Teacher screening questions: certification match, fingerprinting, classroom management and IEPs

Teacher screening questions should first confirm the facts that decide whether a candidate can be placed: a current certificate with the right subject and grade endorsements (checked on the state's public lookup), the fingerprint-based background check the state requires before the first day, and a start date their current contract allows. Then use the rest of the call on teaching itself: how they plan a unit and check learning, how they manage a class, how they adapt instruction for students with IEPs and 504 plans, and how they work with families. As of October 2026, certification and fingerprinting rules are set by each state, so the examples below name the state.

This page is the 20-minute phone screen for K-12 classroom teachers. The full interview loop, with a demo lesson, a data task and a parent conference role play, is in the interview guide for teachers. For related roles, see substitute teacher screening questions, special education teacher screening questions and teacher assistant screening questions. For what a new hire should do in the first months, see the 30-60-90 day plan for teachers.

How do I check certification before the call?

Look the candidate up before you dial, so the call can confirm details instead of discovering problems. Use the lookup run by the state agency that issued the certificate:

• Texas. The Texas Education Agency's certificate lookup shows current certificates and certificate history, and TEA says the virtual certificate is the official record of educator certification in Texas.
• California. The Commission on Teacher Credentialing's Search for an Educator tool is listed on its page for employers.
• Other states. Use the state education agency or educator standards board that issued the certificate. A teacher certified in another state usually needs the receiving state's own process before placement.

Then compare three things with the vacancy: the certificate's status (standard, provisional, intern, expired), the subject or content area, and the grade range. A middle grades mathematics certificate may not cover high school calculus, so check the state's assignment rules, and a certificate that expires before the school year starts needs a renewal plan.

For programs funded under Title I, federal law requires the state to ensure that all teachers and paraprofessionals in the program meet applicable state certification and licensure requirements, including those obtained through alternative routes (20 U.S.C. 6311(g)(2)(J)). States are also working on cross-state portability: the Council of State Governments describes the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact as finalized and available for state enactment, so check whether both the candidate's state and yours have joined before relying on it.

What background and fingerprint checks apply?

• Texas. TEA's fingerprinting page lists certified teachers and administrators and substitute teachers among the roles that must complete fingerprinting before beginning work. Results are available to districts through the Department of Public Safety's FACT Clearinghouse, and employees are enrolled in the FBI Rap Back service, which notifies districts of new reportable criminal activity.
• California. The Commission on Teacher Credentialing says fingerprint clearance is required from every applicant before it issues any credential, permit, certificate or waiver; its Certificate of Clearance leaflet describes the Live Scan process and says the certificate is valid for five years.
• Reference checks. Under 20 U.S.C. 7926, states and districts receiving Elementary and Secondary Education Act funds must prohibit staff from helping a school employee get a new job, apart from routine transmission of files, when they know or have probable cause to believe that person engaged in sexual misconduct regarding a minor or student. The interview guide for teachers covers how to ask former principals about student safety.
• Background reports. If the district uses a screening company, the Fair Credit Reporting Act steps also apply; see the FCRA process for recruiters.

On the call, tell the candidate which checks come before the first day and ask whether they are willing to complete them. Do not ask them to describe their record; the state process does that.

Knockout questions

Instruction and planning questions

1. "Walk me through how you planned your last unit."
   • Strong answer: starts from the state standards and the end-of-unit assessment, plans backwards, builds in checks for understanding, and names the materials or curriculum they used.
   • Red flags: plans day to day from a textbook with no end point.
2. "How do you know, during a lesson, whether students are getting it?"
   • Strong answer: specific checks: exit tickets, whiteboards, cold calling, circulating while students work, and what they did with the results the next day.
   • Red flags: "I ask if anyone has questions."
3. "Tell me about a lesson that did not work. What did you change?"
   • Strong answer: a real lesson, what the evidence showed, and the specific change in the reteach.
   • Red flags: blames the students, or cannot name one.
4. "How did you use assessment data with your last class?"
   • Strong answer: names the assessment, how they grouped students, and the result after reteaching.
   • Red flags: data is "the school's job".

Classroom management questions

Students with IEPs and 504 plans

General education teachers are part of the team: under the IDEA regulations at 34 CFR 300.321(a)(2), a child's IEP team includes at least one regular education teacher of the child if the child is, or may be, participating in the regular education environment. Ask:

• "How did you implement accommodations from an IEP in your class?" Strong: names specific accommodations (extended time, preferential seating, modified assignments), how they tracked them, and how they talked with the special education teacher. Red flag: "The special ed teacher handles that."
• "What did you contribute at an IEP meeting?" Strong: brought work samples and data on progress in their class. Red flag: has never attended one.
• "How do you adjust a lesson for a class with a wide range of reading levels?" Strong: specific scaffolds, grouping, texts at different levels for the same standard. Red flag: one version for everyone.

Families, colleagues and student safety

• "Tell me about a difficult conversation with a parent." Strong: prepared with evidence, listened, agreed next steps, followed up. Red flag: avoids parents, or argues.
• "How do you work with a grade-level or department team?" Strong: shared planning, common assessments, uses colleagues' feedback. Red flag: works alone by choice.
• "A student tells you something that makes you think they are being harmed at home. What do you do?" Strong: listens without leading, does not promise secrecy, reports under the state's mandatory reporting law and the district's procedure the same day. Federal law requires every state to have a mandatory reporting law (42 U.S.C. 5106a(b)(2)(B)(i)), and each state's statute names who must report. Red flag: "I'd talk to the parents first."
• "How do you communicate with students online or by phone?" Strong: only through school-approved platforms, with professional boundaries. Red flag: personal social media or private messaging with students.

How teaching experience gets overstated

• Student teaching or long-term substitute work as full classroom experience. Valuable, but ask who planned and graded.
• Certification claimed for a different subject or grade band. The lookup settles it.
• Tutoring as classroom management. One-to-one work does not test managing thirty students. Ask about their largest class.
• "Data-driven" with no example. Ask for one assessment and one change it caused.

Scoring the screen

Candidates who pass go on to the panel and demo lesson in the full loop. In the submittal, include the certificate details from the lookup, the start date, and the candidate's answer to the lesson that did not work, in their own words.

Lawful phrasing for teacher screens

Ask about availability for duties and the start date, not about children, marriage or pregnancy plans. Ask about certification, not age or graduation year; the federal protections for applicants 40 and older are covered in age discrimination in hiring. Do not ask about religion; state the schedule and ask whether they can work it. Criminal history questions are often limited before an offer; see ban-the-box interview questions and illegal interview questions. This page is general information, not legal advice.