KentuckySB 92025 Regular SessionSenateWALLET

AN ACT relating to teacher benefit provisions and declaring an emergency.

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

15 provisions identified: 5 benefits, 6 costs, 4 mixed.

Teachers lose pensions after job felonies

Teacher pension members who joined on or after August 1, 2000, forfeit retirement rights and benefits after a job-related felony conviction. The conviction can be in state or federal court. Members can receive accumulated contributions and interest credited only through the conviction date.

Paid maternity leave for school employees

By July 1, 2030, Kentucky school districts must adopt policies providing up to 30 paid maternity leave days. This leave covers teachers and employees who give birth. Employees must use these days before other leave. Unused days expire upon return to work and cannot become another type of leave. Districts may offer more paid maternity or parental leave.

Disability coverage and teacher retirement choices

Teacher pension members joining on or after January 1, 2022, are eligible for a disability benefit set through board rules. The board must arrange a contracted or self-insured plan, with benefits based on actuarial calculations and adjustable as law allows. Separately, disability retirees who immediately qualify for service retirement can choose it instead, without the former age-60 condition. Their service retirement uses service credited on the disability retirement's effective date.

Pension access for computer academy staff

Qualifying full-time WeLeadCS staff can participate in Kentucky's Teachers' Retirement System. Their teaching or professional jobs must require certification or a four-year college degree. The law also counts members as active contributors when they contributed in the previous fiscal year. Member contributions paid on their behalf also count.

Teacher account bonuses and lifetime payments

Employers may add $1,000 to eligible nonuniversity members' supplemental retirement accounts for each of their first five contributing service years. Members must have joined on or after January 1, 2022, and employers must choose to contribute. Nonuniversity members who participate in the supplemental plan and qualify for retirement can convert some or all of their balance into lifetime monthly payments. University members who joined on or after January 1, 2022, have the same conversion option once eligible to retire. These provisions do not state the monthly payment amount.

Teachers gain disability appeal report access

Members appealing a denial of disability retirement can obtain the medical review committee's written recommendations and reports. Their lawyers have the same access. Outside that appeal, the reports remain confidential, even against subpoenas or court orders.

Firm deadlines for teacher pension claims

Written appeals involving retirement pay, service credit, retirement eligibility, or survivor eligibility are due within 30 days of first notice. Members must withdraw, postpone, or change a retirement application by the 15th day of the month they applied. Disability applications are due within one year of the member's last contributing service in Kentucky. These deadlines cannot be paused or waived, and courts or another appeal process cannot review them. Members and beneficiaries must learn benefit eligibility, available benefits, deadlines, and work-after-retirement limits.

Full costs for teacher service purchases

Some teacher pension members must pay the full actuarial cost when buying retirement service credit. That cost includes benefit increases or eligibility for increases, including retirement health insurance supplement payments. The retirement board can set rules for calculating, collecting, and paying these costs.

Stricter checks on teacher disability benefits

The teacher retirement system must suspend disability benefits when recipients skip required medical exams or fail to provide requested medical records. Recipients subject to income limits must provide requested income and job records, including tax returns or wage forms. Missing income records suspends benefits; false or fraudulent records disqualify recipients starting on the submission date. Benefits paid after disqualification must be repaid. If that debt remains unpaid after 60 days of written notice, it carries 8% yearly interest starting when notice was sent.

Sick leave payouts and pension funding

Districts may pay for unused sick days at retirement, or pay an estate when an active member dies after qualifying for service retirement. Each day's payment is capped at 30% of the daily pay rate from the employee's last annual salary. Kentucky covers related pension costs for eligible balances accrued by June 30, 2025, plus later adjustments capped at 13 added days yearly. State coverage excludes specified annual leave and sick days for employees retiring from agencies listed in KRS 161.220(4)(d) and (f). The last employer paying for unused sick days owes remaining pension costs within 15 days after system notice.

Teacher pension corrections and overpayment collection

The teacher retirement system must correct discovered record errors that caused too much or too little benefit pay. It must adjust payments, as far as practical, to provide the actuarial equivalent of the benefit owed. It must also take practical, cost-effective steps to collect overpayments, regardless of the named beneficiary. Collection can include reclaiming bank funds or deductions from refunds, retirement payments, or life-insurance benefits.

Retirees face firm beneficiary change limits

Covered teacher pension retirees can name a new beneficiary only after a qualifying event. Events include divorce, annulment, marriage dissolution, marriage, remarriage, or the named beneficiary's death. A beneficiary change or new optional payment choice must be made within 60 days of the event. The deadline cannot be paused or waived, and courts or another appeal process cannot review it.

Teacher pension funding framework is repealed

The law repeals the statutory funding framework for past teacher pension benefit improvements. That framework covered appropriation schedules and cost-of-living increases. The repeal does not itself state a new pension payment amount.

Pension subpoenas cover more, with costs

Lawful subpoenas or court orders can cover retirement estimates, affidavits, and other documents prepared or held in response to requests. The teacher retirement board can adopt rules to recover reasonable costs when a subpoena requires an employee to travel. The subpoena issuer bears those costs under the recovery process. Costs can include travel, wages, salary, and overtime.

Public access to lawmakers' pension records

Anyone can request specified teacher pension account details about current or former Kentucky lawmakers. The retirement system must provide names, membership or retiree status, retirement-allowance information, and current or last participating employers. This rule excludes accounts paying beneficiaries because the member or retiree died.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

Jimmy Higdon
Republican • Senate

Cosponsors

Donald Douglas
Republican • Senate
Shelley Funke Frommeyer
Republican • Senate
Steve Rawlings
Republican • Senate

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 159 • No: 16

House vote • 3/28/2025

passed

Yes: 90 • No: 9

Senate vote • 3/28/2025