The Clean Slate Act NY Background Checks 2026 United States

What is the Clean Slate trend and how does it affect US employment background checks?

Clean Slate laws in the United States require courts and record repositories to automatically seal certain criminal records so that employers and the public can no longer see them. For employers, this means traditional background check practices must change: you must stop asking about or relying on sealed records and adjust your policies to focus only on legally reportable history.

Several states, including Pennsylvania, Utah, Michigan, Connecticut, and others, have enacted Clean Slate style laws that automatically clear or seal defined categories of offenses after a waiting period with no new convictions. Congress has also considered a federal Clean Slate Act, and similar measures continue to spread at the state level.

From an employment perspective, Clean Slate laws sit on top of existing frameworks:

• Federal FCRA (15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq.) governs how employers may obtain and use consumer reports, including criminal background checks.
• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and EEOC guidance restrict how employers use criminal records due to disparate impact on protected groups.
• State and local "ban the box" laws control when and how you can inquire about criminal history during hiring.
• State Clean Slate statutes now limit which records exist for you or your vendor to see at all, and bar adverse action based on sealed matters.

For employers operating in multiple states, the practical result is that the same applicant may appear to have very different criminal histories depending on the jurisdiction, even when using the same vendor. This makes state-by-state compliance mapping and vendor configuration a critical HR and legal function.

Which criminal records are automatically sealed, and what can employers still see?

Across US Clean Slate laws, courts typically seal lower-level misdemeanors and some non-violent felonies after a set crime-free period, while serious, violent, and sex offenses usually remain visible. Employers can still see unsealed convictions, recent serious felonies, pending charges, and in some states certain older offenses that do not qualify for automatic sealing.

The exact rules are state-specific, but most Clean Slate frameworks follow a similar pattern:

• Automatically sealed after waiting period:
  • Summary or infraction-level offenses
  • Many non-violent misdemeanors (for example, disorderly conduct, low-level theft)
  • Some non-violent, lower-level felonies (often including certain drug offenses)
• Not eligible for automatic sealing in most states:
  • Homicide and attempted homicide offenses
  • Registered sex offenses
  • Serious violent felonies (for example, armed robbery, aggravated assault)
  • Crimes against children or the elderly in many statutes
• Waiting periods often range from 5 to 10 years with no new convictions, with longer periods for felonies than for misdemeanors.

The table below summarizes typical patterns you should expect, while recognizing you must confirm the rules in each state where you hire:

Most Clean Slate laws also impose a legal fiction that once sealed, the offense is treated as if it never occurred for most private employment purposes. That means you generally cannot ask the candidate to disclose it, cannot rely on it even if you somehow learn about it, and cannot use it to defend negligent hiring claims except in narrow statutory exceptions.

What criminal history questions are still permissible during hiring?

In the United States, employers may still ask about and consider non-sealed criminal convictions and, in many states, pending felony charges, as long as the questions comply with "ban the box" timing rules and focus on job-related conduct. You may not lawfully ask about sealed or expunged records, and many jurisdictions bar questions about arrests that did not lead to conviction or very old convictions.

Core principles for permissible inquiries

• Ask only about legally reportable records:
  • Limit questions to convictions and pending charges that are not sealed, expunged, pardoned, or eradicated by law.
  • Where possible, phrase questions to expressly exclude sealed or expunged matters.
• Respect timing rules:
  • Many states and cities prohibit criminal history questions on the initial application ("ban the box").
  • Often you may ask only after a conditional offer or after the first interview, depending on local law.
• Focus on job-relatedness:
  • Align questions with the duties of the position (for example, theft for cash-handling roles, DUI for driving roles).
  • Use individualized assessment rather than blanket "no felons" rules to reduce discrimination risk.

Sample compliant question structure

Work with counsel to tailor language, but a typical national baseline question (asked at the legally permitted stage) might read:

• "Have you been convicted of a criminal offense within the past [X] years, excluding:
  • Any convictions that have been sealed, expunged, pardoned, or otherwise restricted by law, and
  • Any convictions that cannot be lawfully disclosed under the laws of the state where you are applying for work?"

