2023 Missouri Revised Statutes › Title XI - Education and Libraries › Chapter 169 - Teacher and School Employee Retirement Systems › Section 169.440 - Years of service, how determined — purchase of credit for service, limitations and conditions.

Title XI EDUCATION AND LIBRARIES
Chapter 169
• Effective - 28 Aug 2001
169.440. Years of service, how determined — purchase of credit for service, limitations and conditions. —
1. In no case shall more than one year of service be credited for all service in one calendar year.
2. The board of trustees shall include an employee's accumulated and unused days of sick leave, if any, in computing the employee's credited service upon the employee's retirement.
3. Any member inducted into the Armed Forces of the United States while an employee, and discharged or separated from such service by other than dishonorable discharge, shall be credited with such period or periods of time, not exceeding a total of four years, spent in such service during time of war or national emergency, and any additional period or periods of involuntary service as if such member had been for all effects and purposes in active service as an employee during such period or periods of time. Periods of national emergency, as that term is used in this section, shall be prescribed by rule of the board of trustees, giving due regard to the acts and resolutions of Congress and the proclamations and orders of the President.
4. Any member who is granted a leave of absence with reduced pay may authorize deduction of contributions based on full compensation, the same as if not on leave, and in such case the full compensation shall be used as annual compensation in determining the final average compensation for calculation of benefits.
5. A member may elect to purchase and receive credit for service in accordance with the following conditions and limitations:
(1) The member must have a minimum of five years of continuous credited membership service in this retirement system prior to the member's election to purchase;
(2) The member must have one year of credited service in this retirement system for each year to be credited;
(3) The member must purchase the entire amount of credited service the member is eligible to purchase in a given category;
(4) Eligible categories of credited service that can be purchased are:
(a) Service rendered in a public school district in the state of Missouri, or outside the state of Missouri;
(b) Service as an employee which at the time was not classified as membership service nor were contributions paid but which would be classified as membership service under later law and regulations;
(c) The period during which an employee's membership was terminated during the years 1944 to 1947, inclusive, pursuant to a rule of the board of education prohibiting the employment of married women teachers, provided the member was reemployed on or before January 1, 1950, and was a member as of October 13, 1969;
(d) A period of up to five years during which a member was involuntarily laid off in a staff reduction by the board of education after 1980, provided the member was restored to full-time employment and the member did not receive a refund of the member's accumulated contributions for credited service rendered prior to the layoff;
(e) Service for which the member received a refund of the member's accumulated contributions;
(f) Up to three years of service rendered in a school, which is not part of the public school system of this state and which charged tuition for the rendering of elementary and secondary educational services, as a full-time employee who was duly certified under the law governing the certification of teachers during all of such years of employment;
(5) The member must pay for the purchase of service the amount required by the rules and regulations established by the board of trustees of the retirement system;
(6) The retirement system may accept a transfer of funds from a plan qualified under Section 401(a) or 403(b) of the Internal Revenue Code in full or partial payment of the amount required to purchase the credited service;
(7) A member shall receive credit at retirement for only such service as has met the conditions of this subsection. If the member has paid for any service which has not been credited, the member shall receive a refund of the excess payment. If the member has not completed such member's payment at time of retirement, the first benefits from the retirement system shall be applied to pay the balance of the amount due and thereafter the full benefits shall be payable.
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(L. 1943 p. 805 § 4, A.L. 1949 p. 532, A.L. 1953 p. 438, A.L. 1957 p. 462, A.L. 1961 p. 384, A.L. 1969 p. 282, A.L. 1972 H.B. 1266, A.L. 1973 S.B. 256, A.L. 1978 S.B. 542, A.L. 1979 S.B. 392, A.L. 1981 H.B. 33, et al., A.L. 1983 S.B. 3, A.L. 1996 S.B. 860, A.L. 1997 H.B. 612 merged with S.B. 309, A.L. 2001 H.B. 660)