Tutoring after you retire from teaching in Georgia

A part-time job for retired teachers: what online tutoring looks like

If you live in Georgia, you can apply: it is one of the 15 states where SpecialEdResource can currently employ tutors. Retired teachers anywhere in the state are welcome. You’d tutor one student at a time, in live, one-on-one online sessions with students who have IEPs, 504 plans and learning differences. It’s part-time W-2 employment, and training is paid.

Our greatest need is weekdays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern, which is your local time in Georgia. Evening and weekend tutors are welcome too: tell us when you can teach. We ask for at least five hours a week of availability, and tutors work 5 to 25 hours a week. You decide which students you want to work with. How many students you start with is very flexible and mainly up to you. Available hours depend on student demand and schedule fit.

Each student has sessions with you an average of 2 to 3 times a week, and a session usually lasts 30 minutes, 45 minutes or 1 hour. Most students keep meeting through summer and school breaks.

See the full job description

Tutoring income: what the job pays

Starting pay: $23/hour, W-2. All tutors can earn a 10% performance bonus in any pay period when they tutor at least 10 hours and turn in session notes on time.

You're paid for tutoring time. Prep and notes are not paid separately; the session rate covers them. SpecialEdResource provides AI summary tools that make note-writing mostly copy and paste.

Pay, the bonus and the schedule, in detail

Returning to work after retirement: TRS, your certificate and Social Security

Three things to check before you tutor after retiring. Each has a guide with the details.

1. Your TRS retirement benefit. Most of TRS’s rules on going back to work are about jobs with TRS-covered employers, such as Georgia public school systems, whether you are hired directly or through a company. When you can start, and the different rules for disability retirees, are in the first row below. Here is what TRS’s documents say about three kinds of work:

