Tutoring after you retire from teaching in Mississippi

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

If you live in Mississippi, you can apply: it is one of the 15 states where SpecialEdResource can currently employ tutors. 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, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Central (9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern). 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. 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.

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.

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

Before you start: PERS, your license and Social Security

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

1. Your PERS retirement benefit. Most of PERS’s rules on going back to work are about jobs with PERS-covered employers, such as Mississippi public schools; disability retirees have an earnings limit on all work until their benefit converts to a service retirement benefit (first row below). PERS Board Regulation 34 says: “This regulation sets forth the terms and conditions under which a service retiree may be reemployed by a covered employer after retirement.” Here is what PERS’s rules and guide say about three kinds of work:

   Work	What PERS’s rules say, and how they apply
   Tutoring online with SpecialEdResource	If you would start any job in your first 30 days after retiring, ask PERS first: Regulation 34 describes the 30-day break as “the absence of any employment in any capacity, including service without pay”, and we found no PERS sentence that says whether that reaches private work. As we read PERS’s rules, W-2 tutoring for SpecialEdResource is work for an employer not covered by PERS. PERS’s guide “Thinking of Returning to Work?” (revised September 9, 2024; its break period and options are out of date since July 1, 2026) says: “Taking a job with a non-PERS-covered employer is permissible for PERS retirees, but taking a job with a PERS-covered employer while remaining retired has stipulations that must be thoroughly understood by the retiree and the employer.” Those stipulations are about PERS-covered employers, which are public employers such as Mississippi public schools, state agencies, universities and community colleges. Work for a PERS-covered employer still counts when you do it through a private company, a staffing agency or as a contract worker; to work for one as a true independent contractor, PERS must approve it first. PERS’s rule says “Whether a retiree has been reemployed with a PERS covered agency, directly or indirectly, is a question of fact to be determined by PERS.” If you are a PERS disability retiree, different rules apply. Until your disability benefit converts to a service retirement benefit (at age 60 under the Age-Limited Plan, or at the end of the temporary period under the tiered plan), PERS limits what you may earn from all work, not only work for PERS-covered employers, and you must send PERS a copy of your federal income tax return each year, within 30 days after it is due. PERS’s guide also says: “Disability retirees cannot be reemployed in the same general position from which they retired or in a position with similar job requirements.” Ask PERS before you take any job. Confirm your own situation with PERS at 800-444-7377.
   Substitute teaching in a Mississippi public school, hired by the district or placed by an agency	As we read PERS’s rules, substitute teaching for a Mississippi public school district is work for a PERS-covered employer (we found no PERS document about retirees who substitute teach). Since July 1, 2026, if you are a service retiree, PERS requires you to take a break of at least 30 consecutive days from your effective retirement date before you work for a PERS-covered employer in any way, and you may not have a pre-arranged agreement to go back. If you work for a PERS-covered employer during the break, or under a pre-arranged agreement, PERS’s rule says the payments you received must be repaid and the retirement is negated. Before that date the break was 90 days, and some older PERS handbooks and guides still say 90. If you worked on a school contract of less than 12 months and retired at the end of the school year, PERS’s rule for service retirees is later: you may not go back to work with a PERS-covered educational institution until 30 consecutive calendar days after the next school year begins. After the break, you may work for PERS-covered employers and keep your retirement benefit under one of three options, chosen once each July–June fiscal year: (a) up to half of the position’s normal working days (or hours) in the year, at no more than half of its salary; (b) as long as you earn no more than 25% of your average compensation; or (c), new since July 1, 2026, for as long as you and the employer agree, at no more than 80% of the position’s salary. Option (c) needs a written agreement signed after the 30-day break and is not open to elected officials, K-12 superintendents or college administrators, or to retirees whose benefit was reduced for early retirement. You and the employer must tell PERS in writing within five days of the reemployment, the employer must tell PERS again within five days after the job ends, and Form 4B, signed by you and the employer, is filed each fiscal year. Work for a PERS-covered employer done through a staffing agency or other company, or as a contract worker, still counts, and working for one as a true independent contractor needs PERS’s approval first. PERS’s rule says “The limitations on reemployment while in receipt of a retirement allowance may not be circumvented by contracting to perform services through a third party” and “Whether a retiree has been reemployed with a PERS covered agency, directly or indirectly, is a question of fact to be determined by PERS.” PERS’s guide tells retirees to “seek counsel from PERS before starting such employment”. Confirm your own situation with PERS at 800-444-7377.
   Other work for a PERS-covered employer (such as a Mississippi public school, state agency, university or community college, or a county or city that takes part in PERS)	As with substitute teaching, the 30-day break, the later date for teachers who retire at the end of a school year and the three earnings options apply, and work done through a company or as a contract worker still counts. Confirm your own situation with PERS at 800-444-7377.

