Good info. I wasn't aware that he Virginia had this type of protection in place for teachers. It sounds like he might have a fighting chance if he chooses to file a lawsuit for wrongful termination.
"Career Status" is fairly weak - it is common throughout non-union states for K-12 teachers. "Career Status" is the North Carolina term - other states may use different language. "Career status" is not "tenure" and is only meant to protect teachers from political firing. It requires a proper review process for a firing in this type of situation -- where a teacher is being disciplined and has not deviated from the law or curriculum after having a minimum number of years in the system with non-negative performance reviews. This means that if an administrator has a poor performing teacher (a common problem) - the teacher must be managed out via a defined performance review process with an adequate set of written warnings etc. over a period of time. In a public school, they can just not fire the teacher on a whim if the educator has not violated the law or educational guidelines. If a teacher hits a student, was arrested for a crime, or somehow had a major infraction then the administrator can fire a teacher in a "on-will" manner. Keep in mind that "career status" is totally different situation than the "Contracts" that several states are using now to lock teachers in for only one year, two years, or four years. This "Contract" system is being applied to many new teachers in a number of Southern states. It is a way to ensure that "tenure" -- that is being pushed for by teachers -- is never instituted. The legislatures were trying to use it as a method of pushing old, higher-paid teachers out of their jobs but the courts stopped this.