Illinois background check laws for employers (2026): what you can check and when

Illinois employers may run background checks, but Illinois law controls what they can ask about and how they use the results more tightly than the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act does. As of October 2026, the main rules are: no questions about or use of arrests, juvenile records, or expunged, sealed or impounded records; no criminal history questions before an interview or conditional offer for employers with 15 or more employees; a written assessment and notices before rejecting anyone for a conviction; duties under the Uniform Conviction Information Act when you pull conviction records from the Illinois State Police; a ban on most credit checks; and fingerprint checks required for health care, school and child care jobs. Chicago adds its own protections.

The federal paperwork is on the FCRA background check process, and the timing rule and the Human Rights Act assessment are covered step by step on Illinois's ban-the-box page. This page adds the rest: what counts as an arrest record, the State Police route and its notice duty, the required checks by industry, and a summary table.

Which records can Illinois employers never ask about or use?

Section 2-103 of the Human Rights Act makes it a civil rights violation, "unless otherwise authorized by law," for an employer, employment agency or labor organization to inquire into or use an arrest record as a basis for hiring or any other employment decision. The Act's definition in section 1-103(B-5) is broader than the word suggests. An "arrest record" means:

1. an arrest not leading to a conviction;
2. a juvenile record; or
3. criminal history record information ordered expunged, sealed or impounded under section 5.2 of the Criminal Identification Act.

Two limits on the rule matter in practice. Section 2-103 does not stop an employer from requesting or using sealed felony conviction information obtained from the Illinois State Police where the Criminal Identification Act or other state or federal laws require criminal background checks. And it does not stop an employer from using "other information which indicates that a person actually engaged in the conduct for which he or she was arrested," for example the employer's own investigation of workplace conduct.

Because staffing agencies are named in the section, a recruiter who asks a candidate about an old arrest, or passes a juvenile record to a client, is exposed in the same way as the employer.

How far back can an Illinois background check go?

In the Illinois statutes we reviewed, we did not find a state law that sets its own reporting lookback for screening companies, so the federal limits apply: arrests and most other adverse items over seven years old may not be reported unless the job pays $75,000 or more, and convictions have no federal time limit (15 U.S.C. § 1681c). Illinois narrows what can be used instead: arrests without conviction and sealed or expunged records are off limits at any age under section 2-103, and the time since a conviction is one of the six factors in the Human Rights Act assessment.

What must you do when you get conviction records from the State Police?

Illinois conviction information collected by the Illinois State Police is "open to public inspection" under section 5 of the Uniform Conviction Information Act, and the State Police take name-based requests through their CHIRP system, described on the Bureau of Identification page. An employer that requests conviction information for employment purposes takes on duties under section 7(A):

• Release. Keep on file, for at least two years, a release signed by the person the request is about.
• Copy to the candidate. Give the candidate a copy of the State Police response.
• Seven working days. The candidate has seven working days from receiving the copy to tell the employer that the information is inaccurate or incomplete.
• Safe harbor. An employer that complied, believed the information accurate in good faith and submitted accurate identifying information is not liable for damages for reasonable actions taken in reliance on it, unless told it was inaccurate.

A State Police search you run yourself is not a consumer report, so the FCRA disclosure does not apply, but the UCIA copy and the Human Rights Act assessment and notices do. If you use a screening company instead, the FCRA steps apply and the company's report is the "conviction history report" you attach to the Human Rights Act notice.

When can you ask about criminal history, and how must you decide?

The Job Opportunities for Qualified Applicants Act bars employers with 15 or more employees, and employment agencies, from asking about or considering criminal history until the applicant has been judged qualified and selected for an interview, or until after a conditional offer if there is no interview. Then section 2-103.1 of the Human Rights Act allows a conviction to be used only where there is a substantial relationship to the job or an unreasonable risk, after weighing six factors, with a written preliminary notice that includes the employer's reasoning, at least five business days to respond and a written final notice. The full steps and a script are on Illinois's ban-the-box page.

Can Illinois employers check credit or salary history?

Credit. The Employee Credit Privacy Act (820 ILCS 70) bars most employers from inquiring about credit history, ordering credit reports or basing decisions on them, with exceptions for banks, insurers and some public bodies and for jobs with a bona fide occupational requirement such as access to $2,500 or more in assets. The details are on credit check laws for employers.

Salary history. 820 ILCS 112/10 bars asking for or relying on it; see Illinois's salary history ban.

Which Illinois jobs require fingerprint checks?

• Health care and long-term care. Under the Health Care Worker Background Check Act, people who want to be on the Department of Public Health's Health Care Worker Registry authorize a fingerprint-based check, with fingerprints sent through a licensed Live Scan vendor to the State Police and checked against state and FBI records (section 33). A health care employer or long-term care facility may hire someone convicted of a listed offense into a job with direct care or access to residents' living quarters or records only with a waiver (section 25).
• Schools. Licensed and nonlicensed applicants for school district jobs must authorize a fingerprint-based criminal history check as a condition of employment, covering listed disqualifying offenses and any other felony within seven years of the application, plus checks of the state sex offender and violent offender against youth databases (School Code 10-21.9).
• Early care and education. License applicants and each employee and volunteer of licensed early care and education centers and homes must authorize a background investigation and submit fingerprints to the State Police for state and FBI checks, under the Department of Children and Family Services or the Department of Early Childhood (Child Care Act section 4.1).

If you place workers in these settings, the registry or agency result decides when they may start, so agree with the client who initiates the fingerprints and who receives the result.

What does Chicago add?

The Chicago Commission on Human Relations lists criminal history and credit history as protected classes "employment only" under the Chicago Human Rights Ordinance, on its ordinances and protected classes page, which also links the city's Fair Chance and credit history materials. Chicago's credit rule mirrors the state Act; see the credit page above. For a Chicago placement, follow the state steps and check the city's current ordinance booklet for anything stricter.

Illinois background check rules at a glance

What should recruiters and staffing agencies do in Illinois?

1. Take arrests off every form and script. Ask only about convictions, only after the interview selection or offer stage, and never about sealed, expunged, impounded or juvenile matters.
2. Keep criminal history out of interviews. If a candidate volunteers a case, do not follow up or note it. If you transcribe interviews with an AI note taker, remove the passage from any notes you share, and if you use AI to screen candidates, read Illinois's AI in employment law.
3. Pick the route and its paperwork. A screening company means FCRA forms; a State Police request means a signed release kept two years and a copy of the response to the candidate. Either way, the Human Rights Act notices apply before a rejection.
4. Write the assessment. Record the six factors and your reasoning; Illinois requires the reasoning in the preliminary notice.
5. Keep drug testing separate. It has its own rules, covered in Illinois drug testing laws.
6. Check the registry or agency clearance before a health care, school or child care worker starts.
7. Write it down. A background check policy keeps practice consistent across recruiters and clients.