Get $15,000 In Student Loan Repayment

To be eligible for the ROZ program you must…

1. Have a newly established permanent address in a participating Kansas county.
2. Have an active student loan
   balance in your name.
3. Have an Associate’s, Bachelor’s, or Postgraduate Degree before moving to the participating county.
4. Submit an application by October 31, 2024.

Each qualifying participant may receive up to $15,000 from the state and a local sponsor over 5 years to help pay for their student loans. After you apply and submit all your documentation, the ROZ team will review your submission and potentially ask you for additional documentation to verify details. After you have completed that process, your application will be sent to the ROZ Manager for a final review and determination. You will receive notice of that determination via email. The types of determinations are as follows: Approved, Qualified Waiting for Funding, Qualified Waiting for Sponsor Confirmation, or Denial.

A local sponsor provides half of the annual payment for their participants, and the state provides the other half. A local sponsor is either a county, city, employer, economic development organization, or foundation. You must have a sponsor to provide the local match in order to receive payments. You get a local sponsor in several different ways:

1. The county may be funding the program to recruit qualified workers.
2. Your city can be a sponsor in a similar fashion to a county.
3. A local foundation/economic development group may be sponsoring.
4. They can be your employer and offer this as a hiring incentive.

In most instances, the county is the local sponsor. You can find the local sponsors for your county using the interactive map here.

Applications are all online through the ROZ Portal. You can create an account and upload all documents directly through the ROZ Portal. Applicants must provide proof of current permanent residence in a ROZ county, Valid ID, proof of prior addresses, transcripts, and loan documents.

ROZ stands for Rural Opportunity Zones. The state of Kansas has designated 95 counties as “Rural Opportunity Zones,” which means moving there comes with significant added benefits such as Student Loan Repayment Assistance and/or a 100% Personal State Income Tax Credit.

ROZ Student Loan Repayment Assistance is administered by the Kansas Department of Commerce (KDC). KDC partners with counties, cities, employers, economic development organizations, and foundations to provide up to $15,000 in student loan repayment assistance over 5 years to approved applicants.

For questions regarding ROZ applications and eligibility, please email KDC_ROZ@ks.gov for the quickest response.

Eligible applicants must have a newly established permanent address in a participating Kansas county so long as that address was established after the county began participating in the program. Applicants must have an active student loan balance in their name, as well as an associate’s, bachelor’s or post-graduate degree prior to moving to the participating county. To apply, applicants will need to provide proof of residence in the ROZ County, proof of previous permanent residency, transcripts with degree dates and student loan balance with distribution dates.

To apply, create an account on the ROZ Portal, provide all required information, and upload all documents directly through the ROZ Portal. Applicants must provide proof of current permanent residence in a ROZ county, Valid ID, proof of prior addresses, transcripts, and loan documents. This must be completed by October 31, 2024.

Each qualifying participant may receive up to $15,000 from the state and a local sponsor over 5 years to help pay for their student loans. After you apply and submit all of your documentation, the ROZ team will review your submission and potentially ask you for additional documentation to verify details. After you have completed that process, your application will be sent to the ROZ Manager for a final review and determination. You will receive notice of that determination via email. The types of determinations are as follows: Approved, Qualified Waiting for Funding, Qualified Waiting for Sponsor Confirmation, or Denial.

A ROZ local sponsor is either a county, city, employer, economic development organization, or foundation. The local sponsor provides half of the annual payment for their participants, and the state provides the other half. You must have a sponsor to provide the local match in order to receive payments. You get a local sponsor in several different ways; they can be your employer and offer this as a hiring incentive, the county may be funding the program to recruit qualified workers, and local foundation/economic development group may be sponsoring, and even your city can be a sponsor in a similar fashion to a county.

Payments for ROZ Student Loan Repayment Assistance are up to $3,000 per year, per participant. Disbursements are made in the fall via direct deposit to each participant. You have 30 days after receiving the award to provide KDC with proof that you applied that much money towards your loans, either via monthly payments throughout the year, or a lump sum payment at the end when you receive the funds.

New residents to Kansas who move into one of our Rural Opportunity Zones may be eligible for a 100% personal state income tax credit. To be eligible, applicants…

• Must establish residency in a rural opportunity zone on or after July 1, 2011, and prior to Jan. 1, 2026.
• Must have resided outside Kansas for five or more years immediately prior to establishing their residency in a Kansas rural opportunity zone.
• Must have had no more than $10,000 in Kansas source income in any one year for five or more years immediately prior to establishing their residency in a Kansas rural opportunity zone.
• Must have resided in a Kansas rural opportunity zone during the entire taxable year for which the credit will be claimed.
• The tax return on which the credit is claimed must be timely filed (including an extension of time).
• The taxpayer may not be delinquent in filing any tax return with or paying any tax due to the state of Kansas or any political subdivision.

This is a dropdown menu asking if your county’s sponsor is a County, City, Employer, Economic Development Organization, or Foundation. This can be found on the ROZ website’s interactive map.

This is the county you have moved to or are moving to. Select your county from the drop-down menu.

Search for the name of the sponsor (if it is an employer or foundation). If you don’t know your sponsor’s name, please put in the county you are applying for.

This is your name, contact information, and Social Security Number (SSN).

You will need to provide the address of where you live in the ROZ county, previous residences, and the dates when you lived there.

This is your employer, your title, and your annual salary.

Provide the highest level of education you have received and where your degree is from.

Provide the name of your student loan lending institution(s), the total balance currently due, and the date of your last loan distribution.

Sign up to be a ROZ sponsor here. The ROZ sponsor payment portal can be accessed here.

Make sure you have completed all the required fields (marked with a red *) before pressing the “Next” button. If all required fields have been filled, you will be returned to the main application page and see that the “Application Complete” button has turned from red to green.

You can now click the blue “Support Documents” button to upload the following files:

1. Valid Personal ID (Driver’s License or Passport)
2. Proof of ROZ Domicile (Utility Bill, Lease Agreement, Driver’s License)
3. Proof of Previous Domicile (Utility Bill, Lease Agreement, old Driver’s License)
4. College Transcript(s) with Graduation Date
5. Student Loan with Distribution Dates

Accepted File types include: .csv .doc .docx .jpeg .pdf .txt .xls .xlsx. Once completed, click the “Next” button. You will be returned to the main application page and see that the “Documents Complete” button has turned from red to green.

You can open your Application Information and Support Documents to amend them at any time. You can exit the ROZ Portal and log back in with your credentials without losing your work as well. For questions regarding ROZ applications and eligibility, please email KDC_ROZ@ks.gov for the quickest response.

Once you have reviewed everything and are ready to submit it for review, you can click the blue “Submit” button. You will see a confirmation that says, “Your Application was Successfully Submitted,” and then direct you back to your main account page.