Education
TROOPS TO TEACHERS
This partnership between the Defense and Education departments helps eligible military personnel begin careers as teachers in public schools. The DANTES-managed program provides counseling and assistance with certification requirements and programs, as well as placement services.
BASIC ELIGIBILITY
Service requirements. The program is open to applicants with a bachelor’s or advanced degree who has separated with six or more years of service on or after Oct. 1, 1990, or current Selected Reserve members with six or more years of creditable service toward retirement.
Educational requirements. Candidates must have a bachelor’s or advanced degree from an accredited school at the time of registration, hold the equivalent of one year of college with six years of experience in a vocational or technical field, or meet state requirements for vocational/technical teacher referral.
Eligibility for financial assistance. Financial aid may be provided to qualified service members as a stipend or bonus for teacher certification expenses in exchange for a commitment to teach for three years.
Teachers receiving a $5,000 stipend must teach in a school in a district in which at least 20 percent of students are from families living below the poverty level or in schools where at least 50 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch programs or where a high percentage of students have disabilities and between 10 percent and 20 percent of the district’s students are from poverty-level families.
In place of a stipend, participants may accept a $10,000 bonus if they are employed as a teacher in a school district that has at least 10 percent of students from families living below the poverty level and are teaching in a school where at least 50 percent of the student population is eligible to receive the free or reduced lunch program or in schools with a high percentage of students with disabilities.
Reserve component personnel must meet one of the following criteria:
♦ Be a Selected Reserve retiree.
♦ Be serving in the Selected Reserve with 10 or more years of creditable service toward retirement and commit to serving an additional three years or until eligible for retirement.
♦ Be separated from the Selected Reserve due to a physical disability on or after Jan. 8, 2002. Personnel must register within four years of separation.
♦ Have transitioned from active duty on or after Jan. 8, 2002, served six years on active duty immediately before separation and committed to three years with a Selected Reserve unit. They must register within four years of separation.
Contact: Call 800-452-6616 or visit www.dantes.doded.mil.