Michigan Public School Service

Eligibility

You may receive retirement credit for all years you worked for a Michigan public school and were a member of the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System. 

Conditions

• You must purchase or transfer all of your prior service with a Michigan public school. No partial credit can be received.
• Your purchase or transfer must be paid in full before any service credit will be granted.
• You must have an employer-employee relationship with the state of Michigan.
• You may use this credit to satisfy vesting requirements.
• No more than one year of credit can be granted in any given year, even if your state of Michigan and public school service is concurrent.

Cost

If you began working in the Public School Employees Retirement System on or after July 1, 1974, you may transfer your public school service at no cost. 

If you began working in the Public School Employees Retirement System before July 1, 1974, the cost to transfer your Michigan public school service credit is the amount equal to the contributions you would have paid had you been a member of the State Employees' Retirement System at the time, plus interest. However, any member contributions and interest still on deposit with the Public School Employees Retirement System will offset the cost, if applicable.

If you received a refund of pre-July 1, 1974, contributions, you must repay your refunded amount plus compounded interest in order to receive retirement credit. Upon receipt of this application, ORS will send you a Member Billing Statement indicating the cost to repay your refund so you can receive retirement credit for this public school service.

Note: In 1987, the Public School Employees Retirement System began offering the Member Investment Plan, or MIP. This plan allows school employees to enhance their pension with their own contributions. MIP contributions are individual and specific to the Public School Employees Retirement System. As such, any MIP contributions and/or refunds have no bearing on service credit transfers. If you decide to transfer your public school service to state service, you will be provided with appropriate information for handling your MIP contributions.

Application

Complete an Application to Transfer Michigan Public School Service (R0417G). For more information see How to Purchase Service Credit .