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There are several options available to retired school employees who wish to return to active employment.

Persons who retired prior to Jan. 1, 2001, may return to employment in any position with a public school or charter school without restriction and with no loss of retirement benefits.

Teachers retiring after Jan. 1, 2001, may return to employment with no loss of benefits under these conditions:

• The teacher must not have retired with a penalty for early retirement.
• The teacher must have a 12-month break in service from any employment with the public schools.
• The teacher must be certified in the area in which he/she is assigned, and must be teaching in a shortage area as defined by the school district. The commissioner of education has developed guidelines available at www.tea.state.tx.us/eddev/retire/guidelines.html to help districts with the determination of those shortage areas.
• Districts must give hiring preference to certified applicants who are not retirees.

Retirees (other than early retirees) can return as bus drivers without the 12-month break in service. An employee retiring after Aug. 31, 2005, under the bus driver exemption must qualify as “primarily” a bus driver (i.e., an administrator with one bus route would no longer be able to take this exemption).

Retirees (other than early retirees) certified as principals can return to work as principals or assistant principals, but must have a 12-month break in service from employment with the public schools.

There are other longtime provisions that allow employees to return to work after retirement with only a one-month break in service. For example, the retiree can return to work on a full-time basis for up to six months or on a part-time basis without experiencing a loss of benefits. If the full-time employee continues working beyond six months, TRS will discontinue retirement benefits until the employee ceases working (during the summer months, for example) or until the following September, when the six-month cycle can begin again.

Beginning with the 2005-06 school year, districts are required to make contributions to TRS (12.4 percent of salary) and TRS-Care (the difference between the member premium and the actual cost of the insurance coverage) on behalf of any rehired retiree. The only exceptions to this provision will be retirees who had returned to work and were reported to TRS by the same school district as rehires in January 2005. Even employees who retired prior to Jan. 1, 2001, who may return to employment without penalty, will be subject to the district surcharge if they were not hired by the same district in January 2005.

State law does not prohibit districts from reducing a retiree’s salary to help offset the cost of the surcharge, though local policies may differ in this regard. However, districts cannot pay less than the amount to which the employee would be entitled under the state minimum salary schedule.

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