Section 607.110 - Minimum Educational Training Requirements(a) First year of service. A new trustee and a new system administrator shall complete at least seven (7) credit hours of training in the core content areas within the first year of service. The seven credit hours shall include training in all of the core content areas. A trustee or system administrator must earn no less than half a credit hour in each content area. No more than two credit hours earned in any one core content area shall be applied toward meeting the 7-hour minimum requirement contained in this subsection. The core content areas are:(6) benefits administration; and(b) A new trustee or system administrator may submit to the Board an application for a one-time extension period of three months to complete the first year of service core training requirement, which the Board may approve in exceptional circumstances. The request for extension must be approved by the chair of the PRS' board, or, for an extension request by the PRS board chair, approved by the vice chair of the PRS' board or its administrator. The application must be submitted to the Board on a form prescribed by the Board and must include an explanation of the circumstances necessitating the extension.(c) Subsequent years of service. A trustee and a system administrator shall complete at least two (2) credit hours of continuing education in either the core content areas in subsection (a) of this section, continuing education content areas, or any combination thereof, within each calendar year after the first year of service as a new trustee or new system administrator. The continuing education content areas include:(2) legal and regulatory matters;(6) Texas Open Meetings Act; and(7) Texas Public Information Act.(d) A trustee or administrator may not carry over continuing education credit hours earned in excess of the requirement under subsection (c) of this section to a subsequent calendar year.(e) MET completed up to six months before the trustee's date of assuming position on the PRS board or system administrator's hiring date may be counted for the first-year-of-service requirement in subsection (a) of this section.(f) A trustee serving concurrently on multiple PRS boards and a system administrator employed concurrently by multiple PRSs shall only be required to complete the MET requirements in this section for service with one PRS, so long as the concurrent service or employment is reported to the Board pursuant to § 607.140(b)(3) of this chapter.(g) Credit hours for attending MET activities shall be based on net actual instruction time. Credit hours for viewing or listening to audio, video, or digital media shall be based on the running time of the recordings, and credit hours for attending in-person educational programs shall be based on actual instruction time.(h) A trustee or administrator may gain credit for teaching an accredited MET activity. Credit hours shall be based on net actual presentation time, but may not include repeated presentations of the same activity in a single calendar year.(i) The Board hereby adopts by reference the Curriculum Guide for Minimum Educational Training to provide further direction on core and continuing education content areas as contained in subsections (a) and (c) of this section. Trustees and system administrators are encouraged to review the Curriculum Guide for content area guidance.(j) The Board shall make the Curriculum Guide for Minimum Educational Training available to the PRSs. A PRS can obtain the most current version of the Curriculum Guide for Minimum Educational Training from the offices of the State Pension Review Board and from its website at http://www.prb.texas.gov.(k) The 2025 calendar year training cycle for trustees and administrators shall be based on their MET compliance status on December 31, 2024, as detailed below. This subsection expires on December 31, 2025. (1) Trustees and administrators within their first year of service on December 31, 2024 who have completed by that date the training required by subsection (a) of this section shall begin their first continuing education cycle in calendar year 2025.(2) Trustees and administrators within their first year of service on December 31, 2024 who have not completed by that date the training required by subsection (a) of this section shall complete the first year of service training in calendar year 2025.(3) Trustees and administrators who began a continuing education cycle, as required by subsection (c) of this section, in calendar year 2024 may carry over any hours completed in that year to the calendar year 2025 continuing education cycle. If a trustee or administrator completed more than two continuing education hours, those hours will not carry over to calendar year 2026.(4) Trustees and administrators who began a continuing education cycle, as required by subsection (c) of this section, in calendar year 2023 will begin a new continuing education cycle on January 1, 2025. Trustees and administrators who did not complete the training hours required in previous cycles will remain noncompliant and must complete all outstanding required credit hours.40 Tex. Admin. Code § 607.110
The provisions of this §607.110 adopted to be effective September 18, 2014, 39 TexReg 7343; Amended by Texas Register, Volume 41, Number 31, July 29, 2016, TexReg 5558, eff. 8/1/2016; Adopted by Texas Register, Volume 49, Number 41, October 11, 2024, TexReg 8398, eff. 10/16/2024