District of Columbia background check laws for employers (2026): what you can check and when

The District of Columbia regulates background checks through its own code rather than a state layer. As of October 2026, employers with more than 10 employees in D.C. may not run a criminal history check, or ask about convictions in any other way, until after a conditional offer, and may never ask about arrests or about accusations that did not end in a conviction. Credit information is a protected trait under the Human Rights Act, sealed and expunged records need not be disclosed, and health-care facilities and child and youth services providers must run checks by law.

This page brings those rules together. The federal paperwork is on the FCRA background check process, and the Fair Criminal Record Screening Amendment Act, with its penalties, Office of Human Rights guidance and a recruiter script, is covered in depth on D.C.'s ban-the-box law. Here we add what that page does not: the credit ban, sealing and expungement after the Second Chance Amendment Act, the checks the D.C. Code requires, and a checklist.

What does D.C. add to the federal FCRA?

In the D.C. Code sections we reviewed, we did not find a separate consumer reporting statute with its own employment disclosure or copy-of-report steps, so a report from a screening company follows the federal FCRA paperwork. What D.C. changes is when that report may be ordered. Under D.C. Code 32-1341, an "inquiry" means "any direct or indirect conduct intended to gather criminal history information from or about an applicant using any method, including application forms, interviews, and criminal history checks." A background check is an inquiry, so for a covered employer it waits until after the conditional offer.

The Office of Human Rights' Guidance No. 16-02 gives examples that matter for screening workflows: an online application that cannot be submitted without authorizing a criminal background check likely violates the Act, and so does an interviewer searching online for a "legal situation" a candidate mentioned. The FCRA authorization form belongs with the conditional offer, not the application.

When can D.C. employers check criminal history?

The rules are in D.C. Code 32-1342:

• Never: an inquiry about, or requiring disclosure of, an arrest, or a criminal accusation that is not then pending or did not result in a conviction (32-1342(a)).
• After a conditional offer: an inquiry about a criminal conviction (32-1342(b)).
• Withdrawing the offer: only for a legitimate business reason that is reasonable in light of six factors: the job's duties, the bearing of the offense on them, the time elapsed, the applicant's age at the time, the frequency and seriousness of the offense, and evidence of rehabilitation and good conduct (32-1342(d)).
• After the decision: an applicant who believes an offer was withdrawn because of a conviction may ask, within 30 days, for copies of all records the employer obtained and a notice of the right to file with the Office of Human Rights; the employer has 30 days to provide them (32-1342(e)).

The Act covers any employer "that employs more than 10 employees in the District of Columbia," including the District government but not the courts, and "employment" expressly includes contracted and contingent work and "work through the services of a temporary or other employment agency" where the job is wholly or substantially in D.C. (32-1341). It does not apply where federal or District law requires considering criminal history, to positions in programs designed to employ people with records, or to "any facility or employer that provides programs, services, or direct care to minors or vulnerable adults" (32-1342(c)). Complaints go to the Office of Human Rights as the exclusive remedy, and the Commission on Human Rights may impose fines of up to $1,000, $2,500 or $5,000 depending on employer size, half paid to the complainant (32-1344).

How far back can a D.C. background check go?

We did not find a D.C. statute that limits how old a record a screening company may report for employment generally. The federal limit in 15 U.S.C. § 1681c applies: arrests and other adverse items more than seven years old may not be reported, the limit does not cover convictions, and it lifts for jobs paying $75,000 or more. For a covered D.C. employer, arrests and non-conviction outcomes are off limits at every stage anyway under 32-1342(a), whatever their age, and the time elapsed since an offense is one of the six factors. Health-care facilities have their own seven-year rule, below.

What happens to sealed and expunged records in D.C.?

Record relief is in Title 16, Chapter 8, rewritten by the Second Chance Amendment Act of 2022 (D.C. Law 24-284). The D.C. Law Library's notes show the rewritten sections applicable as of March 1, 2025. Two sections matter to employers:

• Expungement. D.C. Code 16-804 restores the person "to the status they occupied before being cited, arrested, charged, or convicted." The person may not be held guilty of perjury or a false statement for failing to disclose the matter "in response to any inquiry made of them for any purpose," and agencies answer public inquiries that no records are available.
• Sealing. D.C. Code 16-807 removes sealed records "from public view" with restricted, nonpublic access for specific parties, and gives the same protection against perjury or false statement claims for non-disclosure. Sealed records remain available for "employment decisions" to law enforcement and similar agencies, and, except for records sealed under section 16-806(a)(2), to the entities listed in 16-801(5)(D) to (F), which include licensing agencies, licensed schools, day care centers, before or after school facilities and child protection agencies, to the extent the records were available to them before relief.

