Tutoring after you retire from teaching in North Carolina

What part-time remote tutoring looks like

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, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern, which is your local time in North Carolina. 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

Before you start: TSERS, your license and Social Security

1. Your TSERS benefit. NC Retirement Systems (RSD) says:

   “Return-to-work” laws do not apply if you are employed with a private-sector employer and you perform no work for a system employer.

   SpecialEdResource is a private company with no contracts or paid work with North Carolina public school districts or charter schools. RSD adds: “However, work performed for a system employer can include contractor work on the system employer’s behalf.”

   A “system employer” includes “all North Carolina public school units, State agencies, community colleges, and UNC institutions, among others.” Substitute teaching and other work for a system employer come under the return-to-work rules, including work you're assigned to by a staffing agency, and no substitute-teaching waiver was found in force as of Oct. 10, 2026. The six-month wait, the 2026 earnings limit and the jobs that stop a benefit are in our TSERS return-to-work guide. Before you start, confirm your own situation with NC Retirement Systems, on its Return to Work Laws page.

2. Your license. SpecialEdResource asks for special education certification and a teaching license from any U.S. state, with the license current, or renewed before you start. North Carolina law says of the Continuing Professional License (CPL):

   A CPL shall remain in effect for five years after retirement.

   (G.S. 115C-270.20(a)(1); also 16 NCAC 06C .0337(e).) A lifetime license, in the statute's words, “shall require no renewal” (G.S. 115C-270.20(d)). 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.

   Details, including who qualifies for a lifetime license, are in our NC 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. What $24,480 means in tutoring hours is below; check your own case with SSA.

Receiving disability benefits from DIPNC? Different rules apply to any job, private ones included. RSD's DIPNC handbook says:

If you accept public or private employment while you are receiving long-term benefits, there are limits to the amount you may earn each month

Ask NC Retirement Systems before you start; our TSERS return-to-work guide has the details.

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

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. SSA can tell you how the earnings test applies to you, and our Social Security guide has the 2026 rules.

Questions about tutoring after retirement

Do I have to wait six months after retiring before I can tutor?

RSD's waiting period is:

six (6) months for TSERS, before performing any work for a system employer

and “Your waiting period begins on your effective retirement date (which is the first day of a month).” The wait is written for work for a system employer, as RSD defines it above. Confirm with NC Retirement Systems how it applies to your plans before you start.

My 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. For an NC CPL, DPI says: “If your license expired in previous years, the renewal request can be submitted at any time,” and “8 units of renewal credit are required to renew both a current and expired CPL.” The steps are in our NC teaching license guide.

Is this a W-2 job?

Yes. You'd be a part-time W-2 employee. SpecialEdResource withholds federal income tax, North Carolina state income tax and your share of Social Security and Medicare, pays the employer’s half (7.65% of your pay) and carries workers’ comp. If you get Social Security and are under full retirement age, these wages count toward the earnings test.