Applicant Requirements

• IMPORTANT! Veterans interested in this opportunity are not eligible to apply for this grant.
• Local education agencies (LEAs), both traditional public school districts and public school academies (PSAs), are eligible to complete the application on behalf of veterans.

Participant Requirements

• Possess a bachelor's degree from a public or private university.
• Must be enrolled in student teaching at a Michigan approved educator preparation provider.
• Be a veteran as defined by MCL 35.61.

• It must be for a duration of one semester.
  • For traditional route candidates, a semester is defined as 12-15 weeks.
  • For alternative route candidates, a semester is defined as 16-18 weeks.
• The veteran participant(s) must serve as a student teacher at a school operated by the district while shadowing a mentor teacher during the duration of the training. To the extent possible, the participating veteran must be paired with a mentor teacher who teaches in the applicable subject or grade level in which the participating veteran is seeking teacher certification.
• After the veteran participant has completed the semester of student teaching, the mentor teacher they were paired with must either approve or disapprove their completion of student teaching and recommend or not recommend their deployment into teaching in classrooms and certification. The participating veteran is not considered to have completed student teaching unless their mentor teacher has approved.
• Individuals who are disapproved for completion of the semester of student teaching may participate for one additional semester.
• Alternative route candidates must be in the final 16-18 weeks of their program to receive salary support for student teaching.

Student Teaching

Grant funds may be used to provide a salary rate equivalent to the starting teacher salary rate within the applying district for participating veterans for their completion of one semester of student teaching. Candidates who are disapproved for completion of their student teaching by their mentor teacher may participate in the program for one additional semester. 

student teacher salary rate provided in grant funding = district starting teacher salary rate

If in compliance with other laws, the district may provide additional compensation to the candidate's salary without the use of grant funds per subsection (3)(b). Funding for this grant may not be used to reimburse school districts for the payment of a salary for individuals in student teaching.

Potential Salary Add-on for Teacher Employment

If the starting teacher salary in the district is greater than the member’s highest yearly military salary, the district pledges to pay the full starting teaching salary without grant support. 

If the member’s highest yearly salary received in the military is greater than the starting teacher salary in the district, the district will provide a salary to the member that is equal to the starting teacher salary without grant support. However, without exceeding the highest teacher salary in the district, the program will provide in funding 50% of the difference between their highest yearly salary in the military and the starting teacher salary.

• District will pay member the starting teacher salary without grant funding.
• Program will offer 50% of the difference from member’s highest yearly military salary and the starting teacher salary in grant funding. 
• Member will earn a total of the starting teacher salary + 50% of the difference from their highest yearly military salary and the starting teacher salary. 
• This total may not exceed the highest teacher salary in the district. 

If the highest yearly military salary (Y) is greater than the starting teacher salary (X), the member’s total compensation in both program and non-program funds equals: x + 0.5(y-x).

IMPORTANT:

By applying for this grant, districts pledge to phase down the usage of grant funding, while accounting for any teacher salary increases within the district, so that 100% of a member’s salary is paid from funding other than funding received under this section by September 30, 2027, as described in subsection (3)(e)(ii).

Funding may also support:

• The payment of costs and fees associated with completion of each subject area examination for each subject area in which a participating veteran is seeking teacher certification.
• The hiring of support staff to implement the mentorship program described in this section.
• Stipends for mentor teachers to support program participants and completers. 

• FPME Military Veterans Grant Application Walkthrough Video

When the application window is open, LEAs and PSAs are welcome to apply by completing the following steps: 

1. Review this webpage's information to familiarize yourself with the program and candidate eligibility requirements for this grant.   
2. Establish or confirm your access to MiLogin for Third Party Users.
3. Login and request access to the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) as the agency and Grant Electronic Monitoring System/Michigan Administrative Review System (GEMS/MARS) as the application.  Note:  this will ONLY work on the Third Party MiLogin site.  
4. Collaborate with your business office to establish a budget and budget explanations.   
5. Login and access GEMS/MARS. Find the Questionnaire titled Future Proud Michigan Educator Veterans Grant Application and click the "view questionnaire" icon. 
6. Complete the application online GEMS/MARS application and click submit.
7. The department is unable to provide status for up to 6 weeks following the submission of the application.  

• Award Notifications: June 8, 2026
• Award Expenditure Period: by September 30, 2027

The Office of Educator Excellence (OEE) would like to congratulate all awardees of the 2025-2026 Military Veterans Troops-to-Teachers grant.

If you have any questions about this grant, please contact us at MDE-EdWorkforceGrants@Michigan.gov.