Texas Employee Background Check Laws and Requirements

Texas employee background check laws combine a state cap on how far back criminal records can be reported with federal rules that govern consent, notice, and your right to dispute errors. Under Texas Business and Commerce Code Section 20.05, a consumer reporting agency generally cannot report arrests or convictions older than seven years unless the job pays $75,000 or more a year. The Fair Credit Reporting Act adds a separate set of protections that apply everywhere in the state: an employer must get your written permission before running a check, and must give you a copy of the report and a chance to respond before rejecting you because of it.

What a Texas Background Check Can Include

Criminal history is the core of most employment screenings. Reports pull from county court records and the Texas Department of Public Safety’s statewide criminal history database, which compiles information submitted by local law enforcement agencies.¹ A typical report shows felony and misdemeanor convictions, pending charges, and sometimes arrest records.

Beyond criminal history, employers commonly review:

Driving records, particularly for jobs that involve company vehicles or travel.
Education verification, confirming degrees, diplomas, and professional certifications with the issuing schools.
Employment history, checking job titles, dates, and sometimes reasons for leaving.
Drug screening. Pre-employment drug tests are legal in Texas and common in transportation, energy, and healthcare. Federal workplace drug testing follows standards set by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Not every employer checks all of these. The scope depends on the role, the industry, and what the employer considers relevant.

The Seven-Year Limit on Criminal Records

Texas Business and Commerce Code Section 20.05 tells consumer reporting agencies how far back they can dig. A reporting agency cannot include any arrest, indictment, or conviction where the date of disposition, release, or parole is more than seven years before the report date.² The seven-year clock starts from whichever event came last: the court’s final ruling, release from custody, or the end of parole.

The protection disappears for higher-paying jobs. If the position pays or is reasonably expected to pay $75,000 or more annually, the reporting agency can include criminal history from any time period.² A 15-year-old conviction that would be invisible for a $60,000 role could show up for an $80,000 role at the same company.

One detail catches people off guard. The seven-year rule applies to what a reporting agency can include in its report, not to what exists in public court records. An employer who searches county records directly, rather than going through a consumer reporting agency, is not technically bound by Section 20.05. In practice, most employers use third-party screening companies that follow these reporting limits.

Expunged and Sealed Records

Texas offers two paths for clearing a criminal record, and the difference matters when you’re being screened. An expunction destroys the record as if the arrest never happened. A nondisclosure order seals the record from public view while keeping it accessible to courts and law enforcement.³

Expunctions are governed by Chapter 55A of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. You may qualify if your case was dismissed, you were acquitted, or the statute of limitations expired before charges were filed.⁴ After an expunction, consumer reporting agencies should not find or report the record.

Nondisclosure orders, found in Texas Government Code Chapter 411, Subchapter E-1, apply to certain offenses that ended in deferred adjudication. The record still exists, but private employers and most background screening companies cannot access it. Government agencies, law enforcement, and some regulated industries can still see sealed records, so the type of job you’re applying for matters even after you obtain an order of nondisclosure.

If a background check shows a record you have expunged or sealed, that is a reporting error, and you can force the agency to reinvestigate.

Written Consent Before Any Check

No employer can run a background check on you without your written permission. The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires two things before the report is pulled: a written disclosure telling you a background check may be obtained, and your written authorization agreeing to it.⁵

The disclosure must be a standalone document with nothing else on the page. An employer cannot bury it inside the job application, combine it with a liability waiver, or add extra language.⁶ Your authorization can appear on the same document as the disclosure, but nothing else can. If you signed a bundled form that mixed the disclosure with other paperwork, the employer likely violated the FCRA regardless of what the report ended up showing.

If the Report Costs You the Job

When something in your background check leads an employer to reject you, federal law requires a two-step notification process known as adverse action. Skipping either step is a violation, even if the hiring decision itself was reasonable.

First, before making the final decision, the employer must send a pre-adverse action notice. This notice must include a copy of the background report and a written description of your rights under the FCRA.⁵ The point is to give you a chance to review the report and flag mistakes before you lose the opportunity.

After a reasonable waiting period, the employer can issue the final adverse action notice. The FCRA does not specify an exact number of days; the statute uses the word “reasonable” without defining it. Most employment lawyers recommend at least five to seven days. The final notice must include the name, address, and phone number of the consumer reporting agency that supplied the report, along with a statement that the agency did not make the hiring decision and cannot explain the rejection.⁷

If you were never given either notice and suspect a background check played a role in the decision, that is worth investigating. The employer may have broken federal law regardless of what the report said.

Disputing Errors on Your Report

Mistakes in background reports are more common than people expect. A record belonging to someone with a similar name, a dismissed case reported as a conviction, or an expunged record that was never removed from a database can all sink a job search.

Under the FCRA, if you dispute an item directly with the consumer reporting agency, the agency must complete a free reinvestigation within 30 days.⁸ If you provide additional information during that window, the agency gets up to 45 days total. It must notify the source of the disputed information, and if the item cannot be verified, it must be deleted from your file.