Questions to avoid in a Clean Slate environment

• Any question that expressly asks about "sealed," "expunged," or "Clean Slate" records.
• Open-ended prompts such as "Have you ever been arrested?" or "Have you ever had any issues with the law?"
• Lifetime conviction questions, where state law limits how far back employers may go or restricts inquiries about older misdemeanors.
• Questions that require disclosure of juvenile adjudications, which are commonly sealed or treated differently under state law.

Align your written application, interview scripts, and centralized adjudication guidelines so that every touchpoint uses consistent, compliant language. Then ensure your background check vendor's report scope matches what you say you will consider, especially around look-back periods and excluded record categories.

How do negligent hiring and discrimination risks interact under Clean Slate laws?

Clean Slate laws generally reduce negligent hiring exposure related to sealed records by preventing plaintiffs from using those records to show you should have known about a past offense. At the same time, your discrimination risk under Title VII and state civil rights laws increases if you continue to ask about or rely on criminal history more broadly than the law allows.

Negligent hiring risk after Clean Slate

• Traditional rule: Plaintiffs allege an employer "knew or should have known" about an employee's dangerous propensity based on prior convictions, and failed to screen or supervise adequately.
• Effect of Clean Slate:
  • Where statutes create a rebuttable presumption, courts assume you were not negligent for failing to discover sealed offenses.
  • In some states, sealed records are inadmissible to prove negligent hiring, which sharply limits plaintiff evidence.
  • Your risk shifts toward visible, serious convictions you ignored or discounted without a documented, reasonable basis.
• Remaining exposure:
  • Failure to act on clearly relevant convictions that were visible at the time of hire.
  • Assigning employees with visible violent or theft history to sensitive roles with no risk analysis or safeguards.

Discrimination and disparate impact risk

• Title VII and EEOC:
  • Using criminal records can create unlawful disparate impact on racial and ethnic minorities.
  • EEOC guidance expects employers to show that any exclusion based on criminal history is job-related and consistent with business necessity.
• Clean Slate interaction:
  • If you ask about or consider sealed records, you risk violating state Clean Slate statutes and strengthening a discrimination claim.
  • Even relying on non-sealed convictions can be unlawful if your policy is overly broad or automatic (for example, "no felonies of any kind").
• Best practice:
  • Adopt a structured, individualized assessment that weighs nature of offense, time elapsed, and job duties.
  • Document decision-making and provide applicants with an opportunity to explain or correct inaccuracies.

Clean Slate laws are shifting courts and regulators toward a view that employers should not penalize workers for offenses the state has decided to hide or forgive. Your policies should mirror that posture and actively avoid over-collection and over-reliance on criminal data.

What is the "rebuttable presumption" and how does it protect compliant employers?

The "rebuttable presumption" in many Clean Slate laws means that if a record is sealed by operation of law, courts presume you were not negligent for failing to obtain or consider it when hiring. Plaintiffs can try to overcome this presumption only with strong evidence that you somehow knew or misused sealed information in violation of the statute.

How the presumption typically works

• Scope:
  • Applies to civil claims like negligent hiring, retention, and supervision.
  • In some states, also restricts introduction of sealed records to prove an employee's unfitness.
• Presumption mechanics:
  • If the employee's prior offense is sealed by statute, the law presumes you exercised due care in hiring.
  • The plaintiff must then present evidence that you:
    • Illegally accessed sealed records, or
    • Unlawfully asked the applicant to disclose sealed or expunged offenses, or
    • Ignored statutory restrictions and used sealed information anyway.
• Practical protections:
  • Cuts off the argument that you "should have done a deeper search" to find records the state has sealed.
  • Supports motions to exclude sealed records from evidence, reducing the emotional impact on judges or juries.

