Excerpt from: J.J. Keller & Associates, Inc. (click for full post)
An employer’s requirement that workers have a high school diploma is usually not a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), according to an informal discussion letter released October 25 by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
The letter, dated June 11, contains Assistant Legal Counsel Christopher Kuczynski’s response to a letter received by the EEOC that objected to the commission’s comments about high school diploma requirements made in an earlier informal discussion letter. The EEOC’s letter is not considered an official opinion of the commission, but is an informal discussion of the issues.
The earlier letter asserted that a high school diploma requirement can be unlawful under the ADA if it screens out or tends to screen out an individual with a disability or class of individuals with disabilities, unless the employer can demonstrate that the requirement is job related and consistent with business necessity. Individuals may be entitled to demonstrate their ability to perform the essential functions of the job by alternative means as a reasonable accommodation.
In the June 11 letter, Kuczynski noted that in order to challenge an employer’s high school diploma requirement, an applicant without a diploma must first prove that a disability prevented him or her from obtaining the diploma. An applicant with a learning disability that does not prevent graduation from high school, but who did not graduate because he or she decided not to complete the course requirements, cannot challenge an employer’s high school diploma requirement under the ADA, the letter stated.
“In the vast majority of cases, an employer will be able to apply a high school diploma requirement without violating the ADA,” Kuczynski wrote.
An employer may also defend the high school diploma requirement as job related and consistent with business necessity. An employer may offer evidence of a correlation between holding a high school diploma and performing the duties of a particular job that requires specific math or reading skills.
“The key is whether a high school diploma requirement is ‘job related for the position and consistent with business necessity’ under the ADA,” Kuczynski said.
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