   Sources: PERS’s guide “Thinking of Returning to Work?” (revised September 9, 2024, before the 2026 changes), PERS Board Regulation 34 (amended effective July 1, 2026), PERS’s Form 4B, and House Bill 4073 of 2026, which changed the break to 30 days. More detail on each rule, in PERS’s and the law’s own words, is in our PERS return-to-work guide.

2. Your teaching license. SpecialEdResource asks for special education certification and a teaching license from any US state, with the license current, or renewed before you start. A Mississippi standard license is valid for five school years, and the Mississippi Department of Education’s (MDE’s) licensure guidelines say: “All licenses expire on June 30th of the year of expiration.” Renewal is filed online in MECCA, MDE’s educator licensure system, with continuing education units, college coursework or the National Board process, in an amount set by your license class. 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.

   If you retired from a Mississippi public school, an official letter from PERS, dated in the year you submit it, can renew your license in its final year or reinstate it after it expires. We found no lifetime or retired-teacher license in MDE’s guidelines. Who qualifies, and how renewal works, are in our Mississippi teaching license 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 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. The earnings test applies only before full retirement age, and it is not for Social Security disability benefits: if you get Social Security disability insurance, or a widow(er)’s or child’s benefit because you are disabled, ask SSA before you take any job. SSA’s operating manual says “Do not count bona fide pension payments.” As we read SSA’s rules, that covers a PERS service retirement benefit. What $24,480 means in tutoring hours is below. Whether Mississippi teachers pay into Social Security, and how a PERS pension and Social Security fit together, are in our Social Security guide.

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 count toward the same limit. The earnings test applies only before full retirement age, and it is not for Social Security disability benefits: if you get Social Security disability insurance, or a widow(er)’s or child’s benefit because you are disabled, ask SSA before you take any job. These are SSA’s 2026 figures; SSA publishes each new year’s amounts in the fall. 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 Mississippi? What about PERS’s 30-day rule?

It depends on who you work for, and on how you retired. Since July 1, 2026, if you are a service retiree, PERS requires you to take a break of at least 30 consecutive days from your effective retirement date before you work for a PERS-covered employer in any way, and you may not have a pre-arranged agreement to go back. If you work for a PERS-covered employer during the break, or under a pre-arranged agreement, PERS’s rule says the payments you received must be repaid and the retirement is negated. Before that date the break was 90 days, and some older PERS handbooks and guides still say 90. If you worked on a school contract of less than 12 months and retired at the end of the school year, PERS’s rule for service retirees is later: you may not go back to work with a PERS-covered educational institution until 30 consecutive calendar days after the next school year begins. If you would start any job in your first 30 days after retiring, ask PERS first: Regulation 34 describes the 30-day break as “the absence of any employment in any capacity, including service without pay”, and we found no PERS sentence that says whether that reaches private work. Tutoring with SpecialEdResource, what PERS’s guide says about employers it does not cover, and the different rules for PERS disability retirees are in the first row of the table above. Confirm your own situation with PERS at 800-444-7377. The three ways to work for a PERS-covered employer after the break are in our PERS return-to-work guide.

My Mississippi teaching license 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. MDE’s licensure guidelines say: “Mississippi educators may reinstate an expired five-year standard license with one of the following options:” a one-year license on an application alone, during which you meet the renewal requirements and then apply for the remaining four years; reinstatement with coursework or professional learning credits earned within or after your last renewal cycle; reinstatement with a valid standard license from another state; and, if you retired from a Mississippi public school, reinstatement with an official letter from PERS, dated in the year you submit it. The steps are in our Mississippi teaching license guide.

Is this a W-2 job?

Yes. You’d be a part-time W-2 employee. SpecialEdResource withholds federal income tax, Mississippi state income tax (for tutors who live in Mississippi) 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.