Arkansas guides
ATRS, teaching licenses, special education, salary and Social Security: guides for Arkansas teachers
Each guide covers rules and figures Arkansas teachers may want to check, and quotes the agencies and laws behind them: state law and the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System (ATRS) for working after retirement, the Rules Governing Educator Licensure and the Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) for licenses, state law, DESE and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for pay, and federal law and the Social Security Administration for the earnings test. The guides are grouped below by topic.
Last reviewed October 13, 2026
Retirement: ATRS and Social Security
Arkansas Teacher Retirement: ATRS Return-to-Work Rules for 2026
Working after you retire from ATRS: the four-month rule, Normal Retirement Age, employers outside ATRS, substitute teaching, and when to ask ATRS.
Arkansas Teachers & Social Security: ATRS and the 2026 Earnings Limit
Whether Arkansas teachers pay into Social Security, what ATRS says about drawing both benefits, and the 2026 earnings test before full retirement age.
Teaching licenses and special education licenses
Arkansas Teaching License: AELS Lookup, Renewal and Expired Licenses
How to look up an Arkansas educator license in AELS, how renewal works, what to do when a license has expired, the lifetime teaching license, and licenses from other states.
Arkansas Special Education License: Areas, Praxis Tests and Routes
Arkansas’s special education license areas, the Praxis tests and passing scores, the science-of-reading test, and adding special education to a license by testing out or by coursework.