While most New York teachers and administrators are in the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System, other school employees are members of the New York State and Local Retirement System (NYSLRS). In fact, 1 out of 5 NYSLRS members works for a school district. Their employment is tied to the school year, which is usually 10 months long. So how do we determine service credit for school employees?

You earn service credit for your paid employment with a public employer in New York State. That credit is based on the number of days you work, which your employer reports to us.

Calculating Service Credit for Full-Time School Employees

If you work full-time, you receive one year of service credit per school year, which usually refers to the 10-month period from September through June.

You cannot earn more than one year of service credit, so if you work full-time during the school year, you will not earn additional service credit if you also work during the summer.

Calculating Service Credit for Part-Time School Employees

Your employer determines how many hours are in a full-time day for your position and reports the number of days you work to NYSLRS. Your service credit for the year is then calculated by dividing the number of days worked by the number of days in a school year. Usually, a school year refers to the 10-month period from September through June, which is 180 days. However, depending on your employer, an academic year can be 170 or 200 days.

For employees of school districts and BOCES,
as well as teachers working at New York State schools for the deaf and blind:
Number of days worked ÷ 180 days

For college employees:
Number of days worked ÷ 170 days

For institutional teachers:
Number of days worked ÷ 200 days

Check Your Service Credit in Retirement Online

To find your current estimated service credit:

• Sign in to Retirement Online.
• Look for Total Estimated Service under My Account Summary.

Get Credit for All Your Public Service

Service credit is one of the major factors in calculating your pension benefit, so it’s important to make sure you get credit for all your public service.

You may be able to request additional credit if you:

• Worked for your current or another public employer before joining NYSLRS; or
• Served in the U.S. Armed Forces and received an honorable discharge from active military duty.

Or you may be able to:

• Transfer service: If you are still a member of another New York State public retirement system.
• Reinstate service: If you withdrew your membership in NYSLRS or another New York State public retirement system.

In most cases, you have to pay for additional service or to reinstate service. But because service credit is a factor in the calculation of your retirement benefits, it will usually increase your pension.

If you choose to purchase the additional service, you should submit your request as early in your career as possible. Records we need to verify your service will be more readily available. And the sooner you purchase your credit, the less it will generally cost.