This is why the pre-adverse action notice matters. It puts the report in your hands before the final decision, so you can catch an error and force a reinvestigation while the job is still potentially on the table.

Credit Checks

Texas does not restrict employers from using credit reports in hiring. Unlike roughly a dozen states that limit credit checks to positions with financial responsibilities, Texas allows any employer to request one for any role, as long as they follow FCRA disclosure and consent procedures.

A credit report used in hiring typically shows debt obligations, payment history, collections, and bankruptcy filings. It does not include your credit score. The same standalone disclosure and written authorization rules apply.⁶ The EEOC has cautioned that blanket credit check policies can have a disparate impact on certain protected groups, and employers who use credit reports are on safer ground when the check ties to the actual duties of the job.

Federal Limits on Using Criminal History

The EEOC’s enforcement guidance says a blanket policy of refusing to hire anyone with a criminal record violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act if the policy disproportionately screens out a protected group and is not justified by the nature of the job.⁹

Instead of automatic disqualification, the EEOC directs employers to weigh three factors known as the Green factors:

The nature and gravity of the offense. A theft conviction matters more for a cash-handling role than a warehouse job.
How much time has passed. A 15-year-old conviction carries less weight than one from last year, especially if the person has stayed out of trouble since.
The nature of the job, including specific duties, level of supervision, and contact with vulnerable people.

Beyond these three factors, the EEOC encourages an individualized assessment that considers rehabilitation, employment history since the conviction, character references, and the circumstances of the offense.⁹ The guidance also draws a line between arrests and convictions: an arrest by itself, without a conviction, cannot justify refusing to hire someone, though the employer can consider the conduct underlying the arrest.

When Employers Can Ask About Your Record

Texas has no statewide ban-the-box law. Most private employers in the state can ask about criminal history at any point in the hiring process, including on the initial application.

Austin is the exception. Under the city’s Fair Chance Hiring ordinance, covered private employers cannot ask about an applicant’s criminal background until after they’ve determined the person is otherwise qualified for the position.¹⁰

If you’re applying for a federal agency job or a federal contractor position, the Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act prohibits criminal history inquiries before a conditional job offer is made.¹¹ Exceptions apply for roles requiring security clearances, sensitive national security positions, and law enforcement.

Industry-Specific Requirements

Certain Texas industries go well beyond a standard name-based criminal search. If you’re entering one of these fields, expect a more intensive screening process, and know that the requirements come from specific Texas statutes.

Public schools. Anyone employed by a Texas school district or open-enrollment charter school must undergo a national criminal history check, including fingerprinting, before starting work. The district submits your information to the Texas Department of Public Safety, which obtains FBI records through the state’s criminal history clearinghouse. Districts must also subscribe to ongoing criminal history updates for current employees, meaning a new arrest or conviction can trigger a review at any time.¹² The district can require you to pay the fingerprinting and processing fees.

Childcare facilities. Licensed childcare operations must submit background check requests through the Health and Human Services Commission’s Centralized Background Check Unit before hiring anyone. The requirement extends beyond staff to anyone 14 or older who has unsupervised access to children, resides at the facility, or is regularly present there.¹³

Long-term care and nursing facilities. HHSC-regulated facilities must check both the Employee Misconduct Registry and the Nurse Aide Registry before hiring unlicensed personnel, and again annually for existing employees. A person listed on either registry for abuse, neglect, or exploitation is considered unemployable in these settings.¹⁴ FBI-based fingerprint checks have been required for these workers since 2021.

What You Can Recover When the Rules Are Broken

The FCRA has real teeth. If an employer willfully ignores the disclosure, consent, or adverse action requirements, you can sue for statutory damages between $100 and $1,000 per violation, even without proof of specific financial harm. Courts can also award punitive damages and require the employer to pay your attorney fees.¹⁵

For negligent violations, where the employer did not intend to break the law but failed to follow proper procedures, you can recover actual damages such as lost wages from the job you did not get, plus attorney fees.¹⁶

If you believe a background check was mishandled, filing sooner rather than later helps. EEOC regulations require employers to keep personnel and employment records, including background check results and consent forms, for at least one year.¹⁷ Acting within that window makes it more likely the documentation you would need is still available.

1
Department of Public Safety. Crime Records
2
State of Texas. Texas Business and Commerce Code 20.05
3
Texas State Law Library. Expunctions and Nondisclosure Orders – General Information
4
State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 55A.054
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681b – Permissible Purposes of Consumer Reports
6
Federal Trade Commission. Background Checks on Prospective Employees – Keep Required Disclosures Simple
7
Federal Trade Commission. Using Consumer Reports – What Employers Need to Know
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy
9
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions Under Title VII
10
City of Austin. Fair Chance Hiring
11
U.S. Department of the Treasury. The Fair Chance to Compete Act
12
Texas Public Law. Texas Education Code 22.0833 – National Criminal History Record Information Review
13
Texas Health and Human Services. Background Check Rules – Child Care Regulation
14
Texas Health and Human Services. Employee Misconduct Registry
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681n – Civil Liability for Willful Noncompliance
16
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681o – Civil Liability for Negligent Noncompliance
17
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Recordkeeping Requirements