A study of the degree to which school districts in Virginia include legal or illegal inquiries on employment application forms for teacher

Federal legislation on illegal pre-employment inquiries has become increasingly well known. Unfortunately, many districts may learn too late that their employment application forms for teachers do not comply with federal regulations regarding pre-employment inquiries. This study examined teacher employment application forms used by school districts in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Examination of these applications identified the information that would likely disclose an applicant's membership in a protected class. All 132 school districts employment applications were analyzed for compliant with EEOC guidelines. Despite knowledge of Title VII, its resulting legal decisions and millions of dollars paid by employers, all but one school district application examined in this study included a discriminatory inquiry. The results also indicated that districts with 10,000 or more students, located in Region 2 of the state, and districts that identify as a city were more likely to include illegal and out of compliance inquiries on their application form. In addition, a majority of the districts in Virginia used a web-based application form to select teachers.