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

South Carolina employers may run background checks with few state-specific limits beyond the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. As of October 2026, the South Carolina rules that matter most are the expungement law, which bars most employers from using expunged information against an employee and protects employers who hire people with expunged records, the state's CATCH name-based record search through SLED, mandatory checks for direct caregivers, school employees and child care staff (including workers supplied by employment agencies), and immunity for employers who give references. There is no statewide ban-the-box law, credit check law or salary history ban; Columbia applies its own fair chance rule to city jobs.

The federal paperwork (stand-alone disclosure, authorization, pre-adverse and adverse action notices) applies to every South Carolina hire that uses a screening company and is covered in the FCRA background check process. This page covers what South Carolina law adds, with each statute linked. The wider state picture is on hiring employees in South Carolina.

Does South Carolina add anything to the federal FCRA?

Very little for employment screening. We found no South Carolina statute requiring a state disclosure, a state consent form or a copy of the report beyond what the federal FCRA requires, and no state seven-year rule. The South Carolina Human Affairs Law does not list arrest or conviction records as protected categories and applies to employers with 15 or more employees (S.C. Code 1-13-30 and 1-13-80). Federal Title VII still governs how records are used. The EEOC rescinded its 2012 guidance on arrest and conviction records on October 28, 2026, but a job-related review using the Green factors from the 1975 Eighth Circuit case (the nature and gravity of the offense, the time since it and the nature of the job) is still the safe practice.

How far back can a South Carolina background check go?

South Carolina has no lookback limit of its own, so the federal FCRA sets the rule: arrests and other non-conviction items older than seven years may not be reported for jobs paying under $75,000 a year, and convictions have no time limit (15 U.S.C. § 1681c). What changes the picture in South Carolina is how much can be removed from the record through expungement and destruction orders, covered next.

What can South Carolina employers do with expunged records?

S.C. Code 17-22-960, added by 2018 Act 254, is the key employer rule:

"Any employer that employs a worker who has had an expungement shall not, at any time, be subject to any administrative or legal claim or cause of action related to the worker's expunged offense. Except for criminal justice agencies, employers shall not use expunged information adversely against an employee. No information related to an expungement shall be used or introduced as evidence in any administrative or legal proceeding involving negligent hiring, negligent retention, or similar claims."

The section speaks of workers and employees rather than applicants, but the practical rule is the same at hiring: do not ask about or rely on expunged matters. Several expungement statutes also protect people who leave the arrest off. After a pretrial intervention program, for example, no person may be held guilty of perjury "or otherwise giving a false statement by reason of his failure to recite or acknowledge the arrest in response to any inquiry made of him for any purpose" (S.C. Code 17-22-150(a)), and similar wording appears for conditional discharge and juvenile records.

What can be expunged

S.C. Code 17-22-910 lists the routes: dismissed charges and not-guilty findings, pretrial intervention, conditional discharge, first-offense magistrate-level convictions, youthful offender convictions, certain first-offense drug convictions and other listed offenses. When a charge is dismissed or ends in a not-guilty verdict, S.C. Code 17-1-40 requires the arrest and booking record, mug shots and fingerprints to be destroyed, with law enforcement keeping a sealed copy for a limited period. 2026 Act 248 added a rule that arrest records from a mistaken-identity arrest must be destroyed within 180 days of the discovery (S.428).

Expungement does not reach third-party databases on its own. SLED's criminal justice information page asks people to allow four weeks after it receives an order for the charge to be removed, and says errors on third-party background checks must be disputed with the company providing them. That is the FCRA dispute window doing its job: if a candidate says a reported case was expunged, pause and let them prove it.

When can South Carolina employers ask about criminal history?

At any stage, under state law. South Carolina has no statewide ban-the-box law for public or private employers, and bills introduced in 2025 to bar conviction questions until an interview (H.3272 and others) had not moved out of committee as of October 2026. Questions to avoid in interviews are listed in illegal interview questions.

Columbia, Charleston, Greenville and North Charleston

The City of Columbia adopted a conviction and wage history ordinance in 2019. The current Columbia Code §§ 2-351 to 2-356 defines the employer as the City of Columbia itself: city job applications may not ask about conviction history, the city may not inquire until after a conditional offer, it may not consider arrests without conviction or sealed, dismissed or expunged records, and an applicant gets ten business days to respond to a pre-adverse notice. Private employers and city vendors are only urged to adopt similar practices. We found no comparable provision in the codes of Charleston, Greenville or North Charleston.

