See RCW 41.32.065.

(1) If you earned service credit in an out-of-state retirement system that covers teachers in public schools and do not purchase that service credit, you may use it to qualify for retirement.

(2) If you use out-of-state service credit to qualify for retirement, your retirement benefit:

(a) Will be based solely on your years of service credit in the Washington teachers' retirement system (TRS); and

(b) Will be actuarially reduced according to the age you would have been eligible to retire if you had not counted your out-of-state service credit.

Example:

Jane is fifty-eight years old with twenty-four years of TRS Plan 1 service credit. She has one year of service credit in an out-of-state retirement system that covers public school teachers. A TRS Plan 1 member is eligible to retire at age fifty-five with twenty-five years of service credit. Jane may add her twenty-four years of TRS service credit with her one year of out-of-state service credit to qualify for retirement under this provision.

Jane's retirement benefit will be based solely on her twenty-four years of TRS Plan 1 service credit. If she retires at age fifty-eight, her benefit will be reduced by an early retirement factor. The early retirement factor, .8270, is based on the difference between her actual retirement age (age fifty-eight) and the earliest age she could have received an unreduced benefit based on her twenty-four years of TRS service credit (age sixty). Jane's average final compensation (AFC) is $5,500 and her benefit will be calculated as follows:

2% x years of service credit x AFC x factor

2% x 24 x $5,500 x .8270 = $2,183.28

PDFWAC 415-112-295

May I use out-of-state teaching service credit to determine eligibility for retirement?