TRS issues employer checklist, Gemini setup required June 1 for 2025-26 reporting

Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) staff said employers must complete a new “school year setup” in the Gemini employer reporting dashboard before uploading 2025–26 reports, and that the setup will be available June 1.

The TRS presentation instructed district reporting staff to review and mark as complete every required page on the new dashboard — including General, Payroll, Banking, Sick Leave, Board-Paid TRS and Flex Plan — before submitting Gemini defined-benefit pay-period reports or SSP uploads for fiscal year 2025–26. "You must review every single one of these categories before you upload the Gemini defined benefit pay period report for the 25–26 fiscal year," the staff member said.

TRS staff said employers may continue to upload 2024–25 reports without completing the new setup, but once districts begin submitting 2025–26 reports in July they will be blocked unless the setup is finished. The dashboard will show a "review complete" checkbox at the top of each page and a green "reviewed" indicator on the setup dashboard after all required pages are marked; users must manually navigate back to the setup dashboard after saving each page.

The presentation spelled out several new and clarified requirements. On the General page employers must identify payroll vendor and the job categories they report (for example, teachers, administrators, medical counseling). TRS staff warned that selecting a job category will require completion of related pages for that category. If a payroll vendor is not listed there is an "Other" box where employers may type the vendor name for TRS to add.

Payroll schedules: TRS now requires separate payroll schedules for each selected job category when both teachers and administrators are reported. The staff member said attempts to mark the Payroll page "review complete" will produce an error until separate schedules are entered for each category. A separate training on payroll schedules was announced for the following week.

Banking: Employers should review banking records and may designate different accounts for defined-benefit reporting and the SSP; the Banking page must be reviewed and saved.

Sick leave: Employers must enter a "normal annual allotment" based on what the employee's contract or collective-bargaining agreement specifies. TRS staff gave an example of a tiered allotment (0–5 years = 12 days; 6–12 = 15; 13+ = 20) and said tiered amounts should be entered individually with comments explaining the tiers. Two additional fields ask whether the employer reinstates previously reported sick leave for rehires and whether the employer grants additional (bonus) days above the normal allotment; TRS directed employers to contact TRS immediately if they reinstate days so records can be corrected. The staff explained that distinguishing reinstated days, granted days and the normal annual allotment affects whether sick leave is reportable and whether the employer could incur a retirement cost when a member retires.

Board-paid TRS contribution: Employers must indicate on the Board-Paid TRS page whether the district pays any portion of the 9% retirement contribution on behalf of teachers or administrators and provide details of amounts and to whom they apply. TRS noted that any employer-paid portion of the 9% is reportable as creditable earnings.

Flex plan (salary-option) reporting: Employers must click "Add flex plan" even if they do not offer a flexible benefit. If yes, they must re-enter the add-flex-plan screen and provide fiscal year, job category and the employment types that qualify (for example, full-time teachers, part-time teachers, substitutes). TRS said employers should list each cash option amount and the full-time-equivalency (FTE) minimum that determines eligibility. Staff warned the initial add-flex-plan selection is shown only once and cannot be changed by users; TRS must manually change it if an employer clicked the wrong option. Examples given included $20,000 options for a superintendent and $10,000 options for principals. TRS staff said these salary-option amounts are reportable even if the employee takes insurance instead of the cash option.

Contacts and dashboard behavior: The Contacts page lists all Gemini users for the employer. TRS said districts must mark a superintendent as the primary contact for 2025–26; attempts to mark the setup complete without a superintendent primary contact will return an error. The staff member also explained that editing the General page (for example, adding administrators after initially selecting only teachers) can unset previously marked pages and require re-review of related pages.

Resources and support: TRS staff said they will add resources and listed employer-services, accounting and SSP contact options and emails (specific addresses were provided in the presentation materials). The school-year setup link will be removed from the front-page dashboard after an employer finishes all reviews but remains accessible via the Employer Information menu.

"If you do have that, contact TRS immediately," the staff member said about reinstated sick leave, and later: "You will only see this screen one time ... you cannot change that. So if you accidentally check no for administrators ... you do have to contact us, and we will need to manually get that changed in our system." The presentation included multiple demonstrations and examples and announced a follow-up payroll-schedule training session the following week.

What this means for districts: District payroll and HR administrators must review vendor, job categories, payroll schedules, sick-leave rules, any employer-paid portion of the 9% TRS contribution, flex-plan details and contact lists in Gemini before they can upload 2025–26 defined-benefit or SSP reports. TRS staff emphasized timely contact if reinstatements or initial-data-entry errors occur so member records are accurate.