Use of Retirees to Support Staffing

Bills to Support Staffing and HB 4545 Support Needs

House Bill 4545 mandates accelerated instruction practices be adopted beginning the 21/22 school year. One way to ensure that accelerated instruction is accessible to students is to use retired teachers as tutors. The tables below provide information related to employment after retirement laws and regulations. More specifically, recent legislation has provided opportunities for school districts to employ retirees without incurring financial burdens related to surcharges, breaks in service, and fulltime/part-time status. If your school district is interested in using retired teachers to meet the staffing needs for your accelerated instruction implementation, please carefully review the information below and contact TRS for any questions or clarifications.

Bill

Summary

LEA Considerations (and shared practices from the field)

SB 202

Employer surcharge responsibility

Reporting employer is ultimately responsible for the pension and applicable health care surcharges for retirees who work more than one-half time in a calendar month

Employer is prohibited from directly or indirectly passing the surcharges to the retiree.

Employer may use any available LEA funds to pay applicable surcharges and secure eligible retirees for employment.

“We have used ESSER funds to offset the cost of paying surcharges for retired teachers.”
—Aldine ISD

SB 288

Surge personnel exceptions for EAR restrictions and surcharges.

EAR restrictions and surcharges do not apply when:

Position is in addition to the normal staffing level. (Existing positions cannot be reclassified); AND
Position is fully paid by federal COVID relief funds; AND
Position is related to mitigating student learning loss because of COVID-19.

Ends Dec. 31, 2024. 

Time worked under this exception will interrupt the 12-full calendar month break.

Does not apply to disability retirees.

Surcharges still apply to non-surge positions should a retiree work concurrently in both surge and non-surge positions.

LEAs could create new surge positions focused on addressing student learning loss that are fully funded by federal COVID relief funds.

HB 1585

Allows certain retirees to return to work full time without a break in service (in addition to TRS Sunset legislation). However, all retirees must observe a one full, calendar-month break in service after their effective retirement date to avoid revoking their retirement.

Service retirees who retired on or before Jan. 1, 2021 may work full time without the consecutive 12-month break in service that was previously required. 

Surcharges still apply when working more than one-half time in the calendar month.

LEAs should work with eligible retirees seeking full-time employment to determine when their 12-month break in service has been fulfilled.

“Internal employees recruiting people they know that retired and increasing daily substitute rate has been very successful.”
—Tornillo ISD

SB 1356

Tutor exception for EAR restrictions; must meet Section 33.913 of TEC.

Allows a nonprofit teacher organization to facilitate the tutoring of K-12 public school students by active or retired certified teachers.
By the last day of each semester, LEAs must submit a report to the board of trustees reflecting the number of active or retired teachers who contacted the district or school to offer tutoring services and the number used by the district or school as a tutor.
A disability retiree may not be employed under this exception more than 90 days in a school year.
Time worked under this exception will interrupt the 12-full calendar month break.
Not subject to EAR restrictions
Subject to surcharges unless otherwise exempt

Employer may use any available LEA funds to pay applicable surcharges and secure eligible retirees as tutors.

“We only hire retirees for subs, tutors, or less than half-time work. Sticking with that makes it easier.”
—Burkburnett ISD

Combining EAR Exceptions for Service Retirees

If you choose to be employed in multiple positions for either multiple TRS-covered employers or for the same employer during a month and each of those positions qualify for EAR exceptions, the limits on the number of hours or days you may work in those positions may be different than if you worked in either position individually. Here are descriptions and examples of some of the more common EAR exceptions retirees combine in a month and the limits that apply.

Employment Type	Substitute	Tutor Under Section 33.913 Full Time	Tutor Under Section 33.913 One-Half Time	One-Half Time or Less
Substitute	No limit for filled positions; if vacant position, 20-day limit	Cannot be combined	Total combined employment cannot exceed 11 days Oct. 2021: Limit is 10 days	Total combined employment cannot exceed 11 days Oct. 2021: Limit is 10 days
Tutor Under Section 33.913 Full Time	Cannot be combined	No limit	No limit	Cannot be combined
Tutor Under Section 33.913 One-Half Time	Total combined employment cannot exceed 11 days Oct. 2021: Limit is 10 days	No limit	No limit	Beginning Nov. 2021: Total combined employment cannot exceed 92 hours Sept. 2021: Limit is 88 hours Oct. 2021: Limit is 84 hours
One-Half Time or Less	Total combined employment cannot exceed 11 days Oct. 2021: Limit is 10 days	Cannot be combined	Beginning Nov. 2021: Total combined employment cannot exceed 92 hours Sept. 2021: Limit is 88 hours Oct. 2021: Limit is 84 hours	Beginning Nov. 2021: Total combined employment cannot exceed 92 hours Sept. 2021: Limit is 88 hours Oct. 2021: Limit is 84 hours

Note: Determining the correct monthly limits when combining EAR exceptions can be complicated in many cases and a retiree should strongly consider contacting TRS for guidance before doing so.

Additional Links and Information from TRS

Employment After Retirement (EAR)

Teacher Retirement System

2021 Legislation Summary

* Specific questions should be directed to the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) to account for individual retiree circumstances.

Surcharges Information

The amount of the pension surcharge is equal to the what the amount of both member and state contributions would have been on the compensation paid to the retiree if the retiree were an active member.
A health benefit surcharge is also due for TRS-Care participants.
The pension surcharge is 15.75% of payroll and the TRS-Care surcharge is $535, if applicable.
The pension surcharge will increase from 15.75% to 16% beginning September 1, 2022; the TRS-Care surcharge will remain the same.

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