Education recruitment is the work of finding, screening, and hiring teachers and school staff, and in Ontario the first gate is legal: a teacher in a publicly funded school must hold a Certificate of Qualification and Registration from the Ontario College of Teachers. In the United States, the National Center for Education Statistics found that 74 percent of public schools had difficulty filling at least one teaching vacancy entering the 2024-25 school year. Software that screens applicants is now part of some hiring pipelines, and at least one state, Illinois, has written rules about it into its human rights law.
Key takeaways
- Ontario requires College of Teachers certification for teaching in publicly funded schools, so credential checks come before any ranking of candidates.
- US public schools reported an average of six teaching vacancies in August 2024, and 74 percent had difficulty filling at least one.
- Illinois amended its Human Rights Act, effective January 1, 2026, to bar discriminatory AI use in employment decisions and to require notice.
- Final Illinois notice rules could not be confirmed as of October 2026; materials from April 2026 described them as proposed.
- No source reviewed shows that AI screening produces better teacher hires than human review.
The credential gate in Ontario
The Ontario College of Teachers states that teaching in Ontario's publicly funded schools requires a Certificate of Qualification and Registration and membership in good standing. To be certified, an applicant needs a postsecondary degree of at least three years, a teacher education program that runs four semesters, and payment of fees. Applicants educated outside Ontario may face language and document requirements. Section 262 of the Education Act addresses the employment of teachers who are not College members.
For a hiring team, this means certification is a yes-or-no check that exists in law and does not depend on any scoring tool. Software that ranks resumes can only sort among applicants who already meet that threshold.
How hard schools say hiring is: US figures from 2024
The National Center for Education Statistics released School Pulse Panel results on October 17, 2024. Data were collected August 13 to 27, 2024, from 1,392 public K-12 schools in every state and the District of Columbia. The agency labels the release an experimental data product. It reported that 74 percent of public schools had difficulty filling one or more teaching vacancies, down from 79 percent a year earlier. Schools averaged six teaching vacancies and reported filling 79 percent of them before classes resumed.
The two most common obstacles were a lack of qualified candidates (64 percent) and too few applicants (62 percent, down from 70 percent the previous year). The survey measures school leaders' reports at one point in time. It does not say which recruiting methods work.
Where software enters hiring
Applicant tracking systems are the most common entry point. A presentation by a law firm, posted on the Illinois Human Rights Commission site in April 2026, lists resume screening that ranks or filters applicants, chatbots for first contact, automated scheduling, and analysis of recorded video interviews as typical uses. It also lists risks: over-reliance, bias, lack of transparency, and an impersonal process.
These are descriptions of tool types, not of any school district's practice. The sources reviewed do not report how many school systems use such tools, and a district's own procurement records are the only reliable place to learn that.
What Illinois now requires of employers
Public Act 103-0804, also known as House Bill 3773, added subsection (L) to section 2-102 of the Illinois Human Rights Act. For recruitment, hiring, promotion, discipline, discharge, and similar decisions, it is a civil rights violation for an employer to use artificial intelligence that has the effect of discriminating against protected classes, or to use zip codes as a proxy for protected classes. It is also a violation to fail to notify an employee that AI is being used for those purposes. The law defines artificial intelligence as a machine-based system that infers from its input how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions. It took effect January 1, 2026.
The Department of Human Rights was directed to write rules on when notice is required, the time period, and the means. The April 2026 presentation described draft rules under which notice would go to current employees annually and within 30 days of adopting or substantially updating a tool, and would also appear in job postings. Those were described as proposed. A final version could not be confirmed, and the statute page consulted carried a note about a later amending act, so the current text should be checked on the Illinois General Assembly site. Whether a particular school district is covered, and how, is a legal question for that district's counsel.
Questions to put to a screening tool before it is used
The list is an illustrative screening aid, not a legal standard in Canada or the United States.
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Does the tool check certification or only rank resumes? | Certification is a legal condition; ranking is a convenience |
| What data does it use to score applicants? | Proxies such as postal or zip codes are named as a concern in Illinois law |
| Can a person see why an applicant was filtered out? | Transparency is one of the listed risks |
| Is each applicant told the tool is used? | Notice is a duty in Illinois and good practice elsewhere |
| Who reviews the filtered-out pool? | Over-reliance is a listed risk, and shortages make each lost applicant costly |
This article gives general information on hiring practice and law as of October 2026. It is not legal advice and does not recommend any product.
FAQ
Must teachers in Ontario's public schools be certified?
Publicly funded schools in Ontario must hire teachers who are College of Teachers members, except as the Education Act provides. Other provinces run their own certification systems.
Is AI resume screening legal in schools?
No source reviewed bans it outright. Anti-discrimination law still applies, and Illinois adds a notice duty for covered employers. Other states and provinces have their own rules.
Does AI make teacher hiring faster?
The sources reviewed do not measure that. The 2024 federal survey describes vacancies and obstacles, not the effect of any hiring tool.
What did the 2024 survey say about teacher shortages?
It reported that 74 percent of public schools had difficulty filling at least one teaching vacancy, with special education among the hardest roles to fill.
Related reading
- What an education code does
- AI in education: current trends
- Impact and potential of AI in schools
- AI prompt libraries for education
More in AI in education.
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- Becoming a teacher, Ontario College of Teachers, 2026
- Education Act, section 262, Government of Ontario, e-Laws, current to October 2026
- Most U.S. public elementary and secondary schools faced hiring challenges for the start of the 2024-25 academic year, National Center for Education Statistics, October 17, 2024
- Public Act 103-0804 and 775 ILCS 5/2-102, Illinois General Assembly
- Cracking the Code: Demystifying Illinois' New AI Employment Law, presentation by Fisher Phillips, April 2, 2026, Illinois Human Rights Commission