   Work	What TRS’s rules say, and how they apply
   Tutoring online with SpecialEdResource	Start any paid work, tutoring included, the month after your retirement takes effect, or ask TRS first: TRS’s web page says paid service “for any employer” during the calendar month of the effective date of retirement voids the retirement application, while its 06/26 Member’s Guide says “for any TRS-covered employer”. TRS’s example: “If your retirement date is July 1st, you can begin working no earlier than August 1st.” As we read TRS’s rules, W-2 tutoring for SpecialEdResource is employment in the private sector, not contracted with a TRS covered employer. TRS’s Member’s Guide (06/26) says, for service retirees: “The following employment options are available while continuing to receive your monthly retirement benefit.” Its list of full-time options includes “Employment in the Private Sector (Not contracted with a TRS covered employer)”. That condition matters. If a private company you work for does business with a TRS-covered employer (TRS’s reporting employers include local boards of education, charter schools, colleges and universities, technical colleges, libraries, RESAs and certain state agencies), TRS limits what you may earn there in “a position which would normally be held by a teacher as determined by the Board of Trustees” to half of the average annual compensation used to calculate your retirement benefit or your final salary at retirement, whichever is greater, and the contract or an online employment verification must reach TRS before the work starts. This covers employees of such a company, not only independent contractors, and the guide adds: “For employment with any private entity (e.g., partnership, corporation, temp agency, etc.) as a teacher, documentation of your duties and responsibilities with the entity and the retiree’s relationship with the TRS covered employer must be submitted to TRS for evaluation.” (TRS’s older web page states the cap without the teacher-position wording.) If you are a TRS disability retiree, different rules apply. TRS says: “ALL employment, including self-employment, must be reported to TRS prior to accepting the employment.” Its page for employers adds: “Report all employment to TRS; this includes all positions covered and not covered under TRS.” TRS’s Member’s Guide says: “Georgia law places strict salary limitations on disability retirees.” It adds: “TRS will monitor your employment and income on a regular basis and, if necessary, reduce or discontinue your monthly benefit”. TRS asks: “Before accepting any post-retirement employment as a TRS disability retiree, contact the TRS office for detailed guidance and instructions.” Confirm your own situation with TRS (800-352-0650 or 404-352-6500) before you start.
   Substitute teaching or other part-time work for a Georgia public school or another TRS-covered employer, hired directly or through a company	For work with a TRS-covered employer, TRS says: “Georgia law requires a break-in-service of at least 1 month.” and “If your retirement date is July 1st, you can begin working no earlier than August 1st.” Start the month after your retirement takes effect, and do not agree to post-retirement work with a TRS reporting entity before you leave: TRS says “The employee cannot verbally or in writing agree to work after retirement with a TRS reporting entity before the termination date” of your current job, and if you work under a pre-arranged agreement, “the retiree’s retirement application is nullified”. Substitute teaching for a Georgia board of education: TRS says “If you retired on a service retirement, you may engage in unlimited substitute classroom teaching in Georgia without suspension or reduction of your retirement benefits from TRS provided you are compensated as a substitute teacher at the daily rate of pay.” Part-time work for a TRS-covered employer: TRS says “A TRS retiree who retired on service retirement may return to work in a less than half-time basis for a TRS covered employer.” “The compensation cannot exceed 49% of the full time monthly salary.” and “Retirees cannot work more than 49% of the schedule for the position.” For hourly work, TRS publishes a schedule of the maximum hours you may work each month; for its fiscal year 2027 (July 2026 to June 2027) the monthly maximums run from 75 to 91 hours, 992 hours in all. TRS’s Member’s Guide (06/26) adds a yearly limit: “Your compensation is limited to less than one half of the average annual compensation used to calculate your retirement benefit or your final salary at the time of your retirement, whichever is greater.” Work for a TRS-covered employer still counts when it comes through a company: TRS says “All employment, whether directly or indirectly (i.e. independent contractor, private temporary company, etc.) with a TRS employer is subject to salary and service limitations”, and “Any employment with a temporary agency for a TRS-covered employer must be reported to TRS by the employer.”
   Full-time special education teaching in a Georgia public school	SB 150 is a separate route back to full-time teaching in a Georgia public school, not a rule about private employers. From July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2030, a Georgia public school system may hire a TRS retiree who has at least 30 years of creditable service in a full-time capacity as a certified teacher of pre-kindergarten through grade 12, has been retired for at least 12 months and was not restored to service as a teacher in that time, as a full-time pre-K–12 classroom teacher in a qualifying subject; special education is one of the statewide qualifying subjects (reading, writing and English language arts also need a dyslexia or reading endorsement). The retiree keeps the retirement benefit, earns no new service credit, and the school system pays both the employer and employee contributions to TRS. The Act also says: “It shall be the duty of each beneficiary to notify an employer of his or her status as a beneficiary prior to accepting employment with such employer.” TRS adds: “The retiree must not have been in a terminated or suspended status during the 12 months prior to the hire date.” and “TRS requires retirees to teach for a minimum of 50% of the full-time schedule in a qualifying subject area in the classroom.” GaPSC’s Retired Educator certificate is not enough for such a job: TRS says “it cannot be used for positions that require professional certification.” The Act says “This Act shall become effective on July 1, 2026, only if it is determined to have been concurrently funded”; TRS’s Member’s Guide and SB 150 page describe it as effective July 1, 2026, and we found no document that states the funding determination itself. For service retirees, TRS’s Full Time Employment page says: “Retirees may work in any temporary, full-time position for three calendar months in a fiscal year and continue receiving monthly benefit payments.” Its Member’s Guide adds: “The full-time position must be paid at the normal compensation within your salary limit.”

   Confirm your own situation with TRS (800-352-0650 or 404-352-6500) before you start.

   Sources: TRS’s Member’s Guide (06/26, its newest guide for all members) and its pages on working after retirement, contractual employment, part-time work, other allowable employment, the maximum hours each month, SB 150 employment, full-time employment, disability retirees and, for employers, disability retiree employment. More detail on each rule, in TRS’s own words, is in our TRS return-to-work guide.

2. Your teaching certificate. SpecialEdResource asks for special education certification and a teaching license from any US state, with the license current, or renewed before you start. In Georgia, teaching licenses are called certificates, and the Georgia Professional Standards Commission (GaPSC) issues them. Georgia’s Professional teaching certificates are valid for five years, and GaPSC’s rule on validity says: “The expiration date of all certificates, with the exception of Waiver certificates, is June 30 of the final year of validity.” If you are not working in a Georgia school system, you renew on your own through your MyPSC account, with one of GaPSC’s options, such as college coursework, professional learning units, continuing education units or National Board certification. Our application’s license question says:

   Answer Yes if your license is current, or if it has expired or is inactive and you’ll renew it before you start. We check licenses before the first interview.

