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Public School
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. You cannot receive partial credit.
- 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 and be an active contributing member of the Defined Benefit Plan to initiate a transfer or purchase.
- You may use this credit to satisfy vesting requirements.
- No more than 1 year of credit can be granted in any given year, even if your State of Michigan and public school service is concurrent.
Cost
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. Any member contributions and interest still on deposit with the Michigan Public School Employees’ Retirement System will be applied to the cost, if applicable. Transfers of service credit while the State Employees’ Retirement System was non-contributory July 1, 1974, through March 31, 2012, are at no cost, and any Michigan Public School Employees’ Retirement System contributions during that time may be refunded.
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.
When the Michigan Office of Retirement Services receives your application, we’ll 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 Michigan Public School Employees’ Retirement System began offering the Member Investment Plan (MIP). These contributions are personal contributions and specific to the Michigan Public School Employees’ Retirement System. If you decide to transfer your public school service to state service, we’ll provide appropriate information for handling your MIP contributions.
Application
Complete an Application to Transfer Michigan Public School Service (R0417G) form. For more information see How to Purchase.