Employers are facing more uncertainty in the wake of a letter from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission warning them that requiring a high school diploma from a job applicant might violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The development also has some wondering whether the agency’s advice will result in an educational backlash by creating less of an incentive for some high school students to graduate.
The “informal discussion letter” from the EEOC said an employer’s requirement of a high school diploma, long a standard criterion for screening potential employees, must be “job-related for the position in question and consistent with business necessity.” The letter was posted on the commission’s website on Dec. 2.
Employers could run afoul of the ADA if their requirement of a high school diploma “‘screens out’ an individual who is unable to graduate because of a learning disability that meets the ADA’s definition of ‘disability,’” the EEOC explained.
The commission’s advice, which does not carry the force of law, is raising alarms among employment-law professionals, who say it could carry far-reaching implications for businesses.
Maria Greco Danaher, a lawyer with the labor and employment law firm Ogletree Deakins, said the EEOC letter means that employers must determine whether job applicants whose learning disabilities kept them from obtaining diplomas can perform the essential job functions, with or without reasonable accommodation. She said the development is “worthy of notice” for employers.
“While an employer is not required to ‘prefer’ a learning-disabled applicant over other applicants with more extensive qualifications, it is clear that the EEOC is informing employers that disabled individuals cannot be excluded from consideration for employment based upon artificial barriers in the form of inflexible qualification standards,” she wrote in a blog post.
Mary Theresa Metzler, a lawyer with Ballard Spahr in Philadelphia, said there may be an “unintended and unfortunate” repercussion of the EEOC’s discussion: “There will be less incentive for the general public to obtain a high school diploma if many employers eliminate that requirement for job applicants in their workplace.”
Officials at the EEOC said the letter in question addressed “a particular inquiry” and disputed that it would have repercussions in secondary education.
“No, we don’t think the regulation would discourage people from obtaining high school diplomas,” said Peggy Mastroianni, legal counsel for the EEOC. “People are aware that they need all the education they can get.”
She said the letter does not offer a new interpretation of the ADA.
Jeanne Goldberg, a senior lawyer/adviser at the agency, said the issue….
Read more from Dave Boyer, The Washington Times.
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Ummm, now let's see if this holds water as we take a few obvious steps in the suggested direction. Although I have never graduated from medical school, I'd like to hire on as a brain surgeon….
Practice makes perfect. LOL
Encourage the young not to think for themselves, regardless of handicap issues; why not, the young who are not handicap are already encouraged to work hard for stupidity goals. Works for me. Degrade, corrupt the morals, block education, what an evil program BO is working so hard at. He is nothing more than evil criminal. One sick puppy.
Follow this to its logical conclusion and see where it gets us…even lower on the advanced nations list. What a schmuck this Barry Soetoro is.
So being stupid and not wanting to get your free education is a disability now? Way to go putting down people with real disabilities by tieing them in with lazy sacks of crap who simply don't care!
The ADA is another law/agency that needs to be abolished. Gov't has no business telling businesses who they should hire and also forcing businesses to undergo expensive renovations to their facilities to accomodate people with disabilities. It's another unconstitutional law and it's one of the many laws and regulations that drive businesses either to relocate out of the country or it forces businesses to devote resources to satisfying this regulation which could otherwise be devoted to expanding their business.
Ever increasing City (Rockville), County (Montgomery), State (Maryland) and Federal government regulations are what caused me to sell my then very small but very successful foreign car repair shop back in 1981.
You know, it used to be a diploma meant something. You worked hard and you studied hard to obtain that little piece of paper. If you were lucky enough, you could go on and further your education in college and get a better job. Now a days, with the type of education our kids are getting in high school AND college with the NEA..and the US Department of Education involved.. I'm not sure having a high school diploma means what it used to. Kind of discouraging isn't it. I think I would prefer hiring a homeschooler. They are better educated because it's their parents doing the educating and the parents have a vested interest. The government just wants to dummy our kids down so EVERYONE can graduate and not have low self esteem. Simply discouraging…..and yes, I worked for many years in our public education system. I know from a parents perspective and from an employees perspective.
Wonder who it is that mostly doesn’t get their high school diploma…………..? hmmmmmm………..sounds racist to me………………….
What a crock of crap.
Not only are we forced to accept the queer illegal alien, we must now hire them because they CHOSE not to get a high school diploma.
I wonder if the no high school diploma "disability" also holds for the military? No diploma is needed to be a grunt….
That is simple: If it is illegal to ask BO for his High School or College diploma to be a white house resident, why should a Taco Bell employee have to produce something that a man in the white house doesn't need ot show?
It is truely an Obamageddon!