The Illinois Teachers Retirement System is comprised of public school teachers and employees of a state public school that are members of state run pension systems. The retirement plans are available to most, but not all, public sector employees usually you have to be a full-time state employee to qualify for these pension plans.

Some local & state governments don\'t offer defined-benefit retirement systems but may offer a defined contribution type plan. In most states the public employee pension plans are known as Public Employee Retirement Systems (PERS) or State Employee Retirement Systems (SERS).