Enrollment Contribution

Membership and Contributions

Membership

All regular full-time employees whose compensation is provided by the School District of Kansas City, Missouri, the Kansas City Public Library, or Charter Schools within the boundaries of the Kansas City, Missouri School District are members of KCPSRS as a condition of employment.

A regular full-time employee is a person employed in an established position requiring service of not less than twenty-five hours per week, and not less than nine calendar months a year.

Upon employment, you must fill out a Beneficiary Designation form to establish the beneficiary on your account in the case of your death during employment. You can change your beneficiary at any time filling out a new beneficiary form and returning it to the Retirement System.

Contributions

Participation means that a percentage of your income is withheld from your gross pay (before taxes are taken out). The percentage of income withheld for your retirement is established in Missouri statute, and currently is 9.0%.

Your contributions are credited to your individual account. They can be withdrawn only if you cease covered employment and forfeit the service credit accrued by the contributions. You cannot borrow against your account funds in the form of a loan, nor can you take a hardship withdrawal.

Contributing to your retirement account before taxes are figured on your income reduces your income tax for the year of the contribution. However, when the contributions are withdrawn they are taxable.

Employers contribute also to the plan and currently the employer contribution rate is 12.0% of total payroll. Employer contributions do not go into the individual member accounts. Instead, they go into a general reserve account to pay for the lifetime benefits of members who are eligible to retire.