BP BHEAD INT S [atlas:bill]

AN ACT Relating to increasing the number of hours that a retired teacher can teach without a reduction in benefits; and amending RCW 41.32.570.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1. RCW 41.32.570 and 1997 c 254 s 5 are each amended to read as follows:

(1)(a) If a retiree enters employment with an employer sooner than one calendar month after his or her accrual date, the retiree's monthly retirement allowance will be reduced by five and one-half percent for every seven hours worked during that month. This reduction will be applied each month until the retiree remains absent from employment with an employer for one full calendar month.

(b) The benefit reduction provided in (a) of this subsection will accrue for a maximum of one hundred forty hours per month. Any monthly benefit reduction over one hundred percent will be applied to the benefit the retiree is eligible to receive in subsequent months.

(2) Any retired teacher or retired administrator who enters service in any public educational institution in Washington state and who has satisfied the break in employment requirement of subsection (1) of this section shall cease to receive pension payments while engaged in such service: PROVIDED, That service may be rendered up to five hundred twenty-five hours per school year without reduction of pension.

(3) In addition to the five hundred twenty-five hours of service permitted under subsection (2) of this section, a retired teacher or retired administrator may also serve only as a substitute teacher for up to an additional ((~~one hundred five~~)) five hundred twenty-five hours per school year without reduction of pension if:

(a) A school district, which is not a member of a multidistrict substitute cooperative, determines that it has exhausted or can reasonably anticipate that it will exhaust its list of qualified and available substitutes and the school board of the district adopts a resolution to make its substitute teachers who are retired teachers or retired administrators eligible for the additional one hundred five hours of extended service once the list of qualified and available substitutes has been exhausted. The resolution by the school district shall state that the services of retired teachers and retired administrators are necessary to address the shortage of qualified and available substitutes. The resolution shall be valid only for the school year in which it is adopted. The district shall forward a copy of the resolution with a list of retired teachers and retired administrators who have been employed as substitute teachers to the department and may notify the retired teachers and retired administrators included on the list of their right to take advantage of the provisions of this subsection; or

(b) A multidistrict substitute cooperative determines that the school districts have exhausted or can reasonably anticipate that they will exhaust their list of qualified and available substitutes and each of the school boards adopts a resolution to make their substitute teachers who are retired teachers or retired administrators eligible for the extended service once the list of qualified and available substitutes has been exhausted. The resolutions by each of the school districts shall state that the services of retired teachers and retired administrators are necessary to address the shortage of qualified and available substitutes. The resolutions shall be valid only for the school year in which they are adopted. The cooperative shall forward a copy of the resolutions with a list of retired teachers and retired administrators who have been employed as substitute teachers to the department and may notify the retired teachers and retired administrators included on the list of their right to take advantage of the provisions of this subsection.

(4) In addition to the five hundred twenty-five hours of service permitted under subsection (2) of this section, a retired administrator or retired teacher may also serve as a substitute administrator up to an additional one hundred five hours per school year without reduction of pension if a school district board of directors adopts a resolution declaring that the services of a retired administrator or retired teacher are necessary because it cannot find a replacement administrator to fill a vacancy. The resolution shall be valid only for the school year in which it is adopted. The district shall forward a copy of the resolution with the name of the retired administrator or retired teacher who has been employed as a substitute administrator to the department. However, a retired administrator or retired teacher may not serve more than a total of one hundred five additional hours per school year pursuant to subsections (3) and (4) of this section.

(5) Subsection (2) of this section shall apply to all persons governed by the provisions of plan I, regardless of the date of their retirement, but shall apply only to benefits payable after June 11, 1986.

(6) Subsection (3) of this section shall apply to all persons governed by the provisions of plan I, regardless of the date of their retirement, but shall only apply to benefits payable after September 1, 1994.

(7) For purposes of this section only, "substitute teacher" includes temporary teachers working under a contract with a guaranteed number of hours or days.