Over two decades of Ban-the-Box legislation being enacted across the USA has caused significant changes to the employment screening and overall hiring practices within those localities and hiring managers should take notice. These agents’ particularly human resource departments should take this opportunity to work with a professional pre-employment background screening agency, in order to remain complaint with a variety of complex laws governing the use of public records, especially criminal background records.

As Ban-the-Box laws are enacted across the United States, the federal government has finally enacted their own law, which becomes effective at the end of 2021.

From JDSupra.com on July 23, 2021:

The Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act of 2019 is set to become federal law effective December 2021. The law prohibits many federal agencies and federal contractors from requesting arrest and conviction information from a job applicant—at least until after extending a conditional offer of employment. Although this will be the first federal “ban-the-box” legislation to become law, 35 states, Washington, D.C., and numerous cities have already adopted similar requirements for state and local agencies and contractors. ^{jdsupra.com/legalnews/ban-the-box-laws-continue-to-proliferate-1627995/}

Ban-the-Box laws are designed to create a more equal playing field across all populations and decrease discrimination due to a criminal history question box on an employment application.

Across the country there are a variety of laws that can be subtly different from one another. HR Departments and Hiring Managers should continue to take note every time a new law is enacted, to ensure their hiring and vetting policies and practices are legal and lawful.

However, many of these laws, both federal and local, only apply to governmental agencies. The federal government continues to look at private industry.

Again, from JDSupra.com, from July 23, 2021:

Notably, House Democrats are already looking to follow suit with H.R. 1598 (the “Workforce Justice Act of 2021”). If passed, the federal government would withhold funds provided under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program from any state that refuses to extend ban-the-box legislation to private employers. More specifically, the Act would require states to prohibit private employers from (1) requiring a job applicant to disclose a criminal record, (2) asking about the criminal record of a job applicant prior to making a conditional offer of employment, and (3) conducting a criminal background check prior to making a conditional offer of employment. That legislation is currently being reviewed by the House subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security. ^ibid

One aspect has become crystal clear; that businesses and organizations should remain diligent with changes in law governing the use of public records, such as criminal history records, as a part of pre-employment background screening. As always, working with a professional pre-employment background screening agency remains the safest approach.

To read more about this subject read recent press release: Ban-the-Box Laws Continue to Appear Across the Country, Further Affecting Background Screening; Opines CriminalBackgroundRecords.com