Can filing for bankruptcy clear school loans?

It is possible to discharge, or eliminate, student loan debt through bankruptcy, but not easy or likely. Under the bankruptcy laws, certain kinds of loans or debts are not dischargeable; this includes educational or school loans either made or guaranteed by the government. You don’t say for certain whether your loans are government backed, but since the vast majority of student loans in our country are, let’s assume that your loans are government made or guaranteed. In that case, you can typically only discharge the loans if you are physically unable to work and paying them would represent an “undue hardship.”

So, if you could work, were you able to get a job, then you almost certainly cannot discharge your student loans through bankruptcy. You essentially have to be severely disabled in order to get out from under the debt entirely. (It was made difficult because so many people were abusing the system by taking out large student loans, then almost immediately declaring bankruptcy; unfortunately, the heightened requirements also snare many innocent, but hard luck, people as well.)

There are a number of options of deferring, or delaying, loan repayment while you are unemployed; you should definitely look into these options, which at least will give you some financial breathing room.