Leaves of Absence

Participants may take a leave of absence from the program for up to two years. After two years, you must either return to the program or terminate participation. Participants are responsible for their student loan payments during the deferment period. If you place your loans into forbearance during the leave period, any interest that accrues will not be covered by LRAP. The time spent on a leave of absence will not be counted towards LRAP forgiveness if it’s requested within a six month term. You may owe money back to the program for the term you were awarded.

Paused Participation due to Clerkship

According to the LRAP program guidelines updated as of January 2020, current participants are allowed to pause their participation in the LRAP program in order to complete a judicial clerkship without using their Leave of Absence time.  Therefore, you would need to notify the office regarding the term of the clerkship to use this pause time.  In order to reactivate your LRAP participation you must reapply to the program, and be employed in an LRAP qualifying position right after the term expires.

LRAP Appeals

In certain instances, an applicant may have an employment opportunity or other scenario which does not fall within published LRAP guidelines. In such cases, graduates should submit an appeal of special circumstances to the LRAP Committee for review. The appeals committee may approve an exception only to the extent that funding permits and only if extenuating circumstances occurring within the two-year window had interfered with the applicant’s ability to obtain public interest employment and apply for LRAP. Some examples of extenuating circumstances are disability, full-time child care, and inability to obtain a public service job despite bona fide attempts to secure one. All Committee submissions are anonymous and Committee members who are able to identify the appellant are asked to excuse themselves from the voting process. Submissions should be sent well in advance of the first of the months listed below and should be accompanied by supporting documentation. Committee meetings are held as follows:

February – late February notification
May – July notification
August – late August notification
November – January notification