Offender screening solutions, built for your industry
One sex offender API, framed for how your industry screens. A single call covers the 58 US registries and returns a scored match, a citation on every record and per-source status. Criminal search and FCRA orders ride on the same account. Prefer no code? Your team runs the same searches from the no-code screening dashboard.
$0.15 a search · 58 US registries · BAA on enterprise plans · no seats or minimum.
curl https://api.offendersearch.app/v1/search \ -H "X-API-Key: $OFFENDERSEARCH_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"query": {"firstName": "Jordan", "lastName": "Sample", "dob": "1980-04-12"}}' // response { "status": "complete", "elapsedMs": 412, "counts": { "records": 1, "sourcesQueried": 58, "sourcesComplete": 58, "sourcesIncomplete": 0 }, "records": [ { "matchState": "dob_match", "matchConfidence": 0.98, "matchBasis": ["lastName:exact", "firstName", "dob"], "sources": [ { "jurisdiction": "NJ", "recordUrl": "https://…" } ] } ] }
A background screening API by industry. Sex offender, criminal and FCRA checks, used at the moment each sector screens.
Every industry calls the same sex offender API. What changes is when the call runs and which other product rides along: the criminal records API for contractors and safety checks, and FCRA background check API orders when a hiring or tenant decision depends on the result.
| Industry | Sex offender API | Criminal search API | FCRA orders | Where it runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skilled Nursing Facilities | Every prospective admission, before the bed is offered | Referrals and contractors | CNA and LPN hiring, through a screening partner | Inside intake; BAA |
| Healthcare & Home Care | Patients, aides and facility staff | Intake and site-safety checks | Caregiver hiring decisions | EHR, referral software or the dashboard |
| Schools & Childcare | Staff, substitutes, volunteers and visitors | Contractors, vendors and volunteers | Staff hiring | HR system, sign-in or a CSV batch |
| Visitor Management Systems | Every visitor at check-in | Contractors and vendors at check-in | Not for visitors; hiring only | One call before the badge prints |
| Staffing & Recruiting | Every candidate and placed worker | Client-site safety checks | Hire and placement decisions | ATS or onboarding flow |
| Property Management | Staff, vendors and the area around a property | Staff and vendors | Tenant decisions where allowed | Tenant-screening flow |
| Background Screening (CRAs) | Registry layer for every report | County, state and federal records | Orders with consent, disputes and adverse action | Your report pipeline |
| Gig & Marketplaces | Providers at onboarding, then the active base | Providers at onboarding | Where a provider is hired | Identity verification step |
$0.15 per call for registry and criminal searches, $0.11 past 2,000 a month. FCRA orders are priced per partner. Background screening API pricing ›
Sex offender screening by industry. Every sector checks at a different moment, under different rules.
Every industry checks the registry at a different moment and under different rules. A rideshare platform screens before a first trip because state law says so; a youth nonprofit screens because its insurer requires it; a property manager has to work around state laws that restrict registry use for housing. Each page below covers when that industry screens, what the law actually requires and what it doesn’t, a step-by-step workflow, and the questions teams in that industry ask.
Sex offender screening for care, education and childcare providers
Organizations whose staff work with children, patients or older adults — often alone and often in a home. This is where registry checks are most often written into law, and where an out-of-state registration is the gap an in-state check leaves.
Sex offender screening for online platforms and marketplaces
Platforms that put strangers together in person: drivers and riders, providers and customers, matches on a dating app. Screening runs inside the product, at identity verification or before a first job, and accuracy controls matter as much as coverage.
Sex offender checks for employers, staffing firms and screening companies
Teams that screen people for a living or at hiring volume. Hiring decisions run through FCRA-regulated workflows; the registry layer gives those workflows one normalized record across 58 registries.
Sex offender screening for property, housing and short-term rentals
The most legally varied group. Several states restrict using registry information for housing, so the durable uses are location awareness around a property and screening the staff and vendors who hold keys.
