Governor James V. Allred signed the bill into law on June 9, 1937 and the Teacher Retirement System of Texas was in effect as of July 1, 1937.

[6] While its mission to provide retirement benefits remains essentially unchanged, the breadth of its responsibility has increased considerably.

On September 1, 2002, TRS introduced TRS-ActiveCare, a new statewide health coverage program for public education employees established by the 77th Texas Legislature.

These HMO options will provide additional plan choices to the employees of participating entities in areas served by these HMOs.

These employees will be able to select TRS-ActiveCare coverage under one of the PPO plans or through the authorized HMO serving their part of the state.

Unlike Social Security, which offered Cost of Living Allowances from 1975 through 2009 and again from 2013 through 2015, TRS had not been able to provide a COLA to its annuitants since 2001.

[9] In May 2013, during the regular session of the 83rd Texas Legislature, provisions in Senate Bill 1458 resulted in the pension fund being actuarially sound.

That soundness and other provisions of the bill allowed legislators to direct TRS to provide a benefit enhancement—a 3% COLA (capped at $100) for members who retired before August 31, 2004.

A total of 195,000 retirees received the COLA which began with the annuity payable for September 2013 (effectively paid the next month.)

Eligible annuitants who retired on or before December 31, 2006 received an extra amount equal to their normal monthly pension payment (up to a maximum of $2,400).

The bill, passed by the 80th Texas Legislature, required the TRS Board of Trustees to approve a supplemental annuity payment based on results of the 2007 actuarial valuation, but only if the resulting funding period to amortize liabilities would be under 31 years after payment of the additional benefit.

[11] In February 2020, Sen. John Whitmire called for inquiries into TRS's real estate investment practices.

This comes just days after he lambasted TRS over its aborted plan to lease office space in the luxury Indeed Tower high-rise under construction in downtown Austin.