Esta ley enmienda la Ley Núm. 218 de 6 de mayo de 1951 para modificar los requisitos para que los maestros que trabajan en centros de cuidado diurno del programa Head Start puedan acreditar el tiempo trabajado para su pensión. Elimina el requisito de ser participante activo del Programa de Retiro para Maestros al inicio del empleo en Head Start, estableciendo que solo se requiere ser participante activo al momento de solicitar el reconocimiento del tiempo de servicio.
(Approved December 19, 2002)
To amend Subsection
(h) in Section 6 of Act No. 218 of May 6, 1951, as amended, to eliminate the requirement that any teacher who wants that the time worked in a day-care center under the Head Start Program be calculated as time served [for his/her pension] must have been an active participant of the Teachers' Retirement Program at the time he/she began to work in the Head Start Program.
On August 9, 2002, the Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico signed Senate Bill 1577 and turned it into Act No. 144. Said Act eliminates the requirement that day care centers under the Head Start program must be recognized by the Department of Education of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico for the time worked in them by teachers to be calculated as time served for the teacher's pension.
Said Act established that any teacher whose work is calculated as time worked [for his/her pension], must have been an active participant of the Teachers' Retirement Program at the time he/she began to work in the Head Start Program. Nevertheless, the Organic Act of the System must be amended to establish that to acknowledge the time served by any teacher, said teacher, must have been an active participant of the Teachers' Retirement Program at the moment he/she requested said calculation of the time served, and not at the time he/she began to work in the Head Start Program.
Section 1. Subsection
(h) Section 6 of Act No. 218 of May 6, 1951, as amended, is hereby amended, to read as follows: "Section 6.- Teachers working in other than public schools
(a) ...
(h) The time served as a teacher in a day-care center for children, under the "Head Start" program, in which the services rendered and the care of the children are not charged for by any church, non profit, entity or private corporation shall be calculated pursuant to Sections 2 to 47 of this Act, as if the services had been rendered in public schools, provided said teachers pay the individual contribution based on the salary received, plus the corresponding employer contribution. The teacher must be an active participant of the Teachers Retirement System at the moment he/she requests the acknowledgement of their time served.
Section 2.- This Act shall take effect immediately after its approval.
I hereby certify to the Secretary of State that the following Act No. 279 (H.B. 2917) of the $4^{ ext {th }}$ Session of the $14^{ ext {th }}$ Legislature of Puerto Rico:
AN ACT to amend Subsection
(h) in Section 6 of Act No. 218 of May 6, 1951, as amended, to eliminate the requirement that any teacher who wants that the time worked in a day-care center under the Head Start Program be calculated as time served [for his/her pension] must have been an active participant of the Teachers' Retirement Program at the time he/she began to work in the Head Start Program, has been translated from Spanish to English and that the English version is correct.
In San Juan, Puerto Rico, today $6^{ ext {th }}$ of August of 2004.
Elba Rosa Rodríguez-Fuentes Director