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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | November 2, 2023 01:42 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Rosemary M. Brown |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Return to Service Legislation for Part-time School District Employees |
| In the near future, I plan to introduce legislation to amend Title 24 (Education) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes to allow for annuitants of the Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) to return to part-time service without temporarily terminating their annuity benefits. This legislation prohibits these individuals from accruing additional service time and specifies that no retirement contributions will be made by the annuitant or the employer. Currently, PSERS retirees can work part-time with limited exceptions (emergency, shortage of personnel, or an extracurricular position). If you return to work for a PA public school and the return to service exceptions do not apply to you, your monthly pension payments will stop, and you will become an active contributing member of PSERS. You will be required to pay back the benefit you received while you were a PSERS retiree and working for a PA public school employer. Part-time school district employees can play a vital role in maintaining momentum and continuity filling various positions where there is a shortage in many areas including school bus transportation, paraprofessional service, and more. When school bus transportation is unavailable due to shortage in drivers, or students’ regularly assigned teachers are unavailable due to illness, hiring shortages, or professional development needs, substitute teachers and paraprofessionals can help fill in the gaps so student learning is not interrupted. Without a pool of consistently available school employees, schools can become caught in an overwhelming and expensive game of catch-up throughout the year and students pay the price. I have been contacted by constituents who are PSERS retirees, including local Intermediate Units, requesting changes to address shortages in employment in our school districts. Furthermore, it has been brought to my attention that the shortage in busing has led to Intermediate Units (IU) having to cancel bus runs and parents having to drive their students to school. In cases of busing repeatedly not being available for IU students, this has also led to parents calling their educational attorney. Consequently, I plan to introduce legislation that would allow retired public school employees to return to service and continue to receive their PSERS payment. In 2016 we passed into law Substitute Teaching Permit language (Act 86) which allows student teachers to work as substitute teachers in certain circumstances, this was a first step toward providing our school districts with much needed human capital. I would like to emphasize that this would not add to an individual’s current pension, rather it would enhance services and possibly offer a solution to the open positions within a school district. Please join me in cosponsoring this important legislation. If you have questions regarding this legislation, please reach out to Christine Zubeck in my office at 717-787-6123 or czubeck@pasen.gov. |