Q: I have 30-plus years as a federal employee. I worked as a temporary teacher with D.C. public schools, which I understand to be creditable service. How much creditable service is permitted under the Civil Service Retirement System for a teacher who taught for 10 months (academic year) in Defense Department schools or in D.C. public schools? I taught for 10 months and was paid on a 12-month basis. I have read the statutes and regulations and Office of Personnel Management guidance. However, I cannot find anything that pertains to how teacher employment is credited. Surely, OPM has some sort of policy on this.
A: Assuming you were first hired in the D.C public schools before Oct. 1, 1987, that period of service is creditable. The amount of time that would be creditable is the months and days that you were actually employed, not the length of your contract. As a CSRS employee, you would need to make a deposit for that time in order to get credit for it in your annuity computation. As far as I can determine, employment in the DoD school system isn’t considered creditable service.
