Disqualifying offenses by industry and state
Very few offenses disqualify anyone automatically. This lookup separates the narrow set of real statutory bars from the far larger set of decisions that belong to your own hiring policy — and explains the Green factors and the adverse action process that sit behind every one of them.
Short answer
Almost no offense automatically disqualifies a job candidate. Outside a short list of statutory bars, disqualification is an employer policy decision governed by the EEOC Green factors and the FCRA adverse action process.
True automatic bars exist only in licensed child care, federal healthcare program exclusions, CDL and TSA-regulated transportation, FDIC-insured banking roles, armed security, and some state-licensed education roles. For every other job there is no legally disqualifying offense. The employer must weigh the three EEOC Green factors — the nature and gravity of the offense, how much time has passed, and how the conduct relates to the actual duties of the job — then send a pre-adverse action notice with a copy of the report, give the candidate a reasonable period (five business days is the common floor, longer in Fair Chance jurisdictions) to explain the circumstances or dispute the record's accuracy with the screening company, and only then send a final adverse action notice. 15 U.S.C. §1681b(b)(3); EEOC Enforcement Guidance No. 915.002.
Read this before you use the lookup
Anything that might be a disqualifier is ultimately up to a company's own hiring policies. Except for the narrow statutory bars flagged in red below, no law tells an employer to reject anyone. This tool shows you where the law removes your discretion and where it does not — the decision itself, and the responsibility for it, stays with the employer.
The Green factors, in plain language
When an employer considers rejecting someone because of a criminal record, the federal standard comes from a 1975 case, Green v. Missouri Pacific Railroad, and from the EEOC's 2012 enforcement guidance built on it. The reasoning is simple: criminal records are not evenly distributed across racial groups, so a hiring rule based on a record can produce racial discrimination under Title VII even when nobody intended it. To defend the decision, the employer has to show the exclusion is actually job-related and consistent with business necessity.
Three questions — the Green factors — are how you show that. They apply to a conviction, and by the same logic to a positive drug test or a driving record.
Factor 1 — The nature and gravity of the offense
What did the person actually do, and how serious was it? A felony conviction for embezzlement and a misdemeanor for trespassing are not comparable, and the label on the charge matters less than the underlying conduct. Read the disposition, not just the charge name. An arrest with no conviction is not evidence that anything happened at all.
Factor 2 — How much time has passed
Time since the offense, and time since the sentence ended, both matter. The research the EEOC relies on shows that risk of reoffending declines steadily with each year of clean behavior, and after roughly seven years someone with an old record is statistically no different from someone with no record at all. A conviction from eleven years ago rarely supports a rejection today. A conviction from eight months ago may.
Factor 3 — How the conduct relates to this specific job
Not to jobs in general — to the job in front of you, with its real duties, its real level of supervision, and its real access to people, money, keys, medication, or a vehicle. A conviction for check fraud is directly relevant to a bookkeeper and largely irrelevant to a warehouse picker. This factor is where most blanket policies fail, because they apply the same rule to every role in the company.
And the step the EEOC adds: ask the person
The guidance expects an individualized assessment — telling the candidate the record is a problem, giving them a genuine chance to explain the circumstances, and then reconsidering. Things employers routinely learn at that step: the record belongs to someone else with the same name, the charge was dismissed or later expunged, the conviction was a plea to a reduced charge, the person has worked the same job successfully for years since, or rehabilitation and training were completed. Several state and city Fair Chance laws turn this from good practice into a written requirement.
How this applies to drug tests and driving records
The Green factors were written about criminal records, but the same three questions are how you keep any screening result defensible. A positive drug test outside a DOT-regulated role matters if the job is safety-sensitive and is much harder to defend if it is not — especially in the growing list of states that protect lawful off-duty cannabis use. A motor vehicle record is job-related when driving is an actual duty. Two speeding tickets and a four-year-old suspension are not the same exposure, and your policy should be able to say which one it cares about and why.
How to read the three labels in the lookup
Statutory barA law or licensing rule removes the employer's discretion. The person cannot hold the role while the bar is in effect, though some bars expire or allow a waiver.
Presumptive reviewNo law requires exclusion, but the conduct is closely tied to the job duties. Expect to run and document a full individualized assessment.
Policy decisionNothing in the law speaks to it. Whether it matters is determined entirely by your written hiring policy, applied consistently to every candidate.
Disqualifying offense lookup
Pick an industry and a state
The results separate what the law actually requires from what your own hiring policy decides. Nothing here is a recommendation to exclude anyone.
Child care & early education
Licensed child care centers, family child care homes, Head Start, preschools, after-school programs.
The Child Care and Development Block Grant Act (42 U.S.C. §9858f) sets a federal floor every state licensing agency must meet, and each state adds its own barrier-crime list on top of it.
Searches and registries this sector normally runs
- FBI fingerprint criminal history
- State criminal history repository
- State child abuse and neglect registry
- National Sex Offender Registry
- Registry checks in every state the person lived in during the last five years
Criminal record categories
A permanent, non-waivable bar from licensed child care employment in every state. No individualized assessment is available.
Citation: 42 U.S.C. §9858f(c)(1)(D)
Permanent federal bar for anyone working in a licensed child care setting.
Citation: 42 U.S.C. §9858f(c)(1)(D)
Barred under the federal floor; several states allow a waiver or variance after a set number of years. Check the state licensing rule before assuming either way.
Citation: 42 U.S.C. §9858f(c)(1)(D)
Federal bar for five years from conviction. After five years it drops to a state-by-state review with an individualized assessment.
