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.

Retirement Resources

Information for CTPF Members Considering Retirement

Retirement Webinars CTPF members who are planning to retire in 2025 were invited to attend the 2025 Retirement Webinars. These sessions provided a comprehensive overview of the CTPF retirement process

CTPF Member Benefits

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.

Tier 1 vs. Tier 2 Pensions

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

Maximizing Your Pension

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.

Annual Member Statement

Every year in the fall, CTPF members who have not retired 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 and/or Contract Schools) for the previous fiscal year (fiscal years run July 1-June 30).

Leaving Employment

When you leave employment with CPS, a charter school, or a contract 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: