There is a newer version of the Nebraska Revised Statutes

View our newest version here

2006 Nebraska Revised Statutes - § 79-902 — Terms, defined.

Section 79-902
Terms, defined.
Section 79-902

For purposes of the School Employees Retirement Act, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) Accumulated contributions means the sum of all amounts deducted from the compensation of a member and credited to his or her individual account in the School Retirement Fund together with regular interest thereon, compounded monthly, quarterly, semiannually, or annually;

(2) Beneficiary means any person in receipt of a school retirement allowance or other benefit provided by the act;

(3) Member means any person who has an account in the School Retirement Fund;

(4) County school official means (a) until July 1, 2000, the county superintendent or district superintendent and any person serving in his or her office who is required by law to have a teacher's certificate and (b) on or after July 1, 2000, the county superintendent, county school administrator, or district superintendent and any person serving in his or her office who is required by law to have a teacher's certificate;

(5) Creditable service means prior service for which credit is granted under sections 79-926 to 79-929, service credit purchased under sections 79-933.03 to 79-933.06 and 79-933.08, and all service rendered while a contributing member of the retirement system. Creditable service includes working days, sick days, vacation days, holidays, and any other leave days for which the employee is paid regular wages as part of the employee's agreement with the employer. Creditable service does not include lump-sum payments to the employee upon termination or retirement in lieu of accrued benefits for such days, eligibility and vesting credit, nor service years for which member contributions are withdrawn and not repaid. Creditable service also does not include service rendered by a member for which the retirement board determines that the member was paid less in compensation than the minimum wage as provided in the Wage and Hour Act or service which the board determines was rendered with the intent to defraud the retirement system;

(6) Disability retirement allowance means the annuity paid to a person upon retirement for disability under section 79-952;

(7) Employer means the State of Nebraska or any subdivision thereof or agency of the state or subdivision authorized by law to hire school employees or to pay their compensation;

(8) Fiscal year means any year beginning July 1 and ending June 30 next following;

(9) Regular interest means interest fixed at a rate equal to the daily treasury yield curve for one-year treasury securities, as published by the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, that applies on July 1 of each year, which may be credited monthly, quarterly, semiannually, or annually as the board may direct;

(10) School employee means a contributing member who earns service credit pursuant to section 79-927. For purposes of this section, contributing member means the following persons who receive compensation from a public school: (a) Regular employees; (b) regular employees having retired pursuant to the School Employees Retirement Act who subsequently provide compensated service on a regular basis in any capacity; and (c) regular employees hired by a public school on an ongoing basis to assume the duties of other regular employees who are temporarily absent. Substitute employees shall not be considered school employees;

(11) Prior service means service rendered as a school employee in the public schools of the State of Nebraska prior to July 1, 1945;

(12) Public school means any and all schools offering instruction in elementary or high school grades, as defined in section 79-101, which schools are supported by public funds and are wholly under the control and management of the State of Nebraska or any subdivision thereof, including (a) schools or other entities established, maintained, and controlled by the school boards of local school districts, except Class V school districts, (b) any educational service unit, and (c) any other educational institution wholly supported by public funds, except schools under the control and management of the Board of Trustees of the Nebraska State Colleges, the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska, or the community college boards of governors for any community college areas;

(13) Retirement means qualifying for and accepting a school or disability retirement allowance granted under the School Employees Retirement Act;

(14) Retirement board or board means the Public Employees Retirement Board;

(15) Retirement system means the School Retirement System of the State of Nebraska;

(16) Required deposit means the deduction from a member's compensation as provided for in section 79-958 which shall be deposited in the School Retirement Fund;

(17) School year means one fiscal year which includes not less than one thousand instructional hours or, in the case of service in the State of Nebraska prior to July 1, 1945, not less than seventy-five percent of the then legal school year;

(18) Service means employment as a school employee and shall not be deemed interrupted by (a) termination at the end of the school year of the contract of employment of an employee in a public school if the employee enters into a contract of employment in any public school, except a school in a Class V school district, for the following school year, (b) temporary or seasonal suspension of service that does not terminate the employee's employment, (c) leave of absence authorized by the employer for a period not exceeding twelve months, (d) leave of absence because of disability, or (e) military service when properly authorized by the retirement board. Service does not include any period of disability for which disability retirement benefits are received under sections 79-951 to 79-953;

