definitions: The Repayment Assistance Plan sets the monthly payment from adjusted gross income, and RAP payments count toward PSLF. Federal Student Aid: Income-driven repayment plans: Income-Based Repayment is 10% or 15% of discretionary income, and it stays open only to borrowers whose loans were all paid out before July 1 2026. Federal Student Aid: One Big Beautiful Bill Act updates: Federal student loan repayment rules changed in 2025 and 2026, and the official numbers for a borrower's loans are on StudentAid.gov. HHS ASPE: poverty guidelines: IBR discretionary income is measured against the HHS poverty guideline for the household size. Federal Student Aid (U.S. Department of Education), Teacher Loan Forgiveness page on StudentAid.gov: as of StudentAid.gov read 2026-10-17. Federal Student Aid (U.S. Department of Education), Public Service Loan Forgiveness page on StudentAid.gov (updated for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act), and its PSLF Buyback page (federal tax statement); PSLF form 1845-0110 (July 2026); 34 CFR 685.219: as of StudentAid.gov read 2026-10-17. Federal Student Aid, One Big Beautiful Bill Act Updates: Important Definitions (Repayment Assistance Plan), updated Aug. 24, 2026; 34 CFR 685.209(b) in the May 1, 2026 final rule: as of RAP available July 1, 2026 (StudentAid.gov read 2026-10-17). Federal Student Aid, StudentAid.gov IDR plan pages and OBBBA updates; 34 CFR 685.209(b)(1) and (b)(4) in the May 1, 2026 final rule: as of StudentAid.gov read 2026-10-17. Federal Student Aid, StudentAid.gov: Repayment Plans, Income-Driven Repayment Plans, IDR Plan Court Actions, and One Big Beautiful Bill Act Updates: as of StudentAid.gov pages last updated 2026-08-24 (OBBBA) and 2026-09-29 (court actions); read 2026-10-17. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, ASPE, 2026 Poverty Guidelines (48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia, Alaska, Hawaii): as of 2026 guidelines (checked 2026-10-17). Figures last checked October 17 2026.

Your salary stays the same every year. We add no raises and no inflation, and we use it in place of adjusted gross income. You work full time at a qualifying school for every payment, and each payment is full and on time. Everything you owe is in Direct Subsidized or Unsubsidized Loans, the loans Teacher Loan Forgiveness covers, and you meet its other rules: 5 complete and consecutive academic years of full-time teaching at a school on the low-income directory, and the highly qualified teacher rules. The Standard comparison treats today as the first payment of a 10-year schedule at your interest rate. After Teacher Loan Forgiveness we keep the same payment, so the loan ends sooner. Under RAP we count everyone in your household except you as a dependent. RAP really counts the dependents claimed on your federal tax return, so this is a simplification. Under RAP we treat unpaid interest as waived each month, so the balance never grows, and only your own payments count toward what you pay. Under IBR, interest builds on the principal each month and is paid first. Unpaid interest is tracked but does not compound, and the payment is never more than the Standard amount. A payment of $0 still counts as billed. IBR measures income against the poverty guideline for the 48 contiguous states and DC. The guidelines for Alaska and Hawaii are higher. PSLF payments already made shorten the PSLF path only. The Teacher Loan Forgiveness path always starts from today's balance. We show Teacher Loan Forgiveness and PSLF as two paths. We do not calculate taking Teacher Loan Forgiveness first and then making 120 PSLF payments in other years. We leave out taxes, deferments, Parent PLUS loans, married filing separately, raises, inflation, and any discharge after 20, 25 or 30 years, because PSLF comes first. Full, on-time RAP payments count toward the 120 PSLF payments. RAP months spent in deferment or forbearance do not count, and they cannot be bought back. The calculator assumes every payment is made on time, so it has no deferment or forbearance months. The sources we read do not state the federal tax treatment of Teacher Loan Forgiveness, so we do not state one. The payment counters on StudentAid.gov are still being changed after a March 2026 court order, so the official count may differ from yours.

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