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Dear Colleague Letter: PSLF for State and Local Employees

October 17, 2024

State and local government leaders,

Today, President Biden announced that the Biden-Harris Administration has approved debt forgiveness for over 1 million public service workers through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. Before President Biden and Vice President Harris took office, only 7,000 borrowers had ever received public service loan forgiveness through this program. Thousands of public servants were trapped making payments on debts that should have been forgiven. Now, thanks to the significant improvements the Department of Education has made to the PSLF program, over 1 million people – including state and local government employees – are receiving lifechanging loan forgiveness.  As your U.S. Secretary of Education, I’m proud to be part of an administration that has turned a promise broken into a promise kept.

We are reaching out to ask you to encourage your employees to apply for PSLF. State and local government employees dedicate their lives to serving the American people, and as the law intended, we want to make sure that all eligible public service workers receive the benefit of relief in recognition of that service. 

We need your help to spread the word on the PSLF program. There are three actions you can take to ensure state and local employees have access to PSLF:

  • Share Information on PSLF: Send an email to your staff with information on PSLF, encouraging them to see whether they are eligible for PSLF and if so, apply. Additional information on PSLF and how to apply can be found here as well as the attached flyer. 
  • Amplify PSLF on social channels: Share information on how to apply to PSLF and positive stories about staff that have benefited from PSLF, and encourage staff to share their stories.
  • Leverage Human Capital Officers: Ask your Human Capital Officers to share information on PSLF, such as by:
    • Incorporating information about PSLF, such as the attached flyer, into the onboarding process and including within a Human Resources portal, employee site, or in internal newsletters, by linking to the PSLF homepage.
    • Proactively sharing your agency’s EIN tax number so that employees can easily complete the employment certification section of the PSLF application, and designating an individual or email inbox where employees can digitally send their forms for signature by your agency.
    • Hosting webinars on eligibility and how staff can apply. 

If any additional information would be helpful to your efforts, please don’t hesitate to let us know.

Sincerely,

/s/

Miguel A. Cardona, Ed.D.

U.S. Secretary of Education

 

What is Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and How Do I Apply? 

If you’re employed by a government or not-for-profit organization, you might be eligible for the PSLF Program. The PSLF Program forgives the remaining balance on your Federal Direct Loans: 

To qualify for PSLF, you must: 

 Qualifying Employment 

Qualifying employment for PSLF isn’t about the specific job that you do for your employer—it’s about who you work for. Use our employer search tool to see if your employer qualifies for PSLF. 

Which Employer Types Are Eligible 

 

Eligible Ineligible 
  • U.S.-based government organizations at any level (federal, state, local, or tribal) – this includes the U.S. military 
  • Not-for-profit organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code 
  • Other not-for-profit organizations that devote a majority of their full-time equivalent employees to providing certain qualifying public services
  • For-profit organizations, including for-profit contracted organizations 
  • Labor union offices/headquarters 
  • Partisan political organizations 

 

To be considered for PSLF, you only need to submit a PSLF form. The easiest way to do this is by using the PSLF Help Tool. The PSLF Help Tool allows you to: 

  1. Check to see if your employer is already in our employer database. 
  2. Request that your employer’s eligibility be reviewed if it is not already in our database or has not yet had its eligibility determined. 
  3. Prepare and sign your PSLF form, and request certification and signature from your employer—all electronically. 
  4. Generate your PSLF form for manual signature and submission. 

Top tip: Certify your employment every year and any time you change employers. This lets you confirm you’re on track toward forgiveness. 

Additional information on PSLF and how to apply can be found here. 

 

Office of Communications and Outreach (OCO)
Page Last Reviewed:
October 17, 2024