Arizona Employment Background Check: Notices, Records, and Rights

Arizona employment background check laws combine the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act with state rules that bar credit checks entirely, restrict how criminal history can be used, and treat recreational and medical marijuana very differently. If you are applying for a job in Arizona, those layers decide what an employer can ask, what a screening company can report, and what you can do when something goes wrong.

What the Employer Must Do Before Running Your Report

Any time an Arizona employer uses an outside screening company to compile a background report, that report is a “consumer report” under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the employer has to follow a strict sequence.¹

Before anything is pulled, the employer must give you a written notice stating that a background check may be requested for employment purposes. That notice has to stand on its own as a separate document. It cannot be buried in the job application or stapled to other onboarding paperwork.² You then have to sign a written authorization before the employer or its vendor can order the report.

Some employers go further and order an investigative consumer report, which can include interviews with former coworkers, neighbors, or others about your character and reputation. If so, the employer has to tell you in writing that this kind of report may be requested and give you a summary of what it covers; you can also ask for details about the scope of the investigation.³

The Two Notices You Must Receive Before a Denial

If something in the report might cost you the job, the employer cannot just reject you. Federal law requires two separate notices.

The first is the pre-adverse action notice. Before making a final decision, the employer has to send you a copy of the full report along with a written summary of your FCRA rights.² The purpose is to let you review what the screener found and flag anything inaccurate. The FCRA does not set a hard waiting period, though the FTC has recommended at least five business days before the employer acts.

If the employer still decides to deny you, a second notice follows. This final adverse action notice must include the screening company’s name, address, and phone number; a statement that the screening company did not make the hiring decision; and notice that you can request a free copy of the report within 60 days and dispute any errors.⁴

If you never receive one or both of these notices, the employer has likely violated the FCRA.

Credit History Is Off-Limits in Arizona

Arizona flatly prohibits employers from using your credit report or credit history in hiring decisions. Under ARS 23-207, an employer cannot refuse to hire, fire, or otherwise discriminate against you based on your credit background, and cannot even ask about it.⁵ The rule applies broadly, including to state and local government employers.

“Credit history” is defined to cover information about your borrowing and repayment behavior, debts, payment history, and even bank account balances obtained through a third party. If an interviewer asks about your credit score, old collections, or past financial trouble, that question itself violates the statute. A violation is a class 3 misdemeanor.⁵

Arizona’s consumer reporting law also controls when a screening company can furnish a report for employment purposes in the first place, so both the employer and the vendor face exposure if credit information is pulled without a proper basis.⁶

How Criminal History Can and Can’t Be Used

Arizona has a ban-the-box rule, but only for state government jobs. Under Executive Order 2017-07, state agencies cannot ask about criminal history on the initial job application, and a criminal record alone cannot keep you from getting an interview.⁷ Agencies can look into your criminal background after you have applied and completed an initial interview, and they can still enforce specific statutory bars for particular positions.

Private Arizona employers are not covered by this order, though some cities have their own ordinances. What private employers cannot do is use criminal history as a blanket disqualifier. The EEOC has stated that automatically rejecting every applicant with a conviction is likely to violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act because it disproportionately affects certain racial and ethnic groups.⁸

Instead, the EEOC says employers should assess criminal history case by case, weighing three factors: the nature and seriousness of the offense, how much time has passed since the conviction or completion of the sentence, and the duties and responsibilities of the specific job.⁹ A ten-year-old theft conviction weighs differently for a warehouse job than for a role handling client funds.

Arrests get separate treatment. An arrest by itself does not prove any criminal conduct occurred, and rejecting you based purely on an arrest record is not considered job-related or consistent with business necessity. An employer can look at the conduct underlying the arrest and decide whether it makes you unfit for the specific position, but cannot treat the arrest alone as disqualifying.⁸

Marijuana and Drug Testing

Arizona legalized recreational marijuana through Proposition 207, but the law preserved employers’ right to maintain a drug-free workplace. An employer can test for marijuana, enforce zero-tolerance policies, and refuse to hire or fire you for a positive result, even if the use was off-duty and off-site. The Act does not require employers to permit marijuana use, possession, or transportation at work.¹⁰ Recreational users effectively have no employment protection in Arizona.

