Virginia Retirement System; service credit for career and technical education teachers.

Plain English Breakdown

The bill text does not provide specific details on how much extra money this will cost or where funding will come from.

Virginia Retirement System Changes for Career and Technical Teachers

This bill provides additional service credit for career and technical education teachers based on their age when they earned the service.

What This Bill Does

• Adds extra years of service credit for career and technical education teachers based on their age when they earned the service.
• For older teachers (45-54), each year of teaching earns double the normal credit.
• For even older teachers (55 or over), each year of teaching earns 2.5 times the normal credit.

Who It Names or Affects

• Career and technical education teachers in Virginia
• The Virginia Retirement System

Terms To Know

Service credit

Years of work that count towards a retirement benefit.

Weighted years of service factor

A multiplier used to increase the value of service credit for certain groups, like older teachers.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify how much extra money this will cost or where the funding will come from.
• It is unclear what specific changes might be made after the review and analysis are completed.

Official Summary Text

Virginia Retirement System; service credit for career and technical education teachers.
Provides that a member of the Virginia Retirement System shall be eligible for additional years of service credit for service earned as a teacher in the field of career and technical education. The amount of service credit earned shall determined as follows: (i) for service earned as a member who is 45 years of age or older but younger than 55 years of age at the time of such service, such service shall be multiplied by the weighted years of service factor of 2.0 and (ii) for service earned as a member who is 55 years of age or older at the time of such service, such service shall be multiplied by the weighted years of service factor of 2.5.

Current Bill Text

HOUSE BILL NO. 987

AMENDMENT IN THE NATURE OF A SUBSTITUTE

(Proposed by the House Committee on Appropriations

on ________________)

(Patron Prior to Substitute--Delegate Garrett)

A BILL to direct the Virginia Retirement System and the Department of Education to review and analyze options for providing enhanced retirement benefits to teachers in the field of career and technical education.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1.
§ 1.
That the Virginia Retirement System and the Department of Education, in consultation with the
Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, shall review and analyze options for enhancing the retirement system options for teachers in the field of career and technical education.
Such review shall include (i)
a review of the retirement options for teachers in the field of career and technical education in the Commonwealth's neighboring states,
(ii)
an analysis of
the effects of
changing the formula for determining the amount of creditable service earned for purposes of determining retirement eligibility, (iii) a survey of interest in
such a change in the creditable service formula for teachers in the field of career and technical education, and (iv) an evaluation of the costs that would be incurred by the Virginia Retirement System of any change to the formula to provide such teachers with greater creditable service.

The Virginia Retirement System and the Department of Education shall complete their review and report their findings to the Chairs of the House Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations by November 1, 2026.