(19) School retirement allowance means the total of the savings annuity and the service annuity or formula annuity paid a person who has retired under sections 79-931 to 79-935. The monthly payments shall be payable at the end of each calendar month during the life of a retired member. The first payment shall include all amounts accrued since the effective date of the award of annuity. The last payment shall be at the end of the calendar month in which such member dies or in accordance with the payment option chosen by the member;

(20) Service annuity means payments for life, made in equal monthly installments, derived from appropriations made by the State of Nebraska to the retirement system;

(21) State deposit means the deposit by the state in the retirement system on behalf of any member;

(22) State school official means the Commissioner of Education and his or her professional staff;

(23) Savings annuity means payments for life, made in equal monthly payments, derived from the accumulated contributions of a member;

(24) Emeritus member means a person (a) who has entered retirement under the provisions of the act, including those persons who have retired since July 1, 1945, under any other regularly established retirement or pension system as contemplated by section 79-916, (b) who has thereafter been reemployed in any capacity by a public school, a Class V school district, or a school under the control and management of the Board of Trustees of the Nebraska State Colleges, the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska, or a community college board of governors or has become a state school official or county school official subsequent to such retirement, and (c) who has applied to the board for emeritus membership in the retirement system. The school district or agency shall certify to the retirement board on forms prescribed by the retirement board that the annuitant was reemployed, rendered a service, and was paid by the district or agency for such services;

(25) Actuarial equivalent means the equality in value of the aggregate amounts expected to be received under different forms of payment. The determinations shall be based on the 1994 Group Annuity Mortality Table reflecting sex-distinct factors blended using twenty-five percent of the male table and seventy-five percent of the female table. An interest rate of eight percent per annum shall be reflected in making these determinations except when a lump-sum settlement is made to an estate. If the lump-sum settlement is made to an estate, the interest rate will be determined by the Moody's Triple A Bond Index as of the prior June 30, rounded to the next lower quarter percent;

(26) Retirement date means (a) if the member has terminated employment, the first day of the month following the date upon which a member's request for retirement is received on a retirement application provided by the retirement system or (b) if the member has filed an application but has not yet terminated employment, the first day of the month following the date on which the member terminates employment. An application may be filed no more than ninety days prior to the effective date of the member's initial benefit;

(27) Disability retirement date means the first day of the month following the date upon which a member's request for disability retirement is received on a retirement application provided by the retirement system if the member has terminated employment in the school system and has complied with sections 79-951 to 79-954 as such sections refer to disability retirement;

(28) Retirement application means the form approved by the retirement system for acceptance of a member's request for either regular or disability retirement;

(29) Eligibility and vesting credit means credit for years, or a fraction of a year, of participation in a Nebraska government plan for purposes of determining eligibility for benefits under the School Employees Retirement Act. Such credit shall not be included as years of creditable service in the benefit calculation;

(30)(a) Final average compensation means the sum of the member's total compensation during the three twelve-month periods of service as a school employee in which such compensation was the greatest divided by thirty-six.

(b) If a member has such compensation for less than thirty-six months, his or her final average compensation shall be determined by dividing his or her total compensation in all months by the total number of months of his or her creditable service therefor.

(c) Payments under the Retirement Incentive Plan pursuant to section 79-855 and Staff Development Assistance pursuant to section 79-856 shall not be included in the determination of final average compensation;

(31) Plan year means the twelve-month period beginning on July 1 and ending on June 30 of the following year;

(32) Current benefit means (a) until July 1, 2000, the initial benefit increased by all adjustments made pursuant to section 79-947.02 and (b) on or after July 1, 2000, the initial benefit increased by all adjustments made pursuant to the School Employees Retirement Act;

(33) Initial benefit means the retirement benefit calculated at the time of retirement;

(34) Surviving spouse means (a) the spouse married to the member on the date of the member's death or (b) the spouse or former spouse of the member if survivorship rights are provided under a qualified domestic relations order filed with the board pursuant to the Spousal Pension Rights Act. The spouse or former spouse shall supersede the spouse married to the member on the date of the member's death as provided under a qualified domestic relations order. If the benefits payable to the spouse or former spouse under a qualified domestic relations order are less than the value of benefits entitled to the surviving spouse, the spouse married to the member on the date of the member's death shall be the surviving spouse for the balance of the benefits;

(35)(a) Compensation means gross wages or salaries payable to the member for personal services performed during the plan year and includes (i) overtime pay, (ii) member retirement contributions, (iii) retroactive salary payments paid pursuant to court order, arbitration, or litigation and grievance settlements, and (iv) amounts contributed by the member to plans under sections 125, 403(b), and 457 of the Internal Revenue Code as defined in section 49-801.01 or any other section of the code which defers or excludes such amounts from income.

