CRSS Eligibility for the Community Behavioral Health Care Professional Loan Repayment Program

Program Overview

"The Community Behavioral Health Care Professional Loan Repayment Program provides loan repayment assistance to qualified mental health and substance use professionals. The program was designed as incentive for recruitment and retention of those who practice in underserved or rural areas. It seeks to help address the shortage of Illinois community-based behavioral workers that causes disparities in access to critical mental health and substance use services. The amount of the annual award to qualified applicants to repay their student loan debt is based on their position and may be received for up to four years."

Highlights:

Administered by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC)
CRSS was just added to the list of eligible professionals this year (CPRS is not included)
Deadline to Apply: November 15, 2024
Program Website : Illinois Student Assistance Commission

Eligibility

To be eligible, you must meet at least 3 minimum conditions:

You must have been working for the entire past 12 months as one of the types of behavioral health professionals approved for the program (which does now include CRSS), AND
For each year the assistance is received, you must fulfill a separate 12-month period as a behavioral health professional, AND
The facility you work at must be listed in the online application. The facilities listed were pre-approved for this program because they were designated as being in an underserved or rural health professional shortage area (HPSA), and part of the mental health discipline by the US Department of Health and Human Services, which generally includes: community mental health centers, behavioral health clinics, substance use treatment centers, and some State-operated psychiatric hospitals.

Please note: if your employer is not listed in the online application, you are not considered to be eligible for this program. For questions, you can contact IASC at isac.studentservices@illinois.gov or 800-899-4722.

Other Important Notes:

You must submit a new application each year you wish to be considered for repayment assistance.
Not all kinds of student loans are included; see details on the program's website.
Funds are not guaranteed and can run out, so the sooner you apply, the better.
Each fiscal year, no less than 30% of program funding will be reserved for awards to minority applicants of African American or Black, Hispanic or Latinx, Asian, or Native American origin.
The award amount is based on the applicant's remaining balance on eligible education loans, not to exceed $4,000 per year for a CRSS.

Application Process

Please note: you should have all information and documents ready before you start the application - you cannot save the application and come back to it.

Documents needed:

current student loan account statement/bill (from within past 30 days, has your full account number and all loan information on it - payment amount, balance, etc.)
Copy of your CRSS certificate (not required during the initial application, but will likely be requested later so will save time to include it now)

Other Information needed:

Date you started in your current position as a CRSS (to verify you've been there over a year)
Most recent date you earned or renewed your CRSS certificate

How to Apply

Go to: Financial Aid Application
Read the information on that page, and then click the "Launch Application" button.
Scroll about halfway down the page to find "Community Behavioral Healthcare Professional Loan Repayment Program" and click the link.
It will ask you to create an account, and then fill out the required information and upload the required documents.
If you can't upload the documents electronically, they'll accept them by mail.