(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:
(1) fiduciary matters;
(2) governance;
(3) ethics;
(4) investments;
(5) actuarial matters;
(6) benefits administration; and
(7) risk management.
(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:
(1) compliance;
(2) legal and regulatory matters;
(3) pension accounting;
(4) custodial issues;
(5) plan administration;
(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.
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