Colorado Background Check: What It Shows and How to Run One

A Colorado background check is most often run through the Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Criminal History Check, an online name-based search that costs $6.00 and returns Colorado criminal history results in your browser within minutes.¹ It covers arrests, charges, and case outcomes reported by Colorado agencies. It does not reach federal crimes, out-of-state records, juvenile cases, or anything a court has sealed.

Running a Check Through the CBI

The ICHC portal is open to anyone. You enter the subject’s full legal name and date of birth; a Social Security Number is optional but helps when the name is common. Spelling matters. A typo can return a false “no record” or pull up the wrong person entirely.

After you review and pay by credit card, results appear on screen with a confirmation number, and you can download or print the PDF. The standard search is $6.00. If you need a notarized Criminal History Record Information report for a license application or court filing, that version costs $13.00 and takes longer to process.²

What a Colorado Background Check Shows

A CBI report pulls from Colorado law enforcement data only. You’ll see arrests, filed charges, and the final disposition of each case, whether that’s a conviction, acquittal, dismissal, or deferred judgment.

Several categories are deliberately kept off public ICHC results:¹

Juvenile arrests of anyone 17 or younger, unless the person was charged as an adult.
Traffic arrests involving anyone under 16.
Any arrest or conviction a court has sealed.
Sex offender status for anyone not currently on the registry.

Active warrants and records tied to open investigations are also walled off from the public search and reserved for law enforcement and authorized government users. Because the database is Colorado-only, a search won’t surface a federal indictment or a conviction from another state. For a nationwide picture you’d need a fingerprint-based check or a private consumer reporting agency.

When Fingerprints Are Required Instead

Some jobs and licenses in Colorado won’t accept the name-based ICHC. Education, childcare, real estate, and human services roles typically require a fingerprint check, which runs your prints against both CBI and FBI databases and produces a state and national criminal history.

Fingerprinting goes through the Colorado Applicant Background Services program using one of two authorized vendors, IdentoGO or American Bioidentity.³ You’ll need a CBI unique ID from the employer or licensing agency before you schedule. The CBI fee for a state-only fingerprint check runs $16.50 to $19.50; a combined state and FBI check is $38.50 to $39.50, with vendor appointment fees on top.² Results go directly to the agency that requested them, usually within 24 to 72 hours. The Division of Professions and Occupations warns applicants not to submit prints until they’re ready to file the license application, because the division needs both CBI and FBI results in hand before it can issue anything.

If an Employer or Landlord Is Running the Check

When the check comes from a third-party screening company rather than CBI directly, federal law adds a layer of protection. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a consumer reporting agency cannot include arrests older than seven years that didn’t lead to a conviction, and civil judgments and other non-conviction adverse items also drop off after seven years. Criminal convictions have no federal time limit. The seven-year cutoffs don’t apply if the position pays $75,000 a year or more.⁴

Before an employer orders a report, they must give you a written disclosure in a standalone document and get your written authorization. Burying the notice in a stack of onboarding paperwork or combining it with other forms violates the standalone requirement.⁵

If the employer decides not to hire you based on the report, they have to tell you, hand over the reporting agency’s name and contact information, and make clear that the agency didn’t make the decision. You then have 60 days to request a free copy of the report and dispute anything inaccurate.⁶

The Chance to Compete Act

Colorado’s Chance to Compete Act restricts when a private employer can ask about your criminal history. Since September 1, 2021, the law applies to all private employers regardless of size. Government employers, including state, local, and quasi-governmental entities, are not covered.⁷

Covered employers cannot advertise that people with criminal histories need not apply, put criminal history questions on the initial application, or require you to disclose your record during the initial application stage. They can still pull a publicly available report later in the process. Exemptions apply where another law bars hiring people with specific convictions or requires a criminal history check for the role.⁷ If you believe an employer violated the act, you have twelve months to file a complaint with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. The act doesn’t give you the right to sue the employer directly.

Sealing Records So They Stop Appearing

Colorado seals many eligible criminal records automatically under the Clean Slate Act (Senate Bill 22-099), without requiring you to petition or pay court fees.⁸ The waiting periods run from the final disposition of the case:

Civil infractions: four years.
Petty offenses and misdemeanors: seven years, with no new criminal activity.
Eligible felonies: ten years from final disposition or release from supervision, whichever is later.

Once sealed, the record drops off the public CBI database and standard ICHC results. Consumer reporting agencies also have to exclude sealed records unless the requesting party shows a legal obligation to consider them.⁹ Law enforcement and certain state agencies keep access for official purposes. Offenses covered by Colorado’s Victims’ Rights Act face additional restrictions.

If you don’t want to wait out the automatic timeline, or your record isn’t picked up automatically, you can petition the court under House Bill 19-1275. The waiting period starts at final disposition or release from supervision, whichever is later, and you must have no new convictions since:¹⁰

Petty offenses and drug petty offenses: one year.
Class 2 or 3 misdemeanors and drug misdemeanors: two years.
Class 4, 5, or 6 felonies, level 3 or 4 drug felonies, and class 1 misdemeanors: three years.
All other eligible offenses: five years.

If the district attorney doesn’t object and the offense isn’t a Victims’ Rights Act matter, the court seals the record on the petition. Otherwise a hearing is set. Class 1, 2, and 3 felonies and level 1 drug felonies cannot be sealed through petition. A plea agreement cannot force you to waive your right to seal later; any such waiver is unenforceable.

Fixing an Error on Your Record

If something on your CBI record is wrong, start by calling the CBI Identification Unit at 303-239-4208. For most errors you’ll need to go back to the source, usually the arresting agency or the court that handled the case, get written documentation of the correction, and submit it to CBI to update your file.

If the record shows charges that aren’t yours at all, say from identity theft or misidentification, you can file a formal record challenge with CBI. That process requires an explanation of what’s wrong and your fingerprints to prove you’re not the person in the disputed record.

For errors on a report produced by a private screening company, your dispute rights come from the FCRA. You file the dispute with the agency that issued the report, and it must investigate and correct or remove any information it can’t verify.⁶

1
Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Internet Criminal History Check
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Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Fees and Forms Information
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Divisions of Professions and Occupations. Colorado DPO Fingerprinting and Background Check
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681b – Permissible Purposes of Consumer Reports
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681m – Duties of Users Taking Adverse Actions on the Basis of Information Contained in Consumer Reports
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Justia Law. Colorado Code 8-2-130 – Criminal History – Limits on Advertisements and Applications – Permissible Uses – Exceptions – Enforcement
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Colorado General Assembly. SB22-099 Sealing Criminal Records
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Colorado General Assembly. Senate Bill 22-099 Full Text
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Colorado General Assembly. HB19-1275 Increased Eligibility for Criminal Record Sealing