Registry and criminal records for FCRA employment screening
For screening companies running pre-employment reports: sex-offender registry and criminal records in one FCRA order, with the reporting rules applied before anything reaches your report — and a disputes API and a consumer portal for what we furnish. Put the order’s access code in your pre-adverse notice and the candidate can see and dispute exactly what we reported.
Making a hiring decision? Use an FCRA workflow.
FCRA workflows are built primarily for tenant screening and hiring decisions. If a result will help decide whether to hire someone, the check has to run as an FCRA-regulated consumer report, with a permissible purpose, consent, accuracy controls and a dispute path for the person. Our standard search and API are not a consumer report. FCRA workflows run through FCRA Partner Access, for background check companies and screening platforms under a written FCRA agreement.
FCRA pricing is quoted per partner, so contact us for pricing.
Where the data layer sits in a hiring report
Employment is the permissible purpose the FCRA spells out most fully, and it puts duties on everyone in the chain. Here is how they split when we supply the registry and criminal layer.
1. Your client hires; you run the report
The employer gets the consumer’s disclosure and authorization and orders a report from you. You place one FCRA order — registry, criminal, or both — with purpose employment, the employer as the registered end user, and your consent attestation.
2. We apply the data-layer controls
A live search in every state of the candidate’s address history and the state where the job is, then exact date-of-birth matching, the federal seven-year rule for non-convictions, the salary exemption when you state it, state conviction limits, and the California registry restriction — then a live re-check of every survivor.
3. You assemble and deliver
Furnished records arrive with their verification time, record type and disposition. Withheld items arrive as counts by reason, so your report can say exactly what was not included and why.
4. The employer decides, with notice
Pre-adverse and adverse-action notices stay with the employer and you. If the consumer disputes something we furnished, they can come to us directly, and corrections are passed back.
Employment purposes and the employer’s certifications are in 15 U.S.C. § 1681b; adverse-action duties in 15 U.S.C. § 1681m.
What changes when the purpose is employment
The salary exemption becomes available
For roles at $75,000 a year or more, stating the salary lifts the federal seven-year limits. It is never assumed, and never lifts a state limit.
California registry data stays out
California prohibits employment uses of its Megan’s Law information unless another law authorizes them, so it is withheld from every employment answer.
Current status matters most
Public-record information used for employment must reflect its current status. Every furnished record is re-checked live and carries its verification time, and the coverage table shows which courts and registries were searched live.
Two roles, one candidate, two reports
A candidate who lived in California and Texas applies for two jobs in Texas: a warehouse role at $48,000 and a director role at $120,000. Both orders use the purpose employment and Texas as the job’s state.
| Item on the candidate’s record | Warehouse role, $48,000 | Director role, $120,000 |
|---|---|---|
| California registration with an exact date-of-birth match | Withheld — California prohibits employment use of Megan’s Law information | Withheld — same rule |
| 2015 arrest in Texas, dismissed | Removed — non-conviction over seven years | Reportable — the $75,000 exemption lifts the federal limit |
| 2017 conviction in Texas | Removed — Texas caps convictions at seven years | Removed — we apply state caps without salary exceptions |
| 2022 conviction in Ohio | Furnished after a live re-check | Furnished after a live re-check |
Withheld and removed items are reported only as counts per reason, never as records. How the seven years are counted is in the FCRA seven-year rule.
The employer’s FCRA steps, and where the data fits
Before ordering, the employer gives the candidate a clear, standalone disclosure that a report may be obtained, gets written authorization, and certifies to the screening company that it did so and will follow the adverse-action rules (15 U.S.C. § 1681b(b)). That certification is what your FCRA order’s consent attestation records.
If the report may lead to a rejection, the employer first sends a pre-adverse action notice with a copy of the report and the summary of consumer rights, and gives the candidate time to respond. The waiting period is not fixed by the statute; around five business days is common practice. The final adverse action notice names the screening company, says it did not make the decision, and tells the candidate they can get a free copy of the report and dispute it (15 U.S.C. § 1681m). The adverse action process guide walks through each notice.
The pre-adverse window is when disputes arrive. Include the consumer portal code in that notice, and the candidate can see exactly what we furnished and dispute any item. A correction reaches you by webhook, so the employer can revisit the decision before it becomes final.
