Connecticut General Statutes 10-183aa – Disability allowance
(a)(1) An active member is eligible for a disability allowance if he or she has (A) become disabled as a result of any sickness or injury incurred in the performance of his or her duty as a teacher, without regard to the member’s accumulated years of service at the time the disability is incurred; or (B) accumulated at least five years of service in the public schools and becomes disabled, without regard to whether the disability was incurred in the performance of his or her duty as a teacher.
Terms Used In Connecticut General Statutes 10-183aa
- Annual salary: means the annual salary rate for service as a Connecticut teacher during a school year but not including unused sick leave, unused vacation, terminal pay, coaching or extra duty assignments, unless compensation for coaching or extra duty assignment was included in salary for which contributions were made prior to July 1, 1971. See Connecticut General Statutes 10-183b
- Average annual salary: means the average of the three highest annual salaries received as an active member. See Connecticut General Statutes 10-183b
- Board: means the Teachers' Retirement Board. See Connecticut General Statutes 10-183b
- Contributions: means amounts withheld pursuant to this chapter and paid to the board by an employer from compensation payable to a member. See Connecticut General Statutes 10-183b
- Disabled: means the inability to perform any teaching service, whether or not such service is performed full-time or part-time, in a public or nonpublic school or a nonschool setting, on a volunteer basis or for compensation, within or without the state, or engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment that (A) is permanent or can be expected to last continually for not less than twelve months from the onset of such impairment, or (B) can be expected to result in death or to be of long-continued and indefinite duration, except that during the first twenty-four months that a member is receiving a disability allowance, "disabled" means the inability to perform the usual duties of the member's occupation by reason of any such impairment. See Connecticut General Statutes 10-183b
- Employer: means an elected school committee, a board of education, the State Board of Education, the Office of Early Childhood, the Technical Education and Career System, the Board of Regents for Higher Education or any of the constituent units, the governing body of the Children's Center and its successors, The University of Connecticut Board of Trustees, the E. See Connecticut General Statutes 10-183b
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Member: means any Connecticut teacher employed (A) on, and compensated for, the first school day, in accordance with the member's contractual schedule, and (B) for an average of at least one-half of each school day after the first school day, except that no teacher who under any provision of the general statutes elects not to participate in the system shall be a member unless and until the teacher elects to participate in the system. See Connecticut General Statutes 10-183b
- System: means the Connecticut teachers' retirement system. See Connecticut General Statutes 10-183b
- Teacher: means any: (A) Person, including, but not limited to, a teacher, permanent substitute teacher, principal, assistant principal, supervisor, assistant superintendent or superintendent who is employed by a public school in a professional capacity while possessing a certificate or permit, except a school business administration endorsement, issued by the State Board of Education, provided on and after July 1, 1975, such certificate shall be for the position in which the person is then employed, except as provided for in §. See Connecticut General Statutes 10-183b
(2) Any active member seeking a disability allowance shall submit to the board a formal application for disability allowance, which shall include the following: (A) The member’s application; (B) the member’s birth certificate or, in lieu thereof, a notarized statement supported by other evidence satisfactory to the board; (C) records of service, if such records are required by the board to determine a salary rate or years of creditable service; (D) a physician’s statement of health for the member, including, but not limited to, medical reports and office notes from such physician; (E) in the case of a member who is married, a marriage certificate; (F) an employer‘s statement regarding work performance, attendance records and any other information regarding the member’s disability; (G) the member’s statement outlining the effect his or her impairment has on the ability to perform the duties of his or her occupation; and (H) any other documentation required by the board. For any formal application for disability allowance filed on or after July 1, 1986, upon a finding by the board that extenuating circumstances relating to the health of an active member caused a delay in the filing of such member’s complete formal application for disability allowance, the board may deem such application to have been filed up to three months earlier than the actual date of such filing.
(b) The disability allowance is computed as follows: Two per cent times credited service to the date of disability multiplied by average annual salary, provided such allowance shall not be less than fifteen per cent or more than fifty per cent of the member’s average annual salary. In no case shall such disability allowance, less cost of living adjustments, plus any initial award of Social Security benefits and workers’ compensation, exceed seventy-five per cent of the member’s average annual salary.
(c) The board shall designate a medical committee to be composed of no more than five physicians. If required, other physicians may be employed to report on special cases. Such medical committee shall review each application for a disability allowance and shall make findings and recommendations in writing to the board. The medical committee shall perform additional examinations or case reviews as deemed necessary by the board. Members of such committee shall receive compensation for their services at a rate to be determined by the board.
(d) The disability allowance being paid to a member shall cease when and if the disability ends. The board may determine that a member’s disability has ended if it finds, upon the recommendation of its medical committee, that the member has failed to pursue an appropriate program of treatment. In either event, such member shall receive credited service for the years he received such disability allowance subject to a maximum total credit of thirty years, or actual years of credited service to the date the disability commenced, whichever is greater. Such member, if eligible, may then (1) retire on a normal, early or proratable retirement benefit, or (2) retain a vested right to a deferred normal, early or proratable retirement benefit. Upon attainment of the member’s normal retirement date, as determined by his age and credited service, including the credited service granted by this subsection, the member’s disability allowance shall convert to a normal or other service retirement, which shall be payable either in the normal form or under an optional payment form under § 10-183j. The board may require periodic medical examinations.
(e) No credit for a period of service of any kind prior to the months in which contribution therefor is made shall be given under this chapter or any special act in determining service in connection with an application for disability allowance other than for injury received in performance of duty as a teacher if such disability occurred within five years after contributions and required interest on account of such period were paid in full. The foregoing limitation shall not apply to (1) any reinstatement of prior Connecticut teaching service, or (2) credit obtained immediately after transfer from the state employees retirement system under this chapter for service previously credited in said system; but in the case of such transfer, no allowance on account of disability occurring within such five-year period, other than for injury received in performance of duty as a teacher, shall exceed the benefit which would have been payable by said system if transfer had not been made.
(f) During the first twenty-four months of payment of the disability allowance to a member, twenty per cent of all of such member’s outside earned income or wages shall be offset against the disability allowance payable, unless the board determines that such earned income or wages are being paid as part of the rehabilitation of the member. At the expiration of such twenty-four-month period, if the total of the disability allowance and outside earned income exceeds one hundred per cent of average annual salary, the disability allowance will be reduced by the amount of such excess over one hundred per cent. The board shall adopt regulations, in accordance with the provisions of chapter 54, concerning procedures for verification of the income of members in receipt of a disability allowance.
(g) All members of the teachers’ retirement system who are receiving disability payments under subsection (e) of § 10-183g of the general statutes, revision of 1958, revised to 1979, may, using a form provided by the board, elect to have their disability payments recomputed with regard to the percentage basis and pursuant to the provisions of this section and § 10-183bb. Such election shall not be revocable.
(h) For purposes of this section, “active member” means a member who (1) is actively employed as a teacher at the time the member submits an application for disability benefits, or (2) was actively employed as a teacher not more than ninety days before the date the member submitted his or her application for disability benefits.