ISAC Financial Aid Programs

This program supports talented students who want to become teachers in high-need schools. It recruits high school graduates and early college students, prepares them for teaching careers, and provides scholarships to help them earn teaching degrees.

This program provides assistance to students who attend colleges in Illinois or a neighboring state that participate in the special collegiate license plates. The Illinois Secretary of State issues special collegiate license plates for these institutions.

This is an entitlement program – if you are eligible, you will receive benefits regardless of the annual budget approved by the Illinois General Assembly and the Governor.

This is an entitlement program – if you are eligible, you will receive benefits regardless of the annual budget approved by the Illinois General Assembly and the Governor.

This program provides funds to repay student loans as an incentive for medical providers to pursue and continue their careers at veterans' homes in Illinois.

This program provides student loan repayment assistance to encourage Illinois students to work and continue working as social workers in public school districts and municipalities. Schools can include Illinois public elementary or secondary schools.

The Nurse Educator Loan Repayment Program aims to address the shortage of nurses and instructors to staff courses teaching nursing in Illinois. The program is intended to pay eligible loans to encourage Illinois nurse educators to continue their teaching careers in the state.

This program provides student loan repayment assistance to state and federal public defenders and state prosecutors who agree to remain employed as public defenders and prosecutors for at least three years.

 

This program provides loan repayment assistance to human services professionals to recruit and retain them to work for community-based human service agencies. It aims to address the high turnover rate and struggle to maintain consistent staffing at human service agencies.
 

This scholarship program is for Illinois students pursuing a certificate in practical nursing, a hospital-based diploma in nursing or an associate, bachelor’s, or a graduate degree in nursing. Students must demonstrate financial need to quality for the scholarship.

The Illinois Teachers Loan Repayment Program was created to encourage academically talented Illinois students to pursue and continue teaching in Illinois schools in low-income areas.

The Optometric Education Scholarship Program (OESP) provides scholarship assistance to encourage students to pursue a graduate degree in optometry. This scholarship is only available to students attending the Illinois College of Optometry. 

The Grant Program for Exonerees and Their Dependents pays tuition and mandatory fees at Illinois public colleges and community colleges. The grant can also be used to pay for a high school equivalency certificate.

By providing loan repayment assistance, this program aims to help recruit and retain Illinois mental health and substance use professionals working in underserved or rural areas.

The Aspirational Institutional Match Helping Illinois Grow Higher Education (AIM HIGH) Grant Program provides financial assistance toward a full-time undergraduate student's cost of attendance at one of Illinois' 12 public four-year institutions.

If a correctional officer working in a security role for the Illinois Department of Corrections — or an Illinois police or fire officer

Approximately the top ten percent of graduates from approved high schools are announced as State Scholars each year. The year designation given to State Scholars applies to the year the student will begin college. For example, 2027-28 State Scholars will begin college in fall 2027.

The School Social Work Scholarship Program was designed to encourage students to work as social workers in Illinois schools. 

This program was designed to support students who are deterred from attending or completing an educational program at an Illinois college because of a parent’s layoff from a retiring power plant or a closing coal mine.

Illinois Special Education Teacher Tuition Waiver (SETTW) Program was created to encourage current educators not licensed in special education and academically talented students to pursue careers as special education teachers in Illinois.  

The Teachers of Illinois Scholarship Program provides money for students who graduated from underserved school districts and commit to teach in eligible, underserved Illinois school districts. 

The Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity (ECACE) Scholarship was created to address the severe shortage of qualified early childhood educators in Illinois.

MAP grants do not need to be repaid. They are available to eligible residents who attend an approved Illinois college and have financial need.