§ 1938 - Disability retirement
§ 1938. Disability retirement
(a) Upon notice not later than 90 days subsequent to the date the member may have separated from service, any member who has had five or more years of creditable service and has served as a teacher in the state during the five years immediately preceding the date of such separation from service, may be retired by the board of trustees on a disability retirement allowance on the first day of the calendar month next following receipt of application, provided such application is filed not less than 30 nor more than one 180 days subsequent to the filing of such notice, or on the first day of the calendar month next following the member's separation from service provided such application is filed prior to such separation, and further provided that the medical board, after a medical examination of such member, shall certify that the member is mentally or physically incapacitated for ordinary service; and, if previously separated from service, that such incapacity has existed since the time of the member's separation from such service; and that such incapacity is likely to be permanent.
(b) Anything to the contrary notwithstanding, should the board of trustees of the state teachers' retirement system determine, within its sole discretion, that a member of said system had failed for good cause to file the notice or application required by subsection (a) of this section, within the time limits prescribed, said board may permit the filing of such notice or application at any time prior to termination of membership and may thereupon act upon such notice or application as if it had been filed within the time limits prescribed by said subsection.
(c) Upon disability retirement a member shall receive a service retirement equal to the normal retirement benefit accrued to the effective date of the disability retirement, provided, however, that such allowance shall not be less than twenty-five percent of his or her average final compensation at the time of his or her disability.
(d) Once each year during the first five years following the retirement of a member on a disability retirement allowance, and once in every three year period thereafter, the board of trustees may, and upon his application shall, require any disability beneficiary who has not attained age sixty to undergo a medical examination, by a medical board or by a physician or physicians designated by the medical board, such examination to be made at the place of residence of such beneficiary or other place mutually agreed upon. Should any disability beneficiary who has not attained age sixty refuse to submit to such medical examination, his allowance may be discontinued until his withdrawal of such refusal, and should his refusal continue for one year, all his rights in and to his pension may be revoked by the board of trustees.
(e) If a disability beneficiary engages in gainful occupation paying more than the difference between his retirement allowance and his average final compensation at retirement, the board of trustees may, under uniform standards of economic need, reduce and from time to time adjust his pension to an amount which, together with his annuity and the amount earnable by him, equals his average final compensation at retirement. For the purposes of this subsection, "retirement allowance" means the allowance payable without optional modification as provided in section 1941 of this title, and does not include any part of the annuity not provided by the regular contributions of the member at the rate provided under subsection (b)(2) of section 1944 of this title. (Amended 1959, No. 72, § 3, eff. April 1, 1959; 1961, No. 85, § 2; 1963, No. 110, § 1, eff. May 28, 1963; 1963, No. 182, § 2; 1967, No. 172, § 2; 1973, No. 141 (Adj. Sess.), § 3; 1981, No. 41, § 26; 1993, No. 33, § 3; 1999, No. 158 (Adj. Sess.), § 9.)