The amount of your retirement benefit is based on your service credit and your earnable compensation. “Service credit” is based on the number of days of compensated employment reported by your employer for each fiscal year (July 1 through June 30).
You earn one full year of service credit if you receive compensation for at least 144 full-time days of the 180-day school year, provided that contributions have been made to TRS. You may earn a fraction of a year’s service credit for working less than 144 days in a fiscal year, but no service credit will be granted for less than 20 days of service within a fiscal year.
If you retire from active TRS employment or you are eligible to retire when you separate from service, and
If you were not eligible to retire when you separated from TRS employment, your benefit begins to accrue on the date you become eligible for retirement.
Your benefit is paid at the end of each month and, in most cases, can be deposited directly in your bank or credit union account.
Suppose you taught full-time for 24 years and then during the 2005-2006 fiscal year you taught for a total of 60 days. Sixty days is 33 percent of a full 180-day fiscal year. At the end of the 2005-2006 fiscal year, you have a total of 24.33 years of service credit.