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Terms and Conditions

High Need School Districts

For William & Mary's Noyce Scholars program, graduates must teach in a high need school district as described for the NSF Robert Noyce Scholarship Program Solicitation Document NSF 03-544 below:

1. It has at least one school in which 50 percent or more of the enrolled students are eligible for participation in the free and reduced price lunch program established by the Richard B.Russell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C.1751 et seq.),
2. It has at least one school in which: (i) more than 34 percent of the academic classroom teachers at the secondary level (across all academic subjects) do not have an undergraduate degree with a major or minor in, or a graduate degree in, the academic field in which they teach the largest percentage of their classes; or (ii) more than 34 percent of the teachers in two of the academic departments do not have an undergraduate degree with a major or minor in, or a graduate degree in the academic field in which they teach the largest percentage of their classes.
3.  It has at least one school whose teacher attrition rate has been 15 percent or more over the last three school years.

VDOE National School Lunch Program Free and Reduced Price Eligibility Reports 

This report is updated annually for the state of Virginia. Other states have similar databases for you to find which school districts qualify for you to fulfill the Noyce teaching obligation.

We strongly encourage you to consider teaching in a high needs school, however, you are not required to teach in a high needs school to fulfill your Noyce obligation. You are required to teach in a high needs school district for two years, for every year of scholarship you received. 

Example: A school district has one school with greater than 50% of its students eligible for free and reduced lunch, ABC Elementary School. This qualifies the school district as a high needs district, and you would be able to fulfill your Noyce obligation by teaching in this school district, at any school, not specifically ABC Elementary. 

Repayment for Failure to Meet Service Obligation

The recipient agrees to repay to W&M the amount of the scholarship if he or she does not--

1. Meet the service obligation or reporting requirements identified above in "Recipient's Retention of Scholarship Assistance for Meeting the Service Obligation;" or
2. Receive a waiver or suspension of this obligation as explained below in "Discharge of a Required Payment."

If the scholarship recipient does not fulfill his or her service obligation within six (6) years by teaching for two years in a high-need local educational agency for each year he or she received scholarship support, the recipient becomes obligated to fully repay the scholarship within six (6) years after his or her date of graduation from W&M. If the scholarship recipient withdraws from W&M prior to graduation, the recipient becomes obligated to repay the scholarship six (6) months after his or her withdrawal from W&M. If upon graduation from W&M, the scholarship recipient teaches in a high-need local educational agency for a period that is less than the period of his or her service obligation, the recipient becomes responsible for repayment of the percentage of the period for which the service obligation was not fulfilled.

Example: An individual receives a scholarship in the total amount of $10,000 to attend W&M. The individual graduates from W&M and works in a high-need local educational agency for one full school year. The individual then moves and takes a teaching position in a school district that is not high-need.

If the individual remains in the district that is not high-need, then six (6) years after graduation, the individual has fulfilled one-half of his or her service obligation and so must immediately repay one-half of the scholarship.

Until the scholarship recipient either satisfies the service obligation or repays the scholarship, the recipient agrees to provide W&M a current home address and telephone number and a current work address and telephone number, as well as other needed identifying information. In addition, the recipient understands that W&M and the high-need LEA are or will be using the recipient's social security number so that W&M can, if necessary, secure payment of these amounts from the recipient if he or she fails to meet the service obligation.

Discharge of a Required Repayment

W&M will waive or suspend an obligation to repay the scholarship of a scholarship recipient who has died or who demonstrates to W&M's satisfaction that, because of permanent physical or mental disability or some other extraordinary circumstance, he or she is not employable as a teacher. Upon receipt of acceptable documentation and approval of the discharge request, W&M returns to the scholarship recipient, or for a discharge of death, the recipient's estate, those payments received after the date the eligibility requirements for the discharge were met and prior to the date the discharge was approved. W&M also returns any payments received after the date the discharge was approved.