HB 385 Employment & Contribution Reporting

1. Introduction

House Bill 385 (HB 385)

House Bill 385 was created to allow retirees of the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia (TRS) who retired with 30 or more years of service to be employed as classroom teachers in a full-time capacity in an area of highest need as determined by the Regional Education Service Agency (RESA) to which the public school system is assigned.

2. Conditions of Employment

HB 385 will be effective July 1, 2022 (FY 2023) to June 30, 2026 (FY 2026). The conditions of employment are:

• The employer will be responsible for paying the employee contributions (EECON), the employer contribution (ERCON); no additional creditable service will be reported for the retiree.
• Employment will be in the highest need subject areas for Department of Education positions. Board of Regents employment is not eligible.
• The retiree must have 30 or more years of creditable service.
• The retiree must be retired for one year to be eligible for HB 385 employment.
• The retiree must be employed as a classroom teacher in a full-time capacity in a Department of Education position for pre-kindergarten through grade 12.
• The retiree must not have been in terminated or suspended status during the 12 months prior to the hire date.

The retiree must be employed in one of the three highest need subject areas for the region as identified by the district's RESA. The critical subject areas across the state are:

1. Math
2. Special Education (SPED)
3. Science
4. English, Language, and the Arts (ELA)
5. Elementary

2022 Highest-need Subject Areas List

This chart is to be used in FY 2023 for HB 385 employment.

3. Entry of Electronic Verification Form (EVF)

Employers will complete the electronic verification form for employment on the TRS website. The employer must report the employment within 30 days of hire. The employer will select the employment type of full-time classroom teacher.

Select the district's RESA from the dropdown menu.

Select one of the three allowable Subject Areas for your region and district for the retiree's employment from the dropdown menu.

Enter the date of employment and the full-time monthly salary. Select next to finish the submission.

4. Reporting HB 385 Contributions

Employers submit contributions to TRS on a monthly basis via a turnaround report or through the upload process, and on the monthly summarization report. Contributions for retirees hired per HB 385 must be reported for every month the retiree is in pay status half or more of the business days. If an employer misses reporting a retiree for a month, retroactive adjustments will be required.

Employers must pay employee and employer contributions; nothing should be withheld from the retiree's compensation. Retirees do not earn service credit for HB 385 employment. After approval of the HB 385 employment by the TRS Retirement Services division, please report contributions for the retiree using these instructions.

TURNAROUND REPORTING

Employers that report through the turnaround process will add the retiree being reported per HB 385, and indicate the Payment Reason code of HB 385 on the turnaround report on the Details tab. The employer will enter the compensation on the Salary/Contributions tab in the Contract Pay field, and contributions in the Employer Paid EECON field. The Service Credit box should not be checked.

FILE UPLOAD REPORTING

Employers that report through the upload process will indicate the payment reason code for HB 385 as 07. Employers utilize different payroll systems; the employer should reference the employer contribution file layout document on our website. The fields containing employee information (such as SSN, DOB, address, etc.) should be completed as normal. The following fields need to be indicated for each retiree with contributions to be reported per HB 385:

• Indicate positive or negative EECON; negative reporting is needed only when correcting erroneous contributions for a prior month
• Indicate the total EECON
• Indicate positive or negative ERCON; negative reporting is needed only when correcting erroneous contributions for a prior month
• Indicate the total ERCON
• The payment reason code should be 07
• If a payment reason code of 07 is indicated, contributions should be reported in ERCON and EECON
• Employer Paid EECON flag should be set to yes (field 115)
• Do not report service credit for the retiree

Data file example

The employer will upload the file as usual.

Whether contributions are submitted via turnaround reporting or through the upload process, please ensure the details are as follows:

• Confirm the service credit indicator is no
• Confirm the employer paid EECON indicator is yes

SUMMARIZATION REPORT

In addition to details submitted via turnaround or file upload, salary and contributions to be reported for retirees employed per HB 385 must be included on the monthly summarization report. Remember that employee (EECON) and employer (ERCON) contributions for retirees hired per HB 385 must be paid by the employer; no contributions should be withheld from the retiree’s compensation. The steps for completing the summarization report are:

• Line 1 - enter total TRS salaries, including retirees employed per HB 385
• Line 2a - enter the total salary for retirees employed per HB 385, then click Recalculate and Save
• Line 6a - enter the total employee contributions for retirees employed per HB 385, then click Recalculate and Save