Citation: 42 U.S.C. §9858f(c)(1)(D)(iv)
A registry hit is disqualifying regardless of whether it ever produced a criminal charge. The candidate's remedy is the registry's own appeal process, not the employer's.
Not a federal bar. Most licensing agencies expect a documented individualized assessment weighing recency and job duties; many centers hire after a clean period.
No statutory bar. Relevance depends on whether the role transports children and how recent the conduct is. This is your written policy's call.
Non-criminal events (drug tests, driving records, sanctions)
Licensing rules rarely mandate a testing outcome. State cannabis off-duty protections may limit action on THC alone; safety-sensitive carve-outs often do not.
Job-related for any role transporting children, and usually also an insurance requirement. Not job-related for classroom-only roles.
Select a state to see the lookback limits, Fair Chance rules, and cannabis treatment that stack on top of these sector rules.
The adverse action process: the time a candidate is owed
Deciding a record is disqualifying is only half of it. Federal law controls how you get there, and the process exists specifically so the candidate can explain the circumstances or correct a mistake before the decision is final.
Step 1 — Pre-adverse action notice
Before the decision is final, send written notice that the report may cost the candidate the job, along with a complete copy of the report and a copy of A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. This is required by 15 U.S.C. §1681b(b)(3), and the copy of the report is the point — the candidate cannot challenge what they have not seen.
Step 2 — A real waiting period
The FCRA requires "a reasonable period of time" and never defines it. Five business days is the widely used floor and seven to ten business days is the safer norm. Fair Chance jurisdictions set their own, longer windows — New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Washington state among them, and San Francisco now also requires the employer to confirm receipt of the response within 14 days and decide within 30 days of receiving it. During the wait the job must genuinely still be open; filling the role and mailing the notice afterward is the violation courts see most often.
Step 3 — What the candidate can do with that time
The waiting period exists so the candidate can do either or both of two things:
- Explain the circumstances to the employer. Context, rehabilitation, the age of the record, work history since — the individualized assessment described above. In several jurisdictions the employer must consider the response in writing before deciding.
- Dispute the accuracy of the information with the screening company. If the record is wrong, belongs to someone else, was dismissed, sealed, or expunged, or is reported with the wrong disposition, the candidate disputes it directly with the consumer reporting agency that produced the report. Under 15 U.S.C. §1681i the agency must reinvestigate — generally within 30 days — and correct or delete anything it cannot verify. A reasonable employer holds the decision while a dispute is open.
SafestHires handles disputes through our consumer dispute process, and we notify the employer when a file changes.
Step 4 — Final adverse action notice
If the decision stands, send the final notice required by 15 U.S.C. §1681m(a). It must state that adverse action was taken, name the consumer reporting agency with its address and toll-free number, state plainly that the agency did not make the decision and cannot explain it, and tell the candidate they may request a free copy of their file within 60 days and may dispute the accuracy or completeness of the information.
Both letters can be generated for a specific candidate and jurisdiction with the adverse action letter generator, and the exact dates calculated with the adverse action timeline calculator. The full process is covered on the adverse action reference page.
Writing a policy you can actually defend
Because most of this is your decision rather than the law's, the written policy is what protects you. A defensible one names the roles it applies to, states which offense categories are relevant to each role and why, sets lookback limits that match the state's, excludes arrests and sealed records from consideration, describes the individualized assessment, and assigns one person to run the adverse action sequence and keep the records. Applying it the same way to every candidate is what turns it from paperwork into a defense.
Frequently asked questions
What offenses automatically disqualify someone from a job?
For most jobs, none. Automatic disqualification only exists where a statute or licensing rule creates a bar — child care, healthcare program exclusions, CDL and TSA roles, FDIC-insured banking positions, and armed security. Everywhere else the decision belongs to the employer's written hiring policy, applied through an individualized assessment and the FCRA adverse action process.
What are the EEOC Green factors?
They come from Green v. Missouri Pacific Railroad and the EEOC's 2012 enforcement guidance. Before excluding someone for a criminal record, weigh three things: the nature and gravity of the offense, the time that has passed since the offense or the end of the sentence, and how the conduct relates to the specific duties of the job being filled. A blanket rule that skips those three questions is what the EEOC treats as evidence of discrimination.
Can an employer reject a candidate for a positive drug test or a bad driving record?
Usually yes, but the same logic applies. DOT-regulated roles have mandatory outcomes set by federal rule. Outside DOT, a positive test or a motor vehicle record matters only to the extent it is job-related — and a growing number of states protect lawful off-duty cannabis use for roles that are not safety-sensitive.
Does the employer or the background screening company decide who is disqualified?
The employer decides, always. A screening company reports what the records say; it does not make or explain hiring decisions, and the final adverse action notice is required to tell the candidate exactly that.
How long does a candidate get to respond before a final decision?
The FCRA requires a reasonable period after the pre-adverse action notice. Five business days is the widely used floor and seven to ten is safer. Several Fair Chance jurisdictions require more — New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington state, and Philadelphia all set their own longer windows.
What if the record on the report is wrong?
The candidate disputes it with the screening company that produced it. The company must reinvestigate, generally within 30 days, and correct or delete anything it cannot verify. The employer should hold the decision open while the dispute is pending.
Can an employer consider an arrest that never led to a conviction?
An arrest is not proof that conduct occurred and cannot by itself justify exclusion. Many states forbid considering non-convictions entirely, and the FCRA bars reporting most non-convictions older than seven years.