Student Loan Forgiveness Programs by States

Student Loan Forgiveness by State

As of June 2022, 49 states and the District of Columbia offer at least one student loan forgiveness program. There are a total of 130 state-level student debt cancellation plans in the U.S. Texas has the most student loan forgiveness programs.

North Dakota is the only state that does not currently have its own dedicated student loan forgiveness program. These programs are subject to change or close at any time and states can offer new ones as well.

Most student loan forgiveness program plans are designed to help borrowers in specific professions so as to attract more students seeking the same careers to a particular state (for example, doctors, science and math teachers, lawyers, etc.).

That this allows the state to potentially draw multiple kinds of workers into the local economy is also why a state might offer more than one program. Because economic circumstances will also differ by state, other variations are likely to exist among programs pertaining to the same careers. Below are the three areas that can differ the most from program to program.

Amount: Among all U.S. state programs, the amount of educational debt that can be forgiven can range from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars. Additionally, some debt cancellation plans offer different amounts of debt forgiveness depending on the applicant. For instance, Florida's Nursing Student Loan Forgiveness Program (NSLFP) offers a flat rate of $4,000 per year.
Eligibility: Each student loan forgiveness program has a set of criteria that borrowers must meet in order to have their debt forgiven. On a basic level, applicants typically must be a citizen of the U.S. and/or the relevant state, have outstanding educational debt, and be actively working in the required profession. The Massachusetts Loan Repayment Program (MLRP) for health professionals, for example, is available to a wide variety of healthcare workers, whereas Missouri's Health Professional Nursing Student Loans program is, unsurprisingly, only available to nurses.
Application process and cycle: Unlike the procedure for federal programs, there is no standard procedure for applying to state loan forgiveness programs. For example, not all states have online application processes available on their websites. Some simply require emailing an individual involved in the program. Required information and/or documentation also varies.

Although federal loan forgiveness options are available for U.S. citizens in any part of the country, state programs are still worth looking into, whether a borrower is a graduate or a prospective student trying to decide which school to attend.

In fact, certain programs were implemented in an effort to attract more workers in highly sought-after fields within a state's communities. Iowa's Health Professional Recruitment Program (HPRP), for example, was established to increase the number of athletic trainers, occupational therapists, physicians, physician assistants, podiatrists, and physical therapists practicing in high-need communities.

Although no one should plan their academic future around having to seek debt cancellation, there's no harm in students who are seeking higher education in these coveted fields researching which programs could serve as a backup plan should they encounter some sort of financial hardship.

Below is a list of each state's student loan forgiveness program in the U.S.: