A bill allowing educators to count a limited number of unused sick days toward teacher retention incentives that increase their pensions has passed both houses of the Legislature with bipartisan support.
SB 102 (Burton), which was co-sponsored by CTA and the State Teachers' Retirement System (STRS), has been sent to the governor for his consideration. It has no organizational opposition.
When the state enacted STRS increases in 1998 and 2000 to provide more adequate pensions and encourage the most experienced educators to teach additional years, it created an unintended consequence.
Currently, if teachers fall even a day short of the required number of years necessary to qualify for a bonus, they must delay retirement or accept reduced pensions. If they continue to work, but retire as soon as they qualify for the bonuses, it can cause midyear staffing challenges for schools.
The current law also encourages a "use it or lose it" attitude toward sick days.
SB 102 is intended to fix both problems.
The incentives, which significantly increase STRS pensions at 25, 30, 31 and 32 years of service, were enacted in lieu of pension increases that would have brought the STRS formula in line with that of state employees.
At present, unused sick days are included in figuring the regular pension, but are not counted toward the incentives.
Even a day can make a difference in the size of a pension as it stands. One teacher was docked a day when she missed a professional development day at the beginning of her school career. When she retired 30 years later, she found she was ineligible by one day for both the career and longevity bonuses.
Another teacher lost retirement credit because she used up all her sick leave while receiving treatments for breast cancer and was docked the additional days off work.
Many women are docked if their maternity leave exceeds their sick leave.
In many cases, educators may not even realize that they were docked a day until they receive a significantly lower-than-expected pension check.
In urging the governor to sign the bill, CTA is reminding him that the fiduciaries at STRS were cautious about supporting fiscal bills this year. While other higher-cost proposals were dropped, SB 102 was drafted with a cap on the number of allowable days, making the cost minor.