Roles where registry status matters by law
Most employment screening law runs on fingerprint criminal-history checks, where registry status is not a listed disqualifier. These are the places where a registry search, or registry status itself, is written into the rule. Not exhaustive — and your client’s counsel decides what applies to them.
| Role | What the rule requires | Citation |
|---|---|---|
| Child care staff (CCDF-funded providers) | National sex offender registry search plus state registries in every state of residence for five years | 45 CFR § 98.43 |
| Rideshare drivers (California) | Search of the national sex offender website named in statute; registration bars the driver | Cal. Pub. Util. Code § 5445.2 |
| Rideshare drivers (Texas) | Registry check, rechecked annually; registration bars the driver | Tex. Occ. Code § 2402.107 |
| Healthcare staff in Florida (Level 2) | Registries of any state lived in during the preceding five years | Fla. Stat. § 435.04 |
| Private security (Texas) | Anyone required to register in Texas or any other state is barred from licensing | Tex. Occ. Code § 1702.113 |
| Youth service organizations (Utah) | Registry check before employing or allowing a volunteer, for organizations serving 25 or more children | Utah Code § 80-8-201 |
Common employment screening mistakes
- Ignoring where the job is. The job’s state can bring in a conviction cap even when the record is elsewhere.
- Assuming seniority means the salary exemption. It turns on the role’s pay, and only lifts the federal limit.
- Using California registry information for hiring. California prohibits it unless another law authorizes the use.
- Matching on name and age. A common name with a plausible age is not the candidate.
- Skipping the pre-adverse step. The candidate must see the report and their rights before a final decision.
- Losing the evidence. If a candidate disputes months later, you need what was searched and returned on that day.
The controls on every FCRA order
Applied in order to every search in an order — sex offender and criminal — before a single record leaves.
End user, purpose and consent on every order
An order is refused unless its end user is registered and certified, its permissible purpose is one that end user holds under your agreement, and it carries your consent attestation. A refused order is still recorded.
Exact date of birth, or nothing
Only a record that matches the consumer’s full date of birth can be furnished. A name-only or birth-year match is withheld — name-only matching is the pattern regulators have penalized screening vendors for.
Searched live in the consumer’s states
Every search runs in real time in each state of the address history on the order and the state where the job or housing is — not only against stored data — so a recent registration or filing in those states is not missed. Everywhere else, the coverage table shows the date the data is current to; an order sent without addresses or a use state says so, row by row.
Re-verified before anything is furnished
Every remaining record is re-checked against the official record at the time of the request. A record that is no longer listed is withheld; a source that cannot answer makes the result incomplete rather than clear.
Disputed records stay out
When a consumer dispute ends with a record deleted or found not to be theirs, that record is suppressed from every later regulated answer about them.
Never “clear” on a partial search
An answer is clear only when every state that matters was searched live and answered, every other source answered, and nothing reportable was found. Otherwise it says incomplete — and the coverage table shows exactly which source did not answer.
An evidence record for every order
Purpose, end user and certification, the identifiers searched, what each source said, the control version that applied, and every record furnished or withheld with its reason.
What we handle, and what stays in your process
What an FCRA order handles
- Permissible purpose, end-user certification and consent on every order
- Exact date-of-birth matching
- Seven-year rule, salary exemption, state conviction limits
- Live search in the candidate’s states, and live re-verification
- A coverage table, official-source evidence and a verifiable PDF
- A disputes API and a consumer portal for what we furnished
What stays with you and your client
- Disclosure, authorization and consent from the consumer
- Pre-adverse and adverse-action notices to the consumer
- The hiring, tenancy or eligibility decision itself
- Notices to your own end users, under your agreement with them
The FCRA Orders API · Criminal search · Registry search · Consumer portal · The seven-year rule, explained
Show the employer what was searched
A clear answer is only as good as what was searched. Every FCRA search shows its work, source by source, and keeps what the official source said.
Live, not just stored
Each search runs in real time in every state of the address history on the order and the state where the job or housing is. A relevant state that cannot be searched live makes the result incomplete — never clear. Registries a state bars for the purpose are not searched at all, and the coverage table says so.
Coverage you can read
One row per source: searched live or from data, when it was checked, the date the data is current to, how many candidates it produced and how many were furnished or withheld.
What the live search saw
Every live check — match and no-match alike — keeps hash-pinned evidence: the official source’s own response wherever we receive it directly, and always a labelled record of what that live search returned. Each capture says which kind it is, and every one is listed in the PDF.
Verifiable by anyone
The PDF is stored once, so its hash never changes. The signed receipt carries that hash; /verify checks a file against it in the browser, and the file never leaves the device.
| Source | Mode | Checked | Data current to | Found |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| County court, Illinois | Live | 14:02 UTC | — | 1 furnished, 1 withheld |
| State corrections, Illinois | Live | 14:02 UTC | — | None |
| Court records, Wisconsin | Data | 14:01 UTC | Oct 1, 2026 | None |
Holding a report PDF? Verify it — the check runs in your browser and the file is never uploaded.