How to preserve the presumption

• Do not instruct vendors to use alternative data sources that may bypass sealing (for example, scraping court sites without filters).
• Do not ask applicants questions that require or pressure disclosure of sealed or expunged offenses.
• Train managers never to search social media or public dockets in a way that might surface sealed cases.
• Document your reliance on compliant, FCRA-regulated background reports, not informal web searches.

Courts are more likely to respect the statutory presumption when you can show clear written policies, configured systems, and auditing practices that align with Clean Slate rules in each jurisdiction.

How should employers update background check policies, workflows, and vendor contracts?

Employers should immediately revise internal policies, hiring workflows, and vendor contracts so they do not request, receive, or rely on sealed records, and so they apply consistent, job-related standards to any visible convictions. This requires coordinated work across HR, legal, procurement, and your background screening provider.

Step-by-step policy and workflow updates

1. Inventory where you touch criminal history today:
   • Job applications and online portals.
   • Interview guides and recruiter scripts.
   • Background check consent forms and FCRA disclosures.
   • Adjudication matrices and hiring guidelines.
2. Align written policies with Clean Slate limits:
   • Remove any requirement that applicants disclose "all" convictions without exception.
   • Add language that applicants should not disclose sealed, expunged, or otherwise legally restricted records.
   • State clearly that hiring decisions will not be based on sealed or expunged records, even if discovered.
3. Rebuild adjudication criteria:
   • Define which types of visible offenses are disqualifying for which roles and why.
   • Shorten look-back periods where consistent with state limits.
   • Include an individualized review step for borderline cases.
4. Synchronize with ban-the-box and timing rules:
   • Determine the earliest lawful point to order background checks for each work location.
   • Configure applicant tracking systems to trigger checks only at that stage.
5. Update adverse action procedures:
   • Ensure pre-adverse and adverse action notices identify only legally reportable records.
   • Give applicants a straightforward way to dispute inaccuracies and provide context.

Key terms to add or revise in vendor contracts

Your agreements with background check companies (consumer reporting agencies) should now explicitly address Clean Slate compliance. Consider adding or tightening these provisions:

• Legal compliance warranty:
  • Vendor warrants that it will comply with FCRA, state Clean Slate statutes, and any applicable state reporting limits.
• State-specific filtering:
  • Require the vendor to suppress sealed, expunged, or restricted records based on the work location and candidate residence.
  • Obligate the vendor to keep a current rules engine for each jurisdiction.
• Data source controls:
  • Prohibit use of unofficial or unfiltered sources that may surface sealed cases.
  • Mandate periodic validation that court data reflects sealing updates.
• Error handling and disputes:
  • Set response times for correcting reports that include sealed or inaccurate records.
  • Require notification to you if systemic issues affect a class of reports.
• Indemnification and liability allocation:
  • Vendor should indemnify you for claims arising from its unlawful reporting of sealed or expunged records.
  • You remain responsible for how you use lawful reports internally.
• Audit and oversight rights:
  • Include the right to review vendor policies and sample reports for compliance with Clean Slate requirements.
  • Require prompt notice of any regulatory investigations involving the vendor's criminal reporting practices.

Coordinate contract changes with updated internal processes so your HR and recruiting teams know exactly what to expect in revised background reports and how to interpret "no record found" results after Clean Slate implementation.

What training, documentation, and auditing do employers need to stay compliant?

Employers need targeted training for HR, recruiters, and hiring managers, backed by clear documentation and periodic audits, to ensure no one asks about or misuses sealed records. Written policies alone are insufficient if front-line decision makers continue to rely on outdated practices.

Training priorities

• Audience-specific training:
  • Recruiters and HR staff: What they can ask, when they can order checks, and how to respond when applicants volunteer extra information.
  • Hiring managers: How to review background reports, apply adjudication guidelines, and conduct individualized assessments.
  • IT and systems teams: How to configure applicant tracking and HRIS tools to support legal workflows.
• Content to cover:
  • Basics of FCRA, ban-the-box laws, and state Clean Slate rules.
  • Examples of lawful and unlawful interview questions.
  • Handling "off the record" disclosures of sealed information by candidates.
  • Escalation paths for close cases or legal questions.

