We present a new model for the series resistance of inverted-staggered amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin film transistors (TFT"s) by employing the current spreading under the source and the drain contacts as well as the space charge limited current model. The calculated results based on our model have been in good agreements with the measured data over a wide range of applied voltage, gate-to-source and gate-to-drain overlap length, channel length, and operating temperature. Our model shows that the contribution of the series resistances to the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the a-Si TFT in the linear regime is more significant at low drain and high gate voltages, for short channel and small overlap length, and at low operating temperature, which have been verified successfully by the experimental measurements.