Student Loan Forgiveness in Georgia: State, Federal, and PSLF Options

Student loan forgiveness in Georgia comes from three places: state programs that repay or cancel debt for people who work in specific Georgia jobs, federal programs like Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Teacher Loan Forgiveness, and a small number of private initiatives. The federal side is in the middle of a major overhaul, so several deadlines in 2026 and 2028 matter for anyone with federal loans.

Georgia carries the third-highest average student loan balance in the country, at $42,226 per borrower across roughly 1.7 million residents.¹ Knowing which program fits your job and loan type is the difference between real relief and a missed window.

Georgia State Programs That Repay or Cancel Your Loans

Georgia’s state programs are tied to specific professions and require you to work in Georgia for a set period. They pay down your loans directly or cancel a state-issued loan year by year.

Healthcare Workers in Rural Counties

The Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce runs eight loan repayment programs for healthcare professionals who agree to work full-time in Georgia counties with populations of 50,000 or fewer.² Eligible fields include physicians, dentists, physician assistants, advanced practice registered nurses, behavioral health providers, and nurse faculty.³

The physician program is the most detailed publicly. It requires a four-year contract with at least 40 hours per week, including 32 clinical hours of direct patient care. Awards scale from $25,000 in year one to $50,000 in year four. You must keep a Georgia Medicaid number and actively treat Medicaid and PeachCare patients. Break the service obligation and you owe double the award for the uncompleted portion.⁴ Application cycles generally open in mid-to-late summer; the most recent opened August 1, 2026.³

Behavioral Health Graduate Students

The Behavioral Health Professions Service Cancelable Loan, run by the Georgia Student Finance Commission, offers up to $20,000 per year for full-time graduate students (up to $10,000 half-time) in behavioral health programs at eligible Georgia schools. The aggregate cap is $120,000 or six years.⁵

One year of full-time work in an eligible Georgia behavioral health position cancels one year of loan balance. You need the applicable license or credential and must serve Georgia residents with mental health or substance abuse care. Applying requires a GAfutures account and a current FAFSA on file.⁵

Peace Officers

Qualifying Georgia peace officers can receive up to $4,000 per year toward eligible student loans, capped at $20,000 or five years. You must work full-time in Georgia for 12 consecutive months, hold POST certification with arrest powers, and either have earned a bachelor’s degree before being hired as a peace officer on or after January 1, 2024, or be currently enrolled at least half-time in a criminal justice bachelor’s program. Awards are first-come, first-served based on state funding. Only federal and state student loans qualify. Private loans do not.⁶

Georgia Army National Guard

Members of the Georgia Army National Guard can receive a service cancelable loan covering up to 100 percent of undergraduate tuition at Georgia public colleges and universities, for up to 120 semester hours. Two years of service in good standing after completing the degree or coursework cancels the loan in full. Fall below a 2.0 GPA or fail the service requirement and the loan converts to a standard repayable debt with interest.⁷

Engineering Students

The Georgia Student Finance Commission also lists a Scholarship for Engineering Education as a state loan with service cancellation, though current award amounts and application procedures are not publicly available on the program’s landing page.⁸

Public Service Loan Forgiveness

PSLF forgives the remaining federal Direct Loan balance for borrowers who make 120 qualifying monthly payments while working full-time for a qualifying public service employer. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, left PSLF itself intact.⁹ The new Repayment Assistance Plan counts as an eligible repayment plan for PSLF.¹⁰ PSLF forgiveness remains tax-free.¹¹

A change did take effect July 1, 2026. A final rule stemming from a March 2025 executive order titled “Restoring Public Service Loan Forgiveness” redefined “qualifying employer” to exclude organizations the Department of Education determines are engaged in activities with a “substantial illegal purpose.” The listed categories include aiding violations of federal immigration law, supporting terrorism, performing certain medical procedures on minors in violation of state or federal law, and engaging in patterns of illegal discrimination or trespass.¹² If you worked at an employer before it was declared ineligible, you keep credit for that earlier service.¹³

Teacher Loan Forgiveness

Georgia teachers who work full-time for five consecutive years at a qualifying low-income school can get federal Teacher Loan Forgiveness. Highly qualified special education teachers and secondary math or science teachers can receive up to $17,500. Other eligible teachers receive up to $5,000. Only Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans and Federal Stafford Loans qualify.¹⁴

A school qualifies based on the share of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch. In Georgia, the threshold is 30 percent or higher, and the Georgia Department of Education submits the eligible school list annually to the federal TCLI directory.¹⁵

