JB Pritzker, Governor, State of Illinois

SETTW Tuition Waiver Process

{ISAC Rules, Section 2765.40}

The functionality to certify eligibility for Illinois SETTW Program newly-awarded students – as well as transfer students – is available in the GAP Access portal.

After ISAC has determined SETTW award recipients for the academic year, the next step in the process is for schools to certify each student’s eligibility and enrollment via the SETTW system. For each waiver awarded, the institution must certify either that the student is enrolled in a special education discipline or that they are ineligible for the waiver.

Within the SETTW system, the SETTW Certification List includes students who have been newly awarded program benefits for the current academic year, as well as those who have transferred to the institution. On the SETTW Certification List:

  • Students who applied for the Minority Teacher of Illinois (MTI) Scholarship Program and Golden Apple Scholars of Illinois Program are identified with a “Y” indicator in the Dual Awarded columns to warn schools of a potential conflicting scholarship, since students cannot receive both SETTW and MTI or GA during the same award year.
  • The Transfer Indicator column will be populated with a “T” when the student has received benefits in a prior term or year at a different school and has now transferred to the institution.

If a student is ineligible to receive an SETTW award, one of the following disqualification codes should be selected from the drop-down box of the Disqualified Reason information box:

  • The recipient did not enroll within ten days after the beginning of the term for which ISAC initially awarded the waiver
  • The recipient is enrolled at this school, but is not seeking an initial special education teacher licensure
  • The recipient accepted the Minority Teachers of Illinois (MTI) Scholarship Program or the Golden Apple Scholars of Illinois Program rather than the SETTW Program
  • Recipient declined the tuition waiver
  • Recipient is not an Illinois resident
  • Recipient is not a United States citizen or eligible noncitizen
  • Recipient is not making satisfactory academic progress
  • Recipient is in default on a student loan, or owes a refund on any state or federal grant

If a college certifies a student as ineligible for an award, a Notice of Disqualification is sent to the applicant.

When all data entry has been completed, click on the Save/Submit button at the bottom of the page. Once entries have been saved, they are considered submitted and certification of the student’s record is complete.

Schools cannot make a correction to a certification once it has been submitted in the SETTW system. All certification corrections must be submitted to School Services by sending an e-mail to isac.schoolservices@illinois.gov.

If a qualified applicant is eligible for both a tuition waiver and grant assistance under the Monetary Award Program (MAP) grant, the SETTW award must be used first.

Step-by-step instructions to certify SETTW eligibility are provided in the Tuition Waiver Certification Process User Guide, which will soon be updated to reflect 2023-24 processing and may be accessed either in the right-margin menu or via the SETTW Electronic Processing page.