A consumer portal and disputes, handled for you
The person a report is about can see what was furnished and dispute it directly. You do not have to build the consumer side of the data layer.
See exactly what was reported
Every order carries an access code for its consumer portal. With it, their last name and date of birth, the consumer sees every item furnished in that order — and without a code they can still request their file. We never ask for a Social Security number.
Dispute any item
A dispute — opened by you through the API or by the consumer in the portal — starts a reinvestigation with the authority that holds the record, on a 30-day clock from receipt, and the result is reported back.
Corrections reach every partner
When a dispute changes or removes a record, a record.corrected event goes to every partner that was furnished it, and the record is suppressed from later orders about that consumer.
From agreement to your first order
Regulated access is a separate grant on your account, not a setting you can turn on yourself.
1. Agree the scope
We review your business and the permissible purposes you serve, and sign a written FCRA agreement that fixes those purposes, your end-user certifications and the controls applied to every answer.
2. We enable your key
Regulated access is switched on for your account only after the agreement is signed, and only for the purposes it names. Standard self-serve access stays exactly as it was, and never carries regulated use.
3. Register end users, then place orders
Register each employer or landlord once, with its permissible purposes and your certification. Each order then names the end user, the purpose and your consent attestation, carries the consumer’s full name and date of birth, and runs a sex-offender search, a criminal search, or both.
4. Get an answer you can stand behind
Orders run in the background and report back by signed webhook. Each search runs live in the states that matter and comes with a source-by-source coverage table. Only records that pass every control are furnished, each with its match evidence and the time it was verified; everything else is a count by reason, and the whole order is kept as evidence.
FCRA employment screening questions
Can employers check the sex offender registry?
Employers can review public registries, and many add a registry search to the background check they order from a screening company, which brings in the FCRA. Some states limit the use itself — California prohibits employment use of Megan’s Law information unless another law authorizes it — and some roles require a registry check by law.
How far back do employment background checks go?
Under the FCRA, arrests and other non-conviction items generally cannot be reported after seven years; convictions are not limited federally. Several states cap convictions at seven years, and roles paying $75,000 or more are exempt from the federal limits but not from state caps.
What is an adverse action background check?
It usually refers to the steps an employer must take when a background check leads to a negative decision: a pre-adverse action notice with a copy of the report and a summary of rights, a chance for the candidate to respond or dispute, then a final adverse action notice naming the screening company.
Which roles require a sex offender registry check?
Child care staff at CCDF-funded providers, rideshare drivers in states such as California and Texas, Level 2 healthcare roles in Florida, and youth service organizations in Utah are examples where a registry search is written into the rule. Private security licensing in Texas bars registrants outright. Your client’s counsel decides what applies to a given role.
Does an FCRA order work for high-volume hiring?
Yes. Orders run in the background, each with an idempotency key so a retry never creates a duplicate, and results arrive by signed webhook. Every order still runs the same controls, so volume never changes what can be reported.
Can an employer sign up for FCRA Partner Access directly?
The program is built for consumer reporting agencies and screening platforms. An employer gets regulated screening from its screening company; if that company is not yet a partner, introduce us. Employers can still use the standard API for non-regulated work — but not for a hiring decision.
Why is California registry information excluded from employment reports?
California prohibits uses of Megan’s Law information relating to employment unless the use protects a person at risk or another law authorizes it. An FCRA order withholds it for every purpose rather than leave the call to each report. California criminal court records are a separate matter, handled by the criminal endpoint’s rules.
How does the salary exemption work for executive roles?
State an annualSalary of $75,000 or more on an employment order and the federal seven-year limits are lifted for that report. State conviction limits still apply, because the exemption is federal.
What does the employer see when a record is withheld?
Whatever your report shows. You receive the count of withheld items by reason — older non-convictions, insufficient identifiers, state limits — and can present that in your own report format. The withheld records themselves are never sent.
Do you send adverse-action notices?
No. Adverse-action notices are the employer’s duty, with your support as the reporting agency. We handle what the data layer carries: accuracy controls, current status, the consumer’s file and disputes about what we furnished.
Bring regulated registry and criminal data into your hiring reports
Tell us about your employment screening program, the roles your clients fill and where they hire.
Request FCRA Partner Access How the program works
FCRA pricing is quoted per partner — contact us for pricing. Standard self-serve access is separate and is not a consumer report.