Some Ohio teachers skip school to avoid payment penalty

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

Some Ohio teachers are missing the first days of classes in August to avoid penalties to their retirement payments.

State law requires full-time teachers who retire and are rehired to forfeit retirement payments for the month if they return less than 60 days after retiring. If an employee works in June, the Ohio’s State Teacher Retirement System considers the retirement date to be July.

The Plain Dealer newspaper said retirement system officials could not provide a statewide count of teachers rehired after retiring. Many of those teachers are “double dippers” who receive retirement payments and district paychecks.

The retirement system’s rule leaves substitutes covering some rehired teachers’ classes at the start of the year.