   Renewal, an expired certificate and GaPSC’s Retired Educator certificate are explained in our Georgia teaching certificate guide.

3. Social Security, if you’re under full retirement age. If you get Social Security and are under full retirement age for all of 2026, SSA’s earnings limit is $24,480, and wages from every job, plus any net earnings from self-employment, count. SSA withholds part of your benefits when your earnings go over it. If 2026 is the year you reach full retirement age, a higher limit applies. SSA’s operating manual says “Do not count bona fide pension payments.” As we read SSA’s rules, that covers a TRS service retirement benefit. What $24,480 means in tutoring hours is below. In Georgia, whether a public school teacher pays into Social Security depends on the school district. Whether you paid in, and how a TRS pension and Social Security fit together, are in our Social Security guide. Sources: SSA’s notice of the 2026 amounts (90 FR 49047, November 3, 2025), its operating manual on the earnings test and on which earnings count, and the federal regulation that defines earnings (20 CFR 404.429).

How many hours can I tutor and stay under the Social Security earnings limit?

If you get Social Security and are under full retirement age for all of 2026, the limit is $24,480. At $23 an hour, that is about 1,064 hours of tutoring in the year. At $25.30, the rate in a pay period that earns the bonus, it is about 968 hours. The $25.30 figure holds only if every pay period earns the bonus; in a pay period that does not, every hour is paid at $23, so the real figure falls between the two.

This is arithmetic, not a schedule or a promise. Available hours depend on student demand and schedule fit, and wages from any other job, plus any net earnings from self-employment, count toward the same limit. The earnings test applies only before full retirement age. If you get Social Security disability benefits, other rules apply: SSA says, “If a disabled beneficiary performs any work activity, we look at that activity to determine whether the disability has ceased.” Ask SSA before you take any job. These are SSA’s 2026 figures. In a year when SSA gives a cost-of-living increase, federal law tells it to publish the new amounts on or before November 1 (the 2026 notice came out on November 3, 2025); next year’s were not out when we checked on October 15, 2026. In your grace year, a monthly test may apply instead of the yearly limit. Our Social Security guide covers both points.

Questions about tutoring after retirement

Can a retired teacher work in Georgia? When can I start?

It depends on who you work for, and on how you retired. Start any paid work, tutoring included, the month after your retirement takes effect, or ask TRS first: TRS’s web page says paid service “for any employer” during the calendar month of the effective date of retirement voids the retirement application, while its 06/26 Member’s Guide says “for any TRS-covered employer”. TRS’s example: “If your retirement date is July 1st, you can begin working no earlier than August 1st.” Tutoring with SpecialEdResource, what TRS’s guide says about private-sector work, and the different rules for TRS disability retirees are in the first row of the table above. Work for a Georgia public school or another TRS-covered employer, including substitute teaching, follows the limits in the second row, and full-time special education teaching in a public school follows the third. Confirm your own situation with TRS (800-352-0650 or 404-352-6500) before you start. Each rule, in TRS’s own words, is in our TRS return-to-work guide.

My Georgia teaching certificate has expired. Can I still apply?

Yes. If your license has expired or is inactive, you can still apply, as long as you’ll renew it before you start. GaPSC says: “There are no penalties for expired certifications.” Its renewal rule adds: “Renewal requirements for expired certificates must have been completed within the five (5)-year period preceding the date of renewal”. The steps are in our Georgia teaching certificate guide.

Is this a W-2 job?

Yes. You’d be a part-time W-2 employee. SpecialEdResource withholds federal income tax, Georgia state income tax (for tutors who live in Georgia) and your share of Social Security and Medicare, pays the employer’s half (7.65% of your pay) and carries workers’ comp. You get a W-2 each January and don’t file quarterly estimated taxes for this job. If you get Social Security and are under full retirement age, these wages count toward the earnings test.