The U.S. Department of Education confirmed on August 18 that it deliberately reduced qualifying payment counts for some borrowers in Public Service Loan Forgiveness, describing the cuts as corrections to coding errors introduced in May 2024. The department has not said whether the removed months will be restored, or how an affected borrower can appeal.

Reports of shrinking counts began the week of August 10. One New York teacher opened the federal student aid portal and found six months gone from the tally that tracks the ten years of qualifying service the program requires. Her pay had not changed. Her job had not changed. Only the counter had.

Three dates now govern what teachers can do about it: September 11, when public comment closes on the revised PSLF form; September 29, 2026, the earliest date any borrower can be forced off the SAVE plan; and the date printed on each borrower's own SAVE transition notice, which starts a 90-day clock that runs on a different schedule for every person.

Step one: document the count before it changes again

Log in to StudentAid.gov this week and capture two screenshots with the date visible in the frame: the qualifying payment count, and the loan detail page listing servicer and balance. Write down how many months disappeared and the day you noticed. Put every older screenshot, approval letter, and certification email in the same folder.

That number is what any complaint turns on. A portal that has already been corrected cannot be reconstructed after the fact, and a servicer has no obligation to accept a recollection.

Step two: recertify employment in the first week of September

The form is the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and Temporary Expanded PSLF (TEPSLF) Certification and Application, OMB control number 1845-0110. A district human resources office signs the employer section. The department's own paperwork estimate puts filings at 913,713 a year.

Teachers who certify annually carry a paper record into any dispute. Teachers who wait a decade and file once are asking a servicer to take their word for it. Getting the signature in the first week of September, before the building fills up, turns a month of email into a five-minute errand.

The employer eligibility threat is off the table

A federal rule scheduled to take effect July 1, 2026 would have allowed the department to strip PSLF eligibility from employers it judged to have a substantial illegal purpose. On June 30, one day before it landed, Judge Myong J. Joun vacated the rule, finding that it exceeded the department's statutory authority and violated the First Amendment. The consolidated cases were brought by the National Council of Nonprofits and by Massachusetts alongside 21 other states and the District of Columbia.

The prior definition of a qualifying employer stands. The department is now revising the PSLF form to delete the attestation about employer illegality, and that revision is open for comment: Federal Register notice published July 13, 2026, volume 91, number 132, docket ED-2026-SCC-2443. Comments close September 11. A teacher whose count was cut can put that experience on the federal record, by name, in a single paragraph filed to the docket number.

The SAVE exit: your notice date is your deadline

All 7.5 million borrowers on SAVE have to leave the plan. Servicers began mailing transition notices July 1, and each borrower gets 90 days from the date of their own notice. There is no single national cutoff, only the department's assurance that nobody can be forced off before September 29, 2026.

Miss that personal window and placement is automatic, onto the Standard plan or the new Tiered Standard plan, with a fixed term of 10, 15, 20 or 25 years depending on balance. Find the notice, note the mailing date, and count 90 days forward on a calendar today.

One detail costs more than the deadline itself: months spent in SAVE administrative forbearance build no PSLF credit. A teacher who assumed the clock was running while parked there has been standing still. Interest has been accruing on SAVE loans since August 1, 2025.

Run the numbers on the new plan before inaction picks one

The Repayment Assistance Plan launched July 1, 2026 under the budget law signed in July 2025, and it prices payments as a straight percentage of adjusted gross income. The first $10,000 costs a flat $120 a year, and the rate climbs bracket by bracket to ten percent above $100,000. Divide the annual figure by twelve, subtract $50 for every dependent claimed, and the floor is $10 a month. Unpaid interest is subsidized when a payment does not cover monthly accrual, and the government matches up to $50 when a payment fails to reduce principal by that much. Balances are forgiven after 30 years, and payments count toward PSLF at ten.

New York salaries land in an awkward spot on that ladder. The state's average teacher salary was $98,655 in 2024 to 2025, second highest in the country according to the National Education Association. That puts a mid-career educator near the top of the nine percent band, close enough to the ten percent line that a spouse's income on a joint return can tip a household over it.

The comparison itself takes one evening: pull last year's adjusted gross income from the 1040, calculate the RAP bracket, and set it beside what income-based repayment would charge on the same income. Do it before the notice date, because after that the plan gets chosen by inaction.

Teacher Loan Forgiveness is not a bonus on top

Federal Teacher Loan Forgiveness pays up to $17,500 for mathematics, science and special education teachers, and up to $5,000 for others, after five consecutive full-time years in a low-income school. Those five years cannot also count toward PSLF, so the smaller award taken early can cost far more across a decade than it pays.

Eligibility also depends on the school appearing in the federal Teacher Cancellation Low Income directory for every year claimed. The state portion of that directory is typically updated in the summer after the school year ends, so check each year individually before counting on the award.

Free counseling, and the complaint ladder

NYSUT members reach Cambridge Credit Counseling at 888-254-9827. Paperwork help carries a fee that is waived for households under 150 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. Everyone else has EDCAP, the Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program run by the Community Service Society of New York, free at 888-614-5004 on weekdays from 9 to 4.

New York also licenses and supervises the servicers operating inside the state through its Department of Financial Services, an escalation route borrowers in most states do not have. When a servicer will not explain a reduced count in writing, the ladder runs servicer first, then DFS at 800-342-3736 or its online complaint form, then the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, then the federal student aid ombudsman. Ask for a written explanation at every step and keep the reference number.

What is still unknown

Nobody has published a count of how many educators statewide lost credit, and no such figure exists. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said borrowers who could see the end of the tunnel are now "forced to pay more and defer their dreams for months and years." Mike Pierce of Protect Borrowers called the timing baffling. Julie Margetta Morgan of The Century Foundation noted that recipients "have spent 10+ years working in service based on a promise of loan forgiveness."

The answers are unsettled. The calendar is not. Interest resumed August 1, 2025, the comment window closes September 11, and September 29 is the earliest any SAVE borrower can be forced off. Take the screenshots this week and get the signature while the building is still quiet.