An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 3 – Hiring

and does not result in an unjustifiable, disproportionate impact on a protected group, e.g. race, gender, etc. LCW Practice Advisor To ensure the appropriateness of screening, schools should: •

Establish job-related screening criteria that do not result in the exclusion of individuals who are qualified and competitive for the job; Screening criteria should be predictive of success on the job; Conduct the screening even-handedly; Conduct screening without reference to or consideration of the perceived or actual race, ethnicity, or other protected characteristics of applicants; Establish a process to review fairness and appropriateness of rejected applications; Involve more than one person in the screening process; Balance applicants’ privacy rights with the school’s need for information; and Advise all applicants in advance that applications shall be screened upon receipt, and only candidates who meet minimum job qualifications and who are the most highly competitive may be interviewed. Religious schools may give preference to or even restrict applications to those of a particular religion. 94 • • • • • • •

LCW Practice Advisor

B. P RIOR TO E XTENDING A C ONDITIONAL O FFER OF E MPLOYMENT , S CHOOLS M AY O NLY S EEK C RIMINAL C ONVICTION H ISTORY OF A PPLICANTS A PPLYING FOR P OSITIONS R EQUIRING C ONTACT WITH M INORS California law generally prohibits employers from inquiring about an applicant’s conviction history on an application form. 95 Employers subject to this prohibition may not seek that information until the applicant has received a conditional job offer. 96 However, this law does not apply to employers who are required by law to conduct background checks for the position in question. 97 Both Education Code section 44237 and Penal Code section 11105.3 explicitly state that background checks are required for positions in which the applicant will be in contact with minors. 98 See section 4.F.2 and 3 below. Accordingly, many positions at schools are exempt from the requirements of this law.

An Administrator’s Guide to California Private School Law ©2019 Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 50