Applies to: School districts, educational service districts, community or technical colleges, the School for the Deaf or the School for the Blind.
Subject: DRS Notice 26-013, Clarification of the Definition and Reporting for Substitutes
DRS would like to remind employers of their responsibility to provide DRS with data for substitutes so that an individual may purchase the retirement credit for the time they filled in for an absent employee. RCW 41.32.013 provides details on the responsibility for providing data to DRS for billing if requested by the substitute and that the definition of substitute does not exclude substitutes who are hired through a third party service or who are paid through systems other than the standard payroll of the employer. The employer must provide DRS with data regarding the compensation and hours worked as a substitute or provide the individual with quarterly reports so that the individual can provide the data to DRS when requesting a bill.
A substitute employee includes substitute SERS employees working for any school district or educational service district, and a substitute teacher working for any of the following TRS employers: school districts, educational service districts, community or technical colleges, the School for the Deaf or the School for the Blind.
A substitute is defined in WAC 415-110-010 as “any classified employee who is employed as a substitute for an absent employee or working in an ineligible position.”
A substitute is defined in RCW 41.32.010 as follows:
- A teacher who is hired by an employer to work as a temporary teacher, except for teachers who are annual contract employees of an employer and are guaranteed a minimum number of hours, or
- Teachers who either work in ineligible positions for more than one employer or work in an ineligible position or positions together with an eligible position
Chapter 16 of the Employer Handbook provides information about what you might encounter when reporting substitutes or ineligible employees working for School Districts and Educational Service Districts (ESD) to DRS. This also applies to part-time employees who don’t meet the full-time definition.
Payroll records should be maintained in accordance with the Washington State Secretary of State, local-government-common-records-retention-schedule-CORE.PDF for Employee Benefits, section 4.2.
If you have any questions or need technical support, please call Employer Support Services at 360-664-7200, option 2, or 800-547-6657, option 6 and then 2.
