(a) Any active and contributing member of the Teachers' Retirement System of Alabama shall be eligible to receive up to five years of creditable service for employment in a support personnel position in the State of Alabama, if the member claiming the credit has not less than 10 years of contributing membership service exclusive of military service credit under the Teachers' Retirement System, and the member performs and complies with the conditions prescribed in subsection (b) of this section.

(b) A member of the Teachers' Retirement System of Alabama eligible under subsection (a) of this section may receive credit as provided in subsection (a) if as a condition precedent to the receipt of the credit: (i) the member contributes prior to his or her date of retirement, to the Teachers' Retirement System for each year of claimed service credit the full actuarially determined cost for each year of service credit as determined by the system's actuary; (ii) the member shall claim, purchase and receive credit for support personnel service in increments of not less than one year unless the member's total or balance of claimed service is less than one year in which event he or she shall claim and purchase credit for the entire period.

(c) Anything in this section to the contrary notwithstanding, a member shall not be eligible to purchase credit under this section for service for which he or she already has credit under the Teachers' Retirement System or any other retirement or pension plan which is wholly or partly funded from public funds or other moneys of public institutions of this or any other state, provided that nothing herein shall be construed to apply to participation in the federal Social Security program. In the event of disqualification of service purchased under this section, contributions made on account of the disqualified service shall be refunded to the member.