South Carolina Background Check Laws: Rights, Industries, and Penalties

South Carolina’s background check laws are a mix of state rules and federal requirements: the state controls how criminal records are accessed and used, while the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act governs the procedural steps any employer must follow when using a screening company. If you’re hiring, you have to satisfy both layers. If you’re being screened, both layers give you rights.

Where South Carolina Criminal Records Come From

Criminal history in the state flows through the State Law Enforcement Division. SLED runs the Citizens Access to Criminal History system, known as CATCH, which is the main channel for pulling someone’s South Carolina record. The statutory authority sits in South Carolina Code Section 23-3-110, which established SLED’s power to collect and disseminate criminal data across agencies.¹

CATCH reports pull from fingerprint-supported arrest data and court dispositions for offenses within South Carolina. Because the records are tied to biometric identifiers rather than just names and dates of birth, they tend to be more reliable than name-based searches, which can produce false matches. Employers and individuals can both request a search. If you spot an error on your own record, SLED’s Public Dissemination Unit handles correction requests directly.²

What Can Appear on a Report

When an employer uses a consumer reporting agency, the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act limits how far back certain items can be reported. Most adverse information other than criminal convictions cannot appear if it is more than seven years old.³ The seven-year window covers civil judgments, collection accounts, and tax liens.

Criminal convictions have no time limit and can be reported indefinitely. One exception matters for higher-paying jobs: if the position pays $75,000 or more per year, none of the time-based restrictions apply, and even non-conviction adverse items older than seven years can appear on the report.³ South Carolina does not add its own state-level restrictions on these timelines.

Disclosure and Written Authorization Before the Check

Any South Carolina employer that runs a background check through a consumer reporting agency has to follow the FCRA’s front-end requirements. Before the report is pulled, the employer must give the applicant a written disclosure — on a standalone document containing nothing else — stating that a consumer report may be obtained for employment purposes. The applicant then has to provide written authorization for the check to proceed.⁴

The standalone requirement is where many employers trip up. The disclosure cannot be buried in a general employment application, combined with a liability waiver, or mixed with other paperwork. It has to be its own document. The written authorization can appear on the same page as the disclosure, but no other content can share that page.

Your Rights If the Report Contains Something Harmful

If a background report turns up information that could cost you the job, the employer cannot simply reject you and move on. The FCRA requires a two-step process.

Pre-Adverse Action Notice

Before making a final decision not to hire, the employer must send you a copy of the background report along with a written description of your rights under the FCRA.⁴ The law does not specify an exact waiting period, but the standard practice is to allow a reasonable window, commonly five business days, for you to review the report and dispute anything inaccurate. This is your chance to contact the consumer reporting agency and, for state-level records, SLED’s Public Dissemination Unit.

Final Adverse Action Notice

If the employer proceeds after that waiting period, it must send a formal adverse action notice. That notice has to include the name, address, and phone number of the consumer reporting agency, a statement that the agency did not make the hiring decision, and notice that you have 60 days to request a free copy of the report from that agency.⁵ You retain the right to dispute anything you believe is inaccurate or incomplete.

Expunged Records and What Employers Can Do With Them

South Carolina law provides a path to clear certain criminal records through expungement, and the legal effect is significant. Once a court grants an expungement order, the person is restored to the status held before the arrest or charge. Someone with an expunged record can truthfully deny the arrest or conviction ever happened in response to any inquiry, without risking a perjury or false-statement charge.⁶

Eligibility covers a range of situations. Section 17-22-910 lists the qualifying categories, including first-offense misdemeanor convictions in magistrates court, first-offense fraudulent check charges, successful completion of pretrial intervention, conditional discharge for certain drug offenses, and youthful offender cases.⁷ The solicitor’s office in each judicial circuit handles applications.

Expungement does not mean records vanish entirely. SLED keeps a nonpublic record of the expunged offense and the date, to prevent anyone from using the expungement process more than once. That nonpublic record cannot be released under the Freedom of Information Act or any other law, except to authorized court or law enforcement officials verifying expungement eligibility.⁶

For employers, Section 17-22-960 sets up a two-sided rule. Hiring someone with an expunged record shields you from negligent hiring or negligent retention lawsuits based on that expunged offense, and information related to the expungement cannot even be introduced as evidence in such a proceeding. The flip side: employers other than criminal justice agencies are prohibited from using expunged information against an employee. If an expunged record somehow surfaces, it cannot be used to deny a promotion, terminate employment, or take any other adverse action.⁸

A related boundary worth flagging: a pardon is not an expungement. A pardon from the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services restores civil rights and forgives the legal consequences of the crime, but the conviction still appears on background checks.⁹ Only an expungement removes the record from public view.

Whether Employers Can Ask About Criminal History Upfront

South Carolina does not currently have a statewide ban-the-box law. The state is absent from the list of 37 states that have adopted fair-chance hiring policies for public-sector employment.¹⁰ Public and private employers can include criminal history questions on the initial job application.

