Agencies must submit an annual written report to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on their use of student loan repayments during the previous calendar year.  OPM requests your agency student loan repayment report by March 31, 2011. 

Under 5 U.S.C. 5379 and 5 CFR part 537, agencies are authorized to establish a program under which they may agree to repay certain Federally made, insured, or guaranteed student loans in order to recruit or retain highly qualified personnel.  Each report must contain the following:

• Number of Federal employees who receive student loan repayment benefits;
• Job classification of each recipient (i.e., pay plan, occupational series, and job title); and
• Total dollar amount of student loan repayment benefits.

Each report must include data for an entire department or independent agency.  Therefore, departments and agencies must consolidate information from components or bureaus before forwarding their reports to OPM.

We invite you to share any additional information regarding best practices, lessons learned, program effectiveness, metrics used to measure program success, establishing a business case, program impediments, or other relevant details about your agency’s use of student loan repayments as a recruitment or retention tool.  In addition, we encourage you to identify any ways to improve the student loan repayment program.

If your agency did not provide any student loan repayments during calendar year 2010, please submit a negative report and specify whether your agency has established, is in the process of establishing, or does not intend to establish a student loan repayment program.  If applicable, please indicate the primary reason(s) your agency does not use student loan repayments as a recruitment or retention tool. 

Please submit your agency report, including negative reports, by email to pay-leave-policy@opm.gov.  Please include an agency point of contact with a phone number and   email address.  If you have any questions regarding this data request, you may contact OPM’s Employee Services, Pay and Leave, at pay-leave-policy@opm.gov or

(202) 606-2858.

cc: Human Resources Directors