(a) Wherever a contract is required by law and wherever a contract actually exists between the school board and the employe, the same shall be considered to continue in full force and effect during said leave of absence.

(b) Increments shall not be abated during said leave of absence, but shall continue to accrue to such employes.

(c) The school district shall pay into the School Employes' Retirement Fund on behalf of each such employe, in addition to the contributions required by law to be made by it, the full amount of the contribution required by law to be paid by the employe, so that such employe's retirement rights shall in no way be affected by such leave of absence. If any such employe resigns, or fails to return to his employment as provided in this act,¹ the amount contributed by the school district under this subsection shall be deducted from the refund payable to such employe under existing law, and the amount so deducted shall be refunded to the school district by which it was paid. If any such employe shall return within one year from the date of his discharge from military service to school service in any other school district within this Commonwealth, or as an employe of any institution or board, the employes of which are entitled to membership in the School Employes' Retirement Association in accordance with the provisions of the act, approved the eighteenth day of July, one thousand nine hundred seventeen (Pamphlet Laws 1043), as amended,² he shall be entitled to have full credit for each year he spent in military or naval service upon his restoring to the School Employes' Retirement Fund, to the credit of the annuity savings account, his total accumulated deductions in the amount they should have been at the time he resigned from, or failed to return to, the school district from which he entered the military or naval service. Such back payments may either be paid in a lump sum or by such monthly payroll deductions as may be approved by the school employes' retirement board.

(d) The period of said leave of absence shall be considered as service to the school board in the matter of seniority rights.

(e) Notwithstanding this section, for military service for leaves granted on or after July 1, 2013, an employe who is an active or inactive member of the Public School Employees' Retirement System at the time he is granted a military leave shall be entitled to receive credit in the Public School Employees' Retirement System for the leave as provided in 24 Pa.C.S. Pt. IV³ (relating to retirement for school employees).