For a private employer outside those categories, a sealed or expunged matter should not appear in public court records, and the candidate may leave it out. If a report shows one, treat it as a dispute during the FCRA pre-adverse window. A person who asks the Court whether records exist may rely on the clerk's response that none are available (16-807(d)(4)).

Can D.C. employers check credit or salary history?

Credit. D.C. Code 2-1402.11 lists "credit information" among the traits the Human Rights Act protects, and makes it unlawful "to directly or indirectly require, request, suggest, or cause any employee to submit credit information, or use, accept, refer to, or inquire into an employee's credit information." Under 2-1401.02(9), "employee" includes an individual "seeking employment," so applicants are covered. "Inquire" includes application forms, interviews and credit history checks. The exceptions in 2-1402.11(d) cover checks required by District law; police, special and campus police and other law enforcement roles; the Office of the Chief Financial Officer and the D.C. Retirement Board; positions requiring a security clearance under District law; disclosures by District employees to the Board of Ethics and Government Accountability or the Office of the Inspector General; financial institutions "where the position involves access to personal financial information"; and requests under a subpoena, court order or law enforcement investigation. D.C. is compared with other jurisdictions on credit check laws for employers.

Salary history. D.C. Code 32-1452 bars screening applicants on wage history and seeking it; see D.C.'s salary history ban.

Which D.C. jobs require criminal background checks?

• Health-care facilities. A facility may not employ or contract with an unlicensed person "until a criminal background check has been conducted," must tell prospective employees and contract workers that the check is required, and may not hire anyone convicted, within the seven years before the check, of listed offenses such as assault, burglary, robbery, theft, fraud, forgery, sexual offenses, child abuse or distribution of a controlled substance. Records must be kept confidential and destroyed one year after employment ends (D.C. Code 44-552).
• Child and youth services. Applicants for paid jobs with a covered child or youth services provider (a District agency, or a private entity licensed by or contracting with the District to provide direct services to children or youth) must apply for criminal background checks through the FBI and the Metropolitan Police Department if the job brings them into direct contact with children and youth. An applicant may be offered the job contingent on a satisfactory result and may start in a supervised setting before the results arrive (D.C. Code 4-1501.03).

Because the Fair Criminal Record Screening Act does not apply to employers that provide programs, services or direct care to minors or vulnerable adults, these settings follow their own statutes. An agency placing workers into them should agree with the client who requests the check and when the worker may start.

D.C., Maryland and Virginia

Desks that cover the region often handle all three in a week, and the rules differ. A process built for D.C. (nothing before the conditional offer, no arrests, no credit checks without an exception) waits longest of the three: we found no statewide timing rule for private employers in Virginia, and Maryland allows conviction questions at the first in-person interview. Virginia's rules are on Virginia background check laws, and Maryland's timing rule is compared with D.C.'s on the D.C. ban-the-box page.

D.C. background check rules at a glance

What should recruiters and staffing agencies do in D.C.?

1. Move the background check authorization to the offer. Take it off applications and agency registration forms for D.C. roles, and do not make it a condition of applying.
2. Treat the phone screen as an interview. D.C. defines an interview as any direct contact to discuss the job or the applicant's qualifications, in person or by phone, so no criminal history questions there, and no online searches for records before the offer.
3. Drop credit checks unless an exception is written down. A client's request for one needs the specific 2-1402.11(d) exception.
4. Collect rehabilitation evidence before deciding. The sixth factor turns on what the applicant produces, so use the FCRA pre-adverse window to invite it, and keep everything for the 30-day records request. A background check notification email keeps the notices consistent.
5. Keep volunteered history out of notes. If a candidate mentions a case, do not follow up or record it. If you transcribe interviews with an AI note taker, remove the passage from any notes you share, and check D.C.'s recording consent law first.
6. Check the rest of the D.C. file. Pay ranges are on D.C.'s pay transparency law, agency licensing on staffing agency licensing in D.C., E-Verify on E-Verify in D.C., and the full checklist on hiring employees in the District of Columbia.