Legal Question in Employment Law in California

Discrimination is perfectly legal, unless it is specifically made illegal by law. That means that unless the discrimination is based on something the law specifically protects, such as race, gender, etc., there is nothing illegal about discrimination. There certainly is nothing illegal about discriminating based on qualifications. That would be absurd.

Beyond what Mr. McCormick has stated. While Federal law states regarding paraprofession's minimum qualifications in Section 1119 of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act: 2 years of study (48 semester hours) at an institution of higher education (a college); or An associate�s degree or higher; or ... " This is just again the bare minimum. State law can and probably requires more. For instance I know for instructional aides state law allows the employer to set their own educational requirements. However I don't practice in this area much so I would recommend you contact an education law attorney, submit a paid question for someone to answer for you regarding state law educational requirements for a paraprofessional, or contact me for a limited representation agreement which would justify me looking into this for you.

Your 'rights' are to look for another job or career that does not require degrees or licenses, OR to try to negotiate a waiver or exception from the agency..

You seem to erroneously feel that government agency rule enforcement could somehow be 'discrimination'. You are not a member of any minority category protected by discrimination laws in this situation.

Not only are there no laws against 'unfair treatment', but in general, unless an employee is civil service, in a union, or has a written employment contract, they are an 'at will' employee that can be disciplined or terminated any time for any reason, with or without �cause�, explanation or notice.