The U.S. Education Department is seeking comments by August 15 on proposed regulations to carry out a new law that would forgive the student-loan balances of some charity workers.

The College Cost Reduction and Access Act, H.R. 2669, allows people to erase their loan balances after making 120 payments if they been a full-time “public service employee” during that time. The benefit would apply only to payments made after October 1, 2007.

The Education Department is proposing language to define which organizations qualify as “public service” employers.

It suggests the term apply to government agencies, tribal colleges, nonprofit groups that qualify as charities under 501c3 of the Internal Revenue Code, and private groups that don’t qualify for that tax designation but that provide specific public services such as child care, help for older people and people with disabilities, legal services, education, and public safety.

The draft regulations also define “full time” to mean working an annual average of 30 hours per week, an average of 30 hours per week during a contractual period of at least eight months (designed to cover teachers), or the number of hours that the employer considers full time.

The department proposes that people who hold full-time AmeriCorps jobs qualify for the benefit, and that any money that they use from their AmeriCorps education awards to pay off student loans count when calculating the 120-payment minimum.