Active Members

While still actively dedicated to educating Chicago's students, you should be just as active in your retirement planning. Your retirement benefit is an important part of your future financial picture, and as an active member of The Chicago Teachers' Pension Fund (CTPF), it’s important to understand your benefits in order to help plan for the future.

Information for CTPF Members Considering Retirement

2024 Retirement Webinars CTPF offers retirement webinars in February and March. These webinars provide retirement information, including a general overview of the CTPF and CPS retirement processes

The Chicago Teachers' Pension Fund (CTPF) is a defined benefit retirement plan which provides a lifetime retirement benefit to vested members who meet minimum age and service requirements.

On January 1, 2011, the Illinois legislature established two sets of pension eligibility requirements. Members who joined CTPF or a qualified reciprocal system prior to January 1, 2011, are Tier 1

Your CTPF pension is based on your years of service and a pension percentage (up to 75%), multiplied by your final average salary. There are ways to increase these factors to enhance your pension or meet eligibility requirements.

Every year in the fall, active CTPF members receive a Statement of Estimated Contributions and Benefits that summarizes the individual member’s contributions and service credit as reported by the employer(s) (CPS and/or Charter Schools) for the previous fiscal year (fiscal years run July 1-June 30).

When you leave employment with CPS or a charter school, you must decide how to manage the pension assets you have accumulated with the Chicago Teachers' Pension Fund (CTPF). There are three primary options when leaving employment:

Applying for retirement is a process, and the process begins by completing the Retirement Application Packet. Download and read this Retirement Application carefully and complete all necessary forms. An incomplete form will delay the processing of your retirement benefit.

Members are strongly encouraged to submit all forms and information by fax 312.641.7185 or email a .pdf  or .jpg file to imaging@ctpf.org. Electronic submission is the best way to ensure delivery during this time as U.S. Mail processing may be delayed.