I am unsure if my 1099-R is considered to be for "Qualified government retirement distribution" here in Massachusetts. The plan was coming from non-profit higher ed org

[Nalharb]

Not a university, but a non-profit student loan organization

[MonikaK1]

Please see here for information from the State of Massachusetts regarding the taxability of different types of pension plan distributions. Only certain types of government pensions and Social Security are nontaxable in that state. Nonprofit organizations are not listed among the nontaxable pensions on the webpage at the link above.

Please also see this thread for another discussion of this issue. TurboTax will also display categories of qualified government pensions in the Massachusetts state interview.

[Nalharb]

Thank you! But the other thing is, it wasn’t a distribution, the taxable amount listed on the 1099-R is $0 because I rolled it over into my current 401k

[BillM223]

It seems that it does not matter if the "non-profit student loan organization" is a governmental organization or not. Rollovers are generally not taxable in any case.

But to answer your question, I'll agree with Monika that your organization is not a governmental organization.