Senate Bill No. 630
(By Senators Fanning, Jackson, Hunter, Anderson, White, Chafin,
Ross, Ball, Kessler, Dittmar and Sharpe)
____________
[Introduced February 20, 1998; referred to the
Committee on Pensions; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
____________
A BILL to amend and reenact section twenty-five, article seven-a,
chapter eighteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to teachers
retirement; and eligibility for disability for retirement
allowance for disability resulting from an act of student
violence.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section twenty-five, article seven-a, chapter eighteen
of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty- one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 7A. STATE TEACHERS RETIREMENT SYSTEM.
§18-7A-25. Eligibility for retirement allowance.
Any member who has attained the age of sixty years or who has had thirty-five years of total service as a teacher in West
Virginia, regardless of age, shall be eligible for an annuity.
No new entrant nor present member shall be eligible for an
annuity, however, if either has less than five years of service
to his or her credit.
Any member who has attained the age of fifty-five years and
who has served thirty years as a teacher in West Virginia shall
be eligible for an annuity.
Any member who has served at least thirty but less than
thirty-five years as a teacher in West Virginia and is less than
fifty-five years of age shall be eligible for an annuity, but the
same shall be the reduced actuarial equivalent of the annuity the
member would have received if such member were age fifty-five at
the time such annuity was applied for.
The request for any annuity shall be made by the member in
writing to the retirement board, but in case of retirement for
disability, the written request may be made by either the member
or the employer.
A member shall be eligible for annuity for disability if he
or she satisfies the conditions in both either subdivision (a)
and (b) and meets the conditions of subdivision (c) as follows:
(a) His or her service as a teacher in West Virginia must
total at least ten years, and service as a teacher must have been terminated because of disability, which disability must have
caused absence from service for at least six months before his or
her application for disability annuity is approved.
(b) His or her service as a teacher in West Virginia must
total at least five years, and service as a teacher must have
been terminated because of disability, which disability must have
caused absence from service for at least six months before his or
her application for disability annuity is approved and the
disability is a direct and total result of an act of student
violence directed toward the member.
(b) (c) An examination by a physician or physicians selected
by the retirement board must show that the member is at the time
mentally or physically incapacitated for service as a teacher,
that for such service the disability is total and likely to be
permanent, and that he or she should be retired in consequence
thereof.
Continuance of the disability of the retired teacher shall
be established by medical examination, as prescribed in the
preceding paragraph, annually for five years after retirement,
and thereafter at such times as the retirement board may require.
Payment of the disability annuity provided in this article shall
cease immediately if the retirement board finds that the
disability of the retired teacher no longer exists, or if the retired teacher refuses to submit to medical examination as
required by this section.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide eligibility
for disability for teachers' retirement allowance for disability
resulting from an act of student violence.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.