Registry screening for nonprofits, insurers, finance and government
Organizations where the push to screen often comes from a funder, a carrier or a program rule rather than a general statute — and where a documented screening log is what gets audited.
One sex offender API and criminal search API for every industry. Priced per call, with no platform fee.
Industries where the law requires a sex offender registry check. Narrower than most marketing suggests.
Registry checks written into law are narrower than most marketing suggests. These are the clearest examples; each industry page lists its rules with citations, along with the commonly cited “requirements” that turn out not to exist.
| Who it covers | What it requires | Citation |
|---|---|---|
| Rideshare (TNC) drivers | Background checks before a driver is approved; 45 states and DC require them. Texas re-checks annually. | Cal. Pub. Util. Code § 5445.2; Tex. Occ. Code § 2402.107; GAO-24-107093 |
| App-based delivery (California) | Criminal background checks on app-based drivers under Proposition 22. | Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7458 |
| Child care receiving federal CCDF funds | Comprehensive checks including the sex offender registry of the current state and any state lived in during the past five years. | 45 CFR 98.43; 42 U.S.C. § 9858f |
| Healthcare staff in Florida | Level 2 screening includes the sex offender registries of every state lived in during the preceding five years. | Fla. Stat. § 435.04 |
| Nursing-home residents in Illinois | Registry check within 24 hours of admission; a registered resident gets their own room. | 210 ILCS 45/2-201.5, 2-201.6 |
| AmeriCorps members and staff | A national sex offender registry check before service begins. | 45 CFR § 2540.204(a) |
| Youth service organizations in Utah | Registry check before an employee or volunteer starts, for organizations serving 25 or more children. | Utah Code § 80-8-201 |
| Private security licensing | Registry status bars licensing in Texas (registration in any state) and Oregon. | Tex. Occ. Code § 1702.113; ORS 181A.855 |
Just as useful is knowing what isn’t required. Medicare’s home health conditions of participation contain no aide-screening requirement, the CMS National Background Check Program was a voluntary grant that ended in 2024, and banking, broker-dealer and insurance-producer screening runs on fingerprint criminal-history checks rather than registry status. Where the law is silent, insurers, funders and contracts usually set the bar.
How platform screening differs from employer and housing screening
Platforms and marketplaces
Screening runs inside the product, at verification or before a first job, at high volume. Match only on verified identity, send strong matches to a reviewer, and use monitoring for the active base. If a result decides whether someone may work on the platform, it belongs in an FCRA workflow.
Employers and care providers
Screening happens at hire and at new placements, often alongside criminal records. Hiring decisions run as FCRA-regulated consumer reports through FCRA Partner Access; the caregiver background check page shows the care-sector version.
Property and housing
Location searches around a property and staff screening are the low-risk uses. Applicant decisions are restricted in several states and run through FCRA tenant screening where allowed.
Sex offender screening by industry: common questions
See registry coverage by state, bulk sex offender search for rosters, and per-search pricing.
Which industries are legally required to check the sex offender registry?
The clearest mandates cover rideshare drivers, federally funded child care, Florida healthcare staff, Illinois nursing-home residents, AmeriCorps and Utah youth organizations, and private security licensing in Texas and Oregon. Most other industries screen because of insurers, contracts, funders or their own safety policy.
Is a sex offender check the same as a background check?
No. A registry check tells you whether a person is registered in any of the 58 US registries; a criminal background check covers court and corrections records. Both are available on the same API key, billed separately per call.
Can we use registry results for hiring or tenant decisions?
Only through an FCRA-regulated workflow. The standard search and API are not a consumer report. FCRA Partner Access is for background check companies and screening platforms under a written FCRA agreement; contact us for pricing.
Does one search cover every state?
One search covers the 58 US registries — the 50 states, DC and US territories — and returns candidates scored by match strength, with the official record linked.
My industry isn’t listed. Can we still use it?
Yes. The API is the same for every customer; the industry pages describe how each sector usually screens. Start with 25 free searches and the docs.
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Start screening for your industry with one API key
25 free searches, then per-search billing with no minimum. A sales engineer if you want one.