CalSTRS is required under federal law to impose an age restriction for those
members who elect the Defined Benefit 75% Beneficiary Option. Members may not select
an option beneficiary who is more than exactly 19 years younger than the member,
unless that beneficiary is the member's spouse. Please note that the federal age
restriction also applies to registered domestic partners.
There are two kinds of service credit: credit based on service during
your career, sometimes called credited service or earned service credit,
and credit that is not associated with actual service. Credited service
counts towards becoming eligible for the various benefit enhancements,
such as highest year final compensation, the career factor and the longevity
bonus. The most common type of credited service is the credit you earn
for working in a public school. If you work full time during the year,
you receive one full year of service credit. If you work part of a year,
you will receive partial service credit. Other types of credited service
include service that was previously performed in a California public
school and subject to CalSTRS coverage, but during which you elected
not to be a CalSTRS member (such as substitute or part-time teaching)
and permissive service credit (such as maternity or paternity leave,
sabbatical leave, out of state public school teaching, and family care
or medical leave).
Only credit associated with service and, effective January 1, 2005, up to .2 year of
unused sick leave credit may be used to qualify for the career factor, longevity bonus
and one-year final compensation benefit enhancements. In addition, while the purchase
of nonqualified service credit, known as air time, may not be used to qualify for the
enhancements, such air time will count toward being eligible to retire at age 50.
Refer to your CalSTRS Annual Statement of Account to determine how much service is
currently credited to your account.
Unused Sick Leave Days will be the number of accumulated unused sick leave days the member
will have as of the last day of paid employment. Contract Base Service Days will be
determined by subtracting the number of school and legal holidays from the Full-Time
Equivalent, if they are included in the FTE. In no event shall the base service days
be less than 175. FTE is the number of days that a person would be required to
work in that position for the school year if employed full-time.
There are two Retirement Incentive Programs available to eligible
CalSTRS DB Program members. The Retirement Incentive Program that
you may be eligible for is based upon your employer’s offerings.
Each employer must choose to participate in the Retirement Incentive
Program. All members of the CalSTRS DB Program who are eligible to
retire may receive the retirement incentive if their current employer
agrees to offer either retirement incentive within a designated period
of time (referred to as “window period”). The additional
two years of service credit granted under either retirement incentive
program does not count towards eligibility for benefit enhancements
or towards qualifying for a retirement benefit. The two Retirement Incentive
Programs available are the 2 years of service credit or the 2 years
service credit plus 2 years of age. For additional information on
the Retirement Incentive Programs you can check out the
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
Two years of service credit
Eligible CalSTRS DB Program members may receive two additional years
of service credit to be used in their benefit calculation.
Two years of service credit and two years of age
Eligible CalSTRS DB Program members may receive two additional years
of service credit and an additional two years of age added to increase
the age factor which is used in determining the member’s retirement
allowance.
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