Certain higher education employees may be eligible to make a one-time, irrevocable election to participate in the Optional Retirement Program (ORP) in lieu of membership in TRS. Eligibility to participate in ORP is determined by the employing higher education RE in accordance with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s Chapter 25 rules.
What Should be Reported on the ED40 for the ORP Eligible Flag?
The TRS Report Formatting Guide explains that the ORP Eligible field is to indicate whether the employee is working in an ORP-eligible position. This indicator is based on the employee’s workload and not the position itself.
The ED40 (employment/position record) for the employee’s contract must indicate if the employee meets the criteria for ORP eligibility by submitting the ORP Eligible Position flag as “Yes” when an employee is eligible to elect ORP. If the employee is not eligible to elect ORP, the ORP Eligible Position flag should be submitted as “No.”
For example, if an employee holds a position that might be ORP eligible, but the employee does not meet criteria for participating in the ORP, the ED40 should indicate “No” for the ORP Eligible flag. This is because the specific employee is not eligible to elect ORP.
If the ORP Eligibility flag was noted as “Yes” but the employee was not eligible, please submit an ED45 (employment and position adjustment record) to edit the contract.
- Employee meets all criteria for ORP Eligibility
- Employee is participating in ORP
- Employee is ORP Retiree
- Employee is ORP Vested
- Employee does not meet all criteria for ORP eligibility and not vested in ORP.
- After ORP participation, employee terminated all Higher Education employment and held TRS eligible position.
If you have questions, please reach out to your RE coach.