Medical marijuana cardholders stand on different ground. Under the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act, employers generally cannot suspend, fire, or refuse to hire someone solely because they hold a valid registry card or because they test positive for marijuana metabolites. The exception is impairment at work. If you used, possessed, or were actually impaired by marijuana during work hours, the employer can act. A positive test showing a low concentration of metabolites does not, by itself, prove impairment on the job, and Arizona courts have required evidence that the levels were high enough to cause impairment before an employer terminates a cardholder.

Fingerprint Clearance Cards for Regulated Jobs

Many Arizona positions in education, healthcare, childcare, and public safety require a fingerprint clearance card issued by the Arizona Department of Public Safety before you can start. The employer, licensing board, or certifying agency will tell you which card you need and which statute applies.¹¹

The processing fee is $67, or $65 for volunteers, and is non-refundable whether your card is approved or denied.¹¹ Certain serious offenses listed in ARS 41-1758.07, including homicide, sexual assault, child abuse, and sex trafficking, permanently bar you from receiving a Level 1 card. If your record includes any of those offenses, you will not be able to work in fields that require the card.

Sealing Records to Clean Up a Background Check

Arizona lets you petition a court to seal arrest, conviction, and sentencing records under ARS 13-911, which directly affects what shows up on a background check.

If your charges were dismissed, you were found not guilty, or you were arrested but never charged, you can petition to seal those records with no waiting period.¹² For convictions, you must first finish all non-monetary terms of your sentence, pay all fines, fees, and restitution, and then wait a period that depends on the offense class:

Class 2 or 3 felony: ten years after completing your sentence
Class 4, 5, or 6 felony: five years
Class 1 misdemeanor: three years
Class 2 or 3 misdemeanor: two years

If you have a sealed record and later commit a new felony, you can still petition to seal the new offense, but the waiting period for the new conviction increases by five years.¹²

Not everything qualifies. Dangerous offenses, dangerous crimes against children, serious or violent felonies, sex trafficking, and offenses involving use of a deadly weapon or knowing infliction of serious physical injury are permanently ineligible, as are sexual offenses classified as felonies under Chapters 14 and 35.1 of Title 13.¹²

Disputing Errors in Your Report

Errors in background reports are common, and the FCRA gives you real tools to challenge them. When the pre-adverse action notice arrives, read the full report carefully and compare it to your own records.

To correct an error, you file a dispute directly with the screening company that produced the report. The company has to investigate, usually within 30 days, by going back to the data source and considering any evidence you submit.¹³ If the investigation changes anything, you get an updated report. Information that cannot be verified has to come off.

If a final adverse action notice does arrive, you have 60 days to request another free copy of the report from the screening company.⁴ The employer only has to identify the screening company, not hand you a second copy, so use that window.

What You Can Recover and How Long You Have

A willful FCRA violation entitles you to statutory damages between $100 and $1,000 per violation even without proof of financial harm, plus possible punitive damages and attorney’s fees.¹⁴

You have two years from the date you discovered the violation to sue, with an outer limit of five years from the date the violation actually occurred.¹⁵ Discovery usually controls, because applicants rarely learn about a screening error or a skipped notice right when it happens. Keep every notice and report you receive during a job application. If something surfaces months later, those documents are the proof you need.

1
Federal Trade Commission. Background Checks What Employers Need to Know
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681b – Permissible Purposes of Consumer Reports
3
Federal Trade Commission. Using Consumer Reports: What Employers Need to Know
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681m – Requirements on Users of Consumer Reports
5
Arizona Legislature. SB 1360 – Employment Practices Consumer Reports Limitation
6
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 44-1692 – Permissible Use of Consumer Reports
7
Arizona Legislature. Fact Sheet for SB 1434 – Criminal History Required Disclosure Limitations
8
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions
9
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Criminal Records
10
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 36-2851 – Employers; Driving; Minors; Control of Property
11
Arizona Department of Public Safety. Fingerprint Clearance Card
12
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 13 Section 13-911 – Sealing of Arrest, Conviction and Sentencing Records
13
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681n – Civil Liability for Willful Noncompliance
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681p – Jurisdiction of Courts; Limitation of Actions