261.110  Teach Iowa scholar program.
  1.  A teach Iowa scholar program is established to provide teach Iowa scholar grants to selected high-caliber teachers. The commission shall administer the program in collaboration with the department of education. 
  2.  An Iowa resident or nonresident applicant shall be eligible for a teach Iowa scholar grant if the applicant meets all of the criteria specified under, or established in accordance with, subsection 3. Priority shall be given to applicants who are residents of Iowa. A person is ineligible for this program if the person receives a forgivable loan under section 261.111 or loan forgiveness under section 261.112.
  3.  Criteria for eligibility shall be established by the commission and shall include but are not limited to the following:
  a.  The applicant was in the top twenty-five percent academically of students exiting a teacher preparation program approved by the state board of education pursuant to section 256.7, subsection 3, or a similar teacher preparation program in another state, or had earned other comparable academic credentials.
  b.  The applicant is preparing to teach in fields including but not limited to science, technology, engineering, or mathematics; English as a second language or special education instruction; or is preparing to teach in a hard-to-staff subject as identified by the department. The department shall take into account the varying regional needs in the state for teachers in these subject areas when applying the criterion of this paragraph. The department shall annually identify and designate hard-to-staff subjects for the purpose of this paragraph. The eligibility of an applicant who receives a teach Iowa scholar grant and who is preparing to teach in a hard-to-staff subject as identified by the department shall not be affected in subsequent years if the department does not continue to identify that subject as a hard-to-staff subject.
  c.  The applicant met all of the eligibility requirements of this section on or after January 1, 2013. A person who met the program eligibility requirements of this section prior to January 1, 2013, is ineligible for this program.
  4.  A selected applicant who meets all of the eligibility requirements of this section shall be eligible for a teach Iowa scholar grant for each year of full-time employment completed in this state as a teacher for a school district, charter school, area education agency, or accredited nonpublic school. A teach Iowa scholar grant shall not exceed four thousand dollars per year per recipient. Grants awarded under this section shall not exceed a total of twenty thousand dollars per recipient over a five-year period. If a selected applicant has received a federally guaranteed Stafford loan under the federal family education loan program or the federal direct loan program, a federal direct plus loan, or a federal Perkins loan, the selected applicant may elect to have the commission make payment under the program directly to the selected applicant’s student loan holder.
  5.  The commission, in collaboration with the department of education, shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 17A to administer this section. The rules shall include but shall not be limited to a process for use by the commission to determine which eligible applicants will receive teach Iowa scholar grants.
  6.  A teach Iowa scholar fund is established in the state treasury. The fund shall be administered by the commission and shall consist of moneys appropriated by the general assembly and any other moneys received by the commission for deposit in the fund. The moneys in the fund are appropriated to the commission for the teach Iowa scholar program. Notwithstanding section 8.33, moneys in the fund at the close of the fiscal year shall not revert to the general fund of the state but shall remain available for expenditure for the teach Iowa scholar program for subsequent fiscal years. Notwithstanding section 12C.7, subsection 2, interest or earnings on moneys in the fund shall be credited to the fund.
2013 Acts, ch 121, §46; 2014 Acts, ch 1135, §15; 2015 Acts, ch 138, §16, 161, 162; 2017 Acts, ch 150, §1, 3, 4
Referred to in §261.112
2017 amendment to subsection 2 takes effect May 11, 2017, and does not apply to an individual receiving both a grant under this section and loan forgiveness under §261.112 on that date; 2017 Acts, ch 150, §3, 4