(b) Compensation does not include (i) fraudulently obtained amounts as determined by the retirement board, (ii) amounts for unused sick leave or unused vacation leave converted to cash payments, (iii) insurance premiums converted into cash payments, (iv) reimbursement for expenses incurred, (v) fringe benefits, (vi) bonuses for services not actually rendered, including, but not limited to, early retirement inducements, cash awards, and severance pay, or (vii) beginning on September 4, 2005, employer contributions made for the purposes of separation payments made at retirement and early retirement inducements as provided for in section 79-514.

(c) Compensation in excess of the limitations set forth in section 401(a)(17) of the Internal Revenue Code as defined in section 49-801.01 shall be disregarded. For an employee who was a member of the retirement system before the first plan year beginning after December 31, 1995, the limitation on compensation shall not be less than the amount which was allowed to be taken into account under the retirement system as in effect on July 1, 1993.

(d)(i) In the determination of compensation for members on or after July 1, 2002, through June 30, 2005, that part of a member's compensation for the fiscal year which exceeds the member's compensation with the same employer for the preceding fiscal year by more than ten percent shall be excluded unless (A) the member experienced a substantial change in employment position or (B) the excess compensation occurred as the result of a collective-bargaining agreement between the employer and a recognized collective-bargaining unit or category of school employee.

(ii) For purposes of this subdivision:

(A) Category of school employee means either all employees of the employer who are administrators or certificated teachers, or all employees of the employer who are not administrators or certificated teachers, or both; and

(B) Recognized collective-bargaining unit means a group of employees similarly situated with a similar community of interest appropriate for bargaining recognized as such by a school board.

(e)(i) In the determination of compensation for members on or after July 1, 2005, that part of a member's compensation for the plan year which exceeds the member's compensation with the same employer for the preceding plan year by more than seven percent of the compensation base during the sixty months preceding the member's retirement shall be excluded unless (A) the member experienced a substantial change in employment position, (B) as verified by the school board, the excess compensation above seven percent occurred as the result of a collective-bargaining agreement between the employer and a recognized collective-bargaining unit or category of school employee, and the percentage increase in compensation above seven percent shall not be excluded for employees outside of a collective-bargaining unit or within the same category of school employee, or (C) the excess compensation occurred as the result of a districtwide permanent benefit change made by the employer for a category of school employee in accordance with subdivision (35)(a)(iv) of this section.

(ii) For purposes of this subdivision:

(B) Compensation base means (I) for current members employed with the same employer, the member's compensation for the plan year ending June 30, 2005, or (II) for members newly hired or hired by a separate employer on or after July 1, 2005, the member's compensation for the first full plan year following the member's date of hiring. Thereafter, the member's compensation base shall be increased each plan year by the lesser of seven percent of the member's preceding plan year's compensation base or the member's actual annual compensation increase during the preceding plan year; and

(C) Recognized collective-bargaining unit means a group of employees similarly situated with a similar community of interest appropriate for bargaining recognized as such by a school board;

(36) Termination of employment occurs on the date on which the member experiences a bona fide separation from service of employment with the member's current employer, the date of which separation is determined by the employer. The employer shall notify the board of the date on which such a termination has occurred. Termination of employment does not include ceasing employment if the member subsequently provides service on a regular basis in any capacity for any school district other than a Class V school district within one hundred eighty calendar days after ceasing employment or if the board determines that a purported termination was not a bona fide separation from service with the employer;

(37) Disability means an inability to engage in a substantially gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment which can be expected to result in death or be of a long and indefinite duration;

(38) Substitute employee means a person hired by a public school as a temporary employee on an intermittent basis to assume the duties of regular employees due to the temporary absence of the regular employees. Substitute employee does not mean a person hired as a regular employee on an ongoing basis to assume the duties of other regular employees who are temporarily absent;

(39) Participation means qualifying for and making required deposits to the retirement system during the course of a plan year;

(40) Regular employee means an employee hired by a public school or under contract in a regular full-time or part-time position who works a full-time or part-time schedule on an ongoing basis for fifteen or more hours per week; and

(41) Temporary employee means an employee hired by a public school who is not a regular employee.

Cross References:

Source:

~Revised Statutes Cumulative Supplement, 2006

Disclaimer: These codes may not be the most recent version. Nebraska may have more current or accurate information. We make no warranties or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained on this site or the information linked to on the state site. Please check official sources.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.