School districts may enter into joint agreements to form educational cooperatives to perform varied types of educational services. These may be structured in various ways. The function and structure are important in determining the employment relationship.
The various organizational types are described below.
Section 10-22.31 of the School Code authorizes school districts to enter into cooperative (or joint) agreements to furnish special education services for students of the cooperating districts. Under this section, the special education cooperative may be structured in one of two ways:
One of the school districts may be designated as the administrative district. If there are employees of the cooperative who are not employees of the administrative district, the governing board may elect to participate in IMRF independently as a separate legal entity in order to provide IMRF coverage for its employees.
If the board of the cooperative consists of one member of each participating school district, the cooperative agreement may designate the cooperative to act as ”its own administrative district.” In this case, it is considered a separate legal entity and is required to participate in IMRF independently.
Section 10-22.31a of the School Code authorizes school districts to enter into cooperative (joint) agreements with other school districts to establish any type of educational program which they can establish individually. In these cooperatives, one district is designated as the administrative district and is considered the employer of the cooperatives’ employees.
All educational cooperatives established under Section 3-15.14 of the School Code are included in IMRF as separate reporting entities.
Vocational educational cooperatives created under the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act and approved by the State Board of Education are required to report to IMRF as participating instrumentalities.