AN ACT AUTHORIZING MEMBERS OF THE TEACHERS' RETIREMENT SYSTEM TO CONTRIBUTE TO RETIREMENT INCENTIVE PLANS FOR TEACHERS AND TO PURCHASE RETIREMENT CREDIT FOR CERTAIN SERVICE AS ASSISTANT SOCIAL WORKERS

AN ACT AUTHORIZING MEMBERS OF THE TEACHERS' RETIREMENT SYSTEM TO CONTRIBUTE TO RETIREMENT INCENTIVE PLANS FOR TEACHERS AND TO PURCHASE RETIREMENT CREDIT FOR CERTAIN SERVICE AS ASSISTANT SOCIAL WORKERS

SUMMARY: This act makes several changes in the Teachers' Retirement System (TRS). It:

1. allows a local school board and its teachers to share the cost of an early retirement incentive program;

2. extends the deadline for the Teachers' Retirement Board (TRB) to start paying monthly benefits after a teacher retires;

3. gives a surviving spouse a choice of benefits if a teacher who has already filed for retirement dies before the retirement takes effect;

4. allows teachers to purchase TRS credit for two types of nonteaching service; and

5. makes retired teachers and their spouses, surviving spouses, or disabled dependents eligible to participate in TRB's health plan only if they are participating in both Medicare Part A hospital insurance and Medicare Part B medical insurance instead of just the former.

By law, school boards may establish retirement incentive programs for their teachers by purchasing up to five years of additional service credit in TRS for teachers who accept the incentive. Under prior law, school districts had to pay 100% of the cost of purchasing the extra service credit. The act allows participating teachers to pay up to 50% of the cost. It specifies that payments for the additional service credit must be made in a lump sum before the teacher retires, although it does not change an existing law that allows the payments to be made in equal annual installments.

The act also eliminates a requirement that TRB notify a teacher in writing when a school board purchases additional service for her.

The law requires TRS benefit payments to begin on the last day of the month following the calendar month in which a teacher filed a complete formal retirement application. But the act allows the TRB to pay a new retiree his first monthly benefit payment up to three months after the effective date of his retirement. The payment must be retroactive to the retirement date.

If a teacher who has filed for retirement dies before the retirement takes effect, the act allows his spouse to choose to receive either (1) the teacher's pre-retirement benefits, which includes either a lump sum death benefit or return of the teacher's contributions plus interest, or (2) the benefit payment option the deceased teacher chose on his retirement application. The option applies only if the deceased teacher designated his spouse as his sole beneficiary on his retirement application.

The act allows TRS members to purchase up to 10 years of service credit in the system for (1) Connecticut public school service as a social work assistant between January 1, 1969 and December 31, 1986 and (2) service in the Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) program. The social work service purchase authorization applies only to members who became certified school social workers and remained in public school service as social workers after becoming certified.