Pending legislation could change that. House Bill 3272, introduced in January 2025, would create the Ban the Box Act and add Section 41-1-23 to the state code, prohibiting employers from asking about criminal history until an applicant has been selected for an interview, or, if there is no interview, until a conditional offer has been made.¹¹ The bill was referred to the House Committee on Labor, Commerce and Industry and has not advanced further.

Federal contractors are a separate case. Under the federal Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act, federal contractors cannot request criminal history from applicants, verbally or in writing, until a conditional offer has been extended for positions related to the contract. Classified, sensitive law enforcement, and national security positions are exempt, along with positions where other laws require screening earlier. A first violation brings a written warning; repeat violations can lead to suspended contract payments or disqualification from future federal contracts.¹²

Industries Where Background Checks Are Mandatory

Some employers in South Carolina have no discretion about running a check.

Direct Care and Healthcare Workers

Under Section 44-7-2910, any entity providing direct care — including nursing homes, home health agencies, adult daycare facilities, hospice programs, community residential care facilities, and in-home care providers — must run a criminal record check before hiring or contracting with a direct caregiver.¹³ Employment agencies that supply workers to these facilities carry the same requirement for every worker they place.

The scope of “direct caregiver” is broad: nurses, certified nursing assistants, therapists, unlicensed care aides, and anyone whose duties create the possibility of patient contact. If the applicant has lived in South Carolina for the preceding twelve months and can prove residency with a state driver’s license, utility bills, or pay stubs, only a state criminal record check is required. Without that residency proof, the employer must also initiate a federal FBI check.¹³

Teachers and School Personnel

Anyone pursuing teacher certification in South Carolina must clear both a state SLED check and a national FBI check, both fingerprint-supported, before beginning full-time clinical teaching experience. The applicant bears the cost of the FBI fingerprint process, and results go to the South Carolina Department of Education for review.¹⁴

Candidates with prior arrests or convictions of a serious nature that could affect their fitness to teach can be denied the opportunity to complete clinical teaching and qualify for certification. A candidate denied on that basis can request reconsideration after one year under guidelines set by the State Board of Education. Noncertified teachers seeking registration face the same dual-check requirement.¹⁴

EEOC Limits on Using Criminal History

Federal anti-discrimination law adds another layer over anything an employer does with criminal records. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has issued enforcement guidance warning that blanket policies excluding anyone with a criminal record can violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act if they disproportionately screen out applicants of a particular race or national origin. Instead of automatic disqualifications, the EEOC expects an individualized assessment weighing the nature and gravity of the offense, the time that has passed since the offense or completion of the sentence, and the nature of the specific job.¹⁵

The EEOC also draws a clear line between arrests and convictions. An arrest alone does not establish that criminal conduct occurred, so using arrest records that never led to convictions as a screening tool carries significant legal risk. Employers are on safer ground focusing on conviction records and evaluating them through that individualized framework.¹⁵

Penalties for Violating the Rules

Employers who skip FCRA procedural steps face real financial exposure. A person harmed by a willful FCRA violation can recover either actual damages or statutory damages between $100 and $1,000 per violation, without needing to prove a specific dollar amount of harm. Courts can also award punitive damages in whatever amount they consider appropriate, plus the consumer’s attorney fees and court costs.¹⁶

Class actions are where costs escalate. When an employer uses the same flawed disclosure form or skips the same pre-adverse action step for every applicant, each affected person represents a separate violation. Common triggers include bundling the standalone disclosure with other paperwork, failing to send the pre-adverse action notice before rejecting an applicant, and pulling a report without written authorization.

On the state side, the employer immunity under Section 17-22-960 works in only one direction. Hiring someone with an expunged record brings full protection from negligent hiring claims. An employer who improperly obtains or uses expunged information against an applicant loses that shield and opens itself to liability.⁸

1
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code of Laws – Title 23 – Chapter 3 – South Carolina Law Enforcement Division
2
South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. CATCH
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681b – Permissible Purposes of Consumer Reports
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681m – Requirements on Users of Consumer Reports
6
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 17-22-1010 – Completion of South Carolina Youth Challenge Academy and Jobs Challenge Program
7
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 17-22-910 – Applications for Expungement
8
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 17-22-960 – Expungement
9
South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services. Pardon Application
10
National Employment Law Project. Ban the Box: U.S. Cities, Counties, and States Adopt Fair Hiring Policies
11
South Carolina Legislature. 2025-2026 Bill 3272 – Ban the Box Act
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 41 USC 4714 – Prohibition on Criminal History Inquiries by Contractors Prior to Conditional Offer
13
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 44-7-2910 – Criminal Record Check for Direct Caregivers, Definitions
14
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 59-25-115 – Notice to Enrollee or Applicant of Requirement of Criminal Record Check
15
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
16
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681n – Civil Liability for Willful Noncompliance