How do you get a South Carolina criminal record yourself?

Through SLED CATCH (Citizens Access to Criminal Histories), which lets anyone "view and print South Carolina criminal records using a name-based search." The fee is $25 per search under S.C. Code 23-3-115, and CATCH adds a service fee for online requests. SLED's mail-in form says the report "contains records of arrests and convictions made by state/local agencies in South Carolina only," and the dissemination rules in Regulation 73-23 release unsealed conviction, non-conviction and non-disposition data alike.

Three cautions. CATCH matches on name and date of birth, so confirm identity before acting. It shows arrests without dispositions, which you should not treat as convictions. And SLED itself warned in July 2026 that charges can be missing from the state repository when people are not fingerprinted, so a clean CATCH report is not proof of no record. A search you run yourself is not a consumer report under the FCRA, but federal discrimination law still applies to the decision.

Which South Carolina jobs require background checks?

• Direct caregivers. Nursing homes, adult day care, home health agencies, community residential care facilities, hospices, in-home care providers and listed residential programs must run a criminal record check before employing or contracting with a direct caregiver, and "an employment agency may not furnish employees to a direct care entity without conducting a criminal record check on each employee" (S.C. Code 44-7-2910 to 44-7-2950). A state check is enough when the applicant verifies 12 months of South Carolina residency; otherwise the entity runs a state check before employment and starts a federal check after employment, using the fingerprints submitted with the application. The Department of Public Health's direct care background check page explains the fingerprint process.
• School employees. Anyone hired by a school district to serve in any capacity in a public school must undergo a SLED name-based search, and district policy must at a minimum bar hiring people convicted of violent crimes (S.C. Code 59-19-117). Teacher certification requires state and FBI fingerprint checks (SCDE fingerprinting page).
• Child care. S.C. Code 63-13-40 bars employing people on the sex offender registries or the child abuse central registry or convicted of listed crimes, requires SLED and FBI fingerprint checks and registry checks, allows provisional employment under conditions, and requires application forms to state at the top, in large bold type, that a disqualified person who applies commits a misdemeanor. See the state's child care background check requirements.

Does South Carolina protect employers on references and negligent hiring?

Yes, in two ways. S.C. Code 41-1-65 makes an employer immune from civil liability for disclosing a current or former employee's dates of employment, pay level and wage history to a prospective employer, and covers written answers to written requests about evaluations, the reasons for separation and job performance, unless the employer knowingly or recklessly releases false information. And the expungement rule in 17-22-960 keeps expunged information out of negligent hiring and retention cases. We found no South Carolina certificate of rehabilitation or employability that gives employers further protection. The general doctrine is in what negligent hiring is.

Can South Carolina employers check credit or salary history?

We found no South Carolina statute limiting employment credit checks, salary history questions or requests for social media passwords. The federal FCRA steps apply to a credit report from a screening company, and Columbia's wage history ban covers only the city's own hiring. State-by-state rules are compared in credit check laws for employers and salary history ban states.

South Carolina background check rules at a glance

What should recruiters and staffing agencies do in South Carolina?

1. Keep expunged matters out. Ask about convictions only, say that expunged records need not be listed, and treat a candidate's statement that a reported case was expunged as an FCRA dispute.
2. Read CATCH results carefully. Separate arrests without dispositions from convictions, confirm identity, and do not treat a clean result as complete.
3. Check before you supply caregivers. An agency that furnishes staff to a nursing home, home health agency, hospice or similar entity must run a record check on each worker first. Agency licensing is covered in staffing agency licensing in South Carolina, and hiring through a third party in employer of record in South Carolina.
4. Keep criminal history out of interviews and notes. If a candidate volunteers an arrest, do not follow up or record it. If you record interviews, check South Carolina's recording consent rules and remove the passage from notes you share.
5. Assess, do not exclude. State law sets no assessment test for private employers, but Title VII does, so write down why a specific conviction matters for the specific job.
6. Put it in a policy. A background check policy that names the checks by role keeps practice consistent. Work authorization is a separate process, covered in South Carolina E-Verify requirements.