(a) First year of service. A new trustee and a new system administrator shall complete at least seven (7) credit hours of training in the core content areas within the first year of service. The seven credit hours shall include training in all of the core content areas. A trustee or system administrator must earn no less than half a credit hour in each content area. No more than two credit hours earned in any one core content area shall be applied toward meeting the 7-hour minimum requirement contained in this subsection.
The core content areas are:
  (1) fiduciary matters;
  (2) governance;
  (3) ethics;
  (4) investments;
  (5) actuarial matters;
  (6) benefits administration; and
  (7) risk management.
(b) Subsequent years of service. A trustee and a system administrator shall complete at least four (4) credit hours of continuing education in either the core content areas in subsection (a) or non-core content areas, or any combination thereof, within each two-year period after the first year of service as a new trustee or new system administrator.
  (1) The non-core content areas include:
    (A) compliance;
    (B) legal and regulatory matters;
    (C) pension accounting;
    (D) custodial issues;
    (E) plan administration;
    (F) Texas Open Meetings Act; and
    (G) Texas Public Information Act.
  (2) The Board may allow continuing education credit for courses not specifically covered under the non-core content areas on a case-by-case basis.
(c) MET completed up to six months before the trustee's date of assuming position on the governing body or system administrator's hiring date may be counted for the first-year-of-service requirement in subsection (a).
(d) If a trustee's term will expire before the end of the trustee's two-year continuing education cycle, such trustee will be exempt from the continuing education requirement in subsection (b) of this section for that two-year period; provided, however, that the trustee shall be subject to the continuing education requirements of subsection (b) of this section and as prescribed by §607.113(b) of this chapter upon the trustee's re-election or reappointment.
(e) A trustee serving concurrently on multiple PRS boards and a system administrator employed concurrently by multiple PRSs shall only be required to complete the MET requirements in this section for service with one PRS.
(f) Credit hours for attending MET activities shall be based on net actual instruction time. Credit hours for viewing or listening to audio, video, or digital media shall be based on the running time of the recordings, and credit hours for attending in-person educational programs shall be based on actual instruction time.
(g) The Board hereby adopts by reference the Curriculum Guide for Minimum Educational Training to provide further direction on core and non-core content areas as contained in subsections (a) and (b)(1) of this section. Trustees and system administrators are encouraged to review the Curriculum Guide for content area guidance.
(h) The Board shall make the Curriculum Guide for Minimum Educational Training available to the PRSs. A PRS can obtain the most current version of the Curriculum Guide for Minimum Educational Training from the offices of the State Pension Review Board and from its web site at http://www.prb.state.tx.us.

Source Note: The provisions of this §607.110 adopted to be effective September 18, 2014, 39 TexReg 7343; amended to be effective August 1, 2016, 41 TexReg 5557