SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 3798

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  MAY 11, 2023

      The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 3798.

      This bill extends P.L.2021, c. 408, permitting a teacher or a professional staff member providing special services, including but not limited to a speech language specialist or a therapist, who retired from the Teachers’ Pension and Annuity Fund (TPAF) to return to work full time with a board of education in a position of critical need, as determined by the State Commissioner of Education, without being reenrolled in the TPAF if reemployment commences during the 2023-2024 school year.

      If the retired teacher or the retired professional staff member returns to work with the former employer, it must occur more than 180 days after the retirement.  This bill will permit the teacher or professional staff member to receive the TPAF retirement allowance as well as a salary.  The bill permits the return to work under a contract for one year, which may be renewed only for one additional year.  The total period of reemployment with any individual board of education must not exceed a two-year period, unless so approved by the Commissioner of Education as being in the best interests of the school district.  Under the bill, the former member’s retirement must have been a bona fide retirement and any employment or reemployment under the bill must not be prearranged before retirement.

FISCAL IMPACT:

      Fiscal information for this bill is currently unavailable.