Documentation you should maintain

• Current, version-controlled criminal background check policy approved by legal.
• Standard adjudication matrices by role or job family, with risk rationales.
• Copies of vendor contracts, implementation guides, and technical specifications showing Clean Slate filters.
• Training materials, attendance records, and periodic policy acknowledgement forms.
• Templates for individualized assessment memos and hiring decisions.

Auditing and monitoring

• File reviews:
  • Periodically sample hiring files to confirm that decisions match written criteria and lawful records only.
  • Verify that no one has printed, saved, or circulated extraneous criminal data.
• Vendor report testing:
  • Request de-identified example reports for various states to confirm that sealed records are suppressed.
  • Track any applicant disputes that claim inclusion of sealed or expunged records, and escalate patterns.
• Regulatory horizon scanning:
  • Assign responsibility (often legal or compliance) to track new Clean Slate legislation and update policies accordingly.

Consistent training and auditing not only reduce legal exposure, they also support the "rebuttable presumption" by showing that your company takes Clean Slate compliance seriously and operates under structured controls.

When should an employer hire a lawyer or compliance expert about Clean Slate issues?

Employers should involve legal counsel or a compliance expert whenever they operate in multiple states, conduct large-volume hiring, handle sensitive roles, or plan to overhaul their background check policies and vendor contracts. Outside guidance is especially valuable when mapping overlapping Clean Slate, FCRA, ban-the-box, and equal employment laws.

Situations that merit legal support

• Multi-state or nationwide hiring:
  • Align a single policy with the most restrictive rules among all states where you recruit or employ workers.
• Regulated or high-risk industries:
  • Healthcare, financial services, transportation, childcare, elder care, security, and other sectors often face extra statutory screening mandates that interact awkwardly with Clean Slate laws.
• Investigations or complaints:
  • Any EEOC charge, state civil rights complaint, or FCRA lawsuit involving criminal history use should trigger immediate legal involvement.
• Vendor negotiations:
  • Redrafting master services agreements and data protection addenda to push more risk and obligations onto the vendor.
• Major policy redesign:
  • Implementing new adjudication matrices, shifting to post-offer checks, or centralizing decision-making in a compliance team.

In-house counsel can often handle baseline updates, but outside employment counsel with specific Clean Slate and background screening experience can stress-test your approach, benchmark against peers, and anticipate emerging enforcement trends.

What are the immediate next steps for HR and legal teams?

HR and legal teams should quickly assess current practices, identify where they conflict with Clean Slate requirements, and then roll out targeted policy, contract, and training updates. A structured, time-bound project plan will help you close the highest-risk gaps first.

1. Map your legal footprint:
   • List all states where you recruit, hire, or place workers, including remote employees.
   • Flag which of those states have Clean Slate laws and what types of records they seal.
2. Freeze and review existing practices:
   • Collect current job applications, offer letters, background check forms, and adjudication criteria.
   • Identify any language that could reach sealed or expunged records.
3. Engage your background check vendor:
   • Ask how they handle sealed records in each Clean Slate state and request documentation of their filters.
   • Begin contract amendment discussions to add Clean Slate specific obligations and indemnities.
4. Draft and approve revised policies:
   • Update your criminal background check policy, application questions, and adverse action procedures.
   • Have legal review for alignment with FCRA, EEOC, ban-the-box, and Clean Slate rules.
5. Train key stakeholders:
   • Roll out quick-hit training for recruiters and hiring managers on what changes now and why.
   • Provide scripts and FAQs so they can respond confidently to applicant questions.
6. Monitor and refine:
   • Track any issues where sealed records appear or where decisions feel constrained by unclear rules.
   • Adjust policies and contracts based on feedback, new legislation, and legal advice.

By moving quickly on these steps, employers can lower negligent hiring risk, avoid discrimination claims tied to misuse of sealed records, and position themselves as fair-chance employers aligned with the Clean Slate policy direction across the United States.