An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 9 – Interactive Process: Employees and Students

Furthermore, the EEOC Regulations provide:

 In determining whether an accommodation would impose an undue hardship on a covered entity, factors to be considered include: the nature and net cost of the accommodation needed under this part, taking into consideration the availability of tax credits and deductions, and/or outstanding funding. 1587  An employer may consider the impact of an accommodation on the ability of other employees to do their jobs. However, an employer may not claim undue hardship solely because providing an accommodation has a negative impact on the morale of other employees. 1588  It is difficult to maintain a disabled employee’s confidentiality when co- workers wonder why the employee receives “special” treatment. Co- workers who do not know an employee is disabled might become very

unhappy if they are asked to take on additional functions. Informing employees that the school complies with all relevant laws and that co- workers might be receiving accommodations might reduce this possibility. A school may not claim undue hardship because of “disruption” due to parents’ or employees’ fears about, or prejudices toward, a person’s disability. For example:  If restructuring a job to accommodate an individual with a disability creates

a heavier workload for other employees, this may constitute an undue hardship. But employee complaints about disabled individuals’ use of unpaid leave or a special flexible work schedule do not constitute an undue hardship.

 Employee objections to working with an individual who has a disability because the employee feels uncomfortable or dislikes being near this person, does not constitute an undue hardship. In this case, the hardship is caused by the employee’s fear or prejudice toward the individual's disability, not by the accommodation. 1589 The following is an example of the parameters of the undue hardship limitation contained in the Senate Report:

[A] small day care center might not be required to expend more than a nominal sum, such as that necessary to equip a telephone for use by a secretary with impaired hearing, but a large school district might be required to make available a teacher’s aide to a blind applicant for a teaching job. Further, it might be considered reasonable to require a State Welfare agency to accommodate a deaf employee by providing an interpreter, while it would constitute an undue hardship to impose that requirement on a provider of foster home care services. 1590

An Administrator’s Guide to California Private School Law ©2019 Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 357