Some teachers who received a special grant from the Education Department to help pay for their own tuition are saying their grants were wrongly converted into loans, NPR reported.

The department’s Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) grants are awarded to college students who teach in “high-need” fields like math and science at low-income schools.

The grants, which can total up to $4,000 an academic year, remain grants so long as recipients teach in the fields for at least four years during an eight-year period, and then provide proof that they’re continuing to teach in the filed.

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Recipients who meet the qualifications keep the money as grants, but those who don’t see the funding converted to loans, which must be paid back to the department.

However, NPR reported that some recipients had their grants converted despite believing they had fulfilled all of the requirements.

An Education Department study released Wednesday found that 63 percent of recipients, or more than 12,000 people, had their grants converted to loans because they didn’t fulfill the program requirements.

One in three of the grant recipients thought they were meeting the program’s qualifications, but still had the funds turned into a loan.

Several of the teachers receiving the loans told NPR that their grants were converted due to issues with paperwork for the program.

"I knew I hadn't done anything wrong," Maggie Webb, a teacher whose loan was converted over paperwork issues, told NPR. "I knew I had done it right. And it was just so hurtful that they would do that."

"I couldn't believe it. I was flummoxed. I was floored. I was pretty upset by this," another teacher, David West, told the news outlet. He said his grant was turned into a loan after he failed to sign and date a form.

And some grant recipients are suing FedLoan, the company hired to run the program, over the conversions. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey is also suing the firm over the TEACH grants.

FedLoan told NPR in a statement that it ”does not agree with the allegations made by the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office" and that the company "remains committed to resolving outstanding borrower issues while following the U.S. Department of Education's policies, procedures, and regulations as mandated by the Agency's federal servicing contracts."

The Education Department told NPR that it found the results of the study concerning.

"The study points to additional changes the Department can make that may benefit program participants, and we are committed to reviewing them," the statement read.