The SAVE Plan Is Ending

If you enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education plan, it is being wound down. In December 2025, the Department of Education settled with a coalition of states, including Georgia, to formally end SAVE. The Department agreed to stop enrolling new borrowers, deny pending applications, and transition all existing enrollees out of the plan.¹⁶ A federal court approved the settlement in March 2026.¹⁷

Starting July 1, 2026, SAVE enrollees began receiving notices from their loan servicers directing them to choose a new repayment plan within 90 days. If you do not choose, you will be automatically placed into either the Standard Repayment Plan or the new Tiered Standard Plan.¹⁷

Deadlines Every Federal Borrower Needs to Know

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act sets several dates that determine what forgiveness pathways stay open to you.⁹

June 30, 2026: last day for a consolidation loan to be disbursed if you want to keep access to Income-Based Repayment through consolidation. The Department of Education advises applying at least three months ahead of that date.¹⁸
July 1, 2026: new loans and consolidation loans disbursed on or after this date are limited to two repayment options, the Standard plan or the new Repayment Assistance Plan. IBR, ICR, and PAYE are off the table for these loans.¹⁸
July 1, 2026: the Graduate PLUS loan program is eliminated for new borrowers. Current borrowers can continue borrowing for up to three more academic years.⁹
July 1, 2028: ICR, PAYE, and SAVE are eliminated. If you are on one of those plans you must switch to Standard, IBR, or the Repayment Assistance Plan by that date, or you will be automatically enrolled in RAP.⁹

One tax change matters for planning. IDR forgiveness became taxable again on January 1, 2026, when the American Rescue Plan’s tax exclusion expired. PSLF forgiveness stays tax-free.¹¹

The New Repayment Assistance Plan

RAP launched July 1, 2026, as the main income-driven option going forward. Monthly payments range from 1 to 10 percent of adjusted gross income, with a minimum payment of $10 and a $50 reduction for each dependent. If you make on-time payments, any remaining unpaid interest is waived. If a payment does not reduce principal by at least $50, the Department provides a matching payment of up to $50 per month. Forgiveness of any remaining balance kicks in after 360 on-time monthly payments, a 30-year timeline.¹⁹

A Metro Atlanta Private Program

The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta runs a Student Loan Debt Pilot Program that pays up to $30,000 per borrower for residents of specific metro Atlanta neighborhoods: Fair Oaks in South Cobb, College Park and East Point in South Fulton, and Thomasville Heights. Household income must be $150,000 or less.²⁰

As of mid-2026, the foundation had erased $868,798 in debt for 31 residents, averaging more than $28,000 per participant, and projected reaching 40 residents by the end of 2026. The program relaunched for new applications in August 2025.²¹²²

1
Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. Intergenerational Student Loan Debt in Georgia: Who It Impacts and How to Mitigate It
2
Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce. Loan Repayment Programs
3
Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce. Loan Repayment Programs Details
4
Georgia Secretary of State. Georgia Physician Education Loan Repayment Program Regulations
5
University of Georgia Office of Student Financial Aid. BHPSCL
6
Georgia Student Finance Commission. Georgia Peace Officers Loan Repayment Program Regulations
7
Georgia Army National Guard. GAARNG Service Cancelable Loan SOP
8
GAfutures. State Loans
9
NASFAA. Federal Student Aid Changes Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act
10
American Medical Association. Student Loan Overview: One Big Beautiful Bill Act
11
NASFAA. Welcome to 2026: Some Student Loan Forgiveness Is Now Taxable
12
U.S. Department of Education. Final Rule on Public Service Loan Forgiveness
13
Morgan Lewis. DOE Finalizes Regulations on Illegal Activities Causing Ineligibility for PSLF
14
Federal Student Aid. Teacher Loan Forgiveness Options
15
Georgia Department of Education. Teacher Cancellation Low Income
16
U.S. Department of Education. Missouri Settlement Agreement
17
U.S. Department of Education. Next Steps for Borrowers Enrolled in Unlawful SAVE Plan
18
Federal Student Aid. Big Updates
19
U.S. Department of Education. Fact Sheet: Trump Administration Simplifying Student Loan Repayment
20
Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Reverse Scholarship Program Targets Student Loan Debt in Metro Atlanta
21
Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta. Supporting Metro Atlanta Students: Scholarships, College Completion, Student Loan Debt Relief
22
Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta. Student Loan Policy Update