Documentation compliance

Compliance with the Teachers' Retirement Law (TRL), Education (Ed.) Code and California Code of Regulations (CCR) requires employers to accurately report member information to ensure retirement benefits are correctly calculated. Retirement benefits are calculated based on a member's years of service credit, age at retirement and final compensation. Inaccurate reporting of compensation can cause inaccurate calculation of retirement benefits that may result in overpayments for employers.

Effective July 1, 2027, salary must be paid in accordance with a Publicly Available Pay Schedule (PAPS) and special pay must be identified on a Publicly Available Agreement (PAA). These two earnings types make up base pay and impact the final compensation. The third earnings type, supplemental pay, is not required to be on any specific documentation, but cannot include any excluded types of pay. Base days are also required to be included in a PAA. Additionally, for county offices of education, preK-12 school districts and charter schools, there are new requirements around what documents must identify the certificated positions that should be reported to CalSTRS, called positions subject to membership. Below are some helpful resources available to employers for various scenarios and resolutions.

Contact information

For additional assistance regarding documentation compliance, contact
PAA-PAPSreview@CalSTRS.com.

Publicly Available Pay Schedule

Salary as annualized pay rate for positions subject to membership must be contained in a Publicly Available Pay Schedule (PAPS). Any additional assignments that are not a position subject to membership should not be reported as salary and do not need to be paid in accordance with a PAPS.

Publicly Available Agreement

Special pay must be identified in a Publicly Available Agreement (PAA). Special pay includes only ongoing additional pay for education, experience, or classification and cannot include any limited-term payments. Base days must also be identified in a PAA.

Position subject to membership

A position subject to membership in CalSTRS must be documented by county offices of education and preK-12 school districts in either a collective bargaining agreement or in a resolution adopted at a public meeting. A position subject to membership in CalSTRS at a charter school must be documented in either a collective bargaining agreement or be a position that requires the holding of a Commission on Teacher Credentialing certificate, permit or other document pursuant to subdivision (l) of Section 47605.