Florida Background Check: Levels, Disqualifiers, and FCRA Rules

A Florida background check usually means one of two things: a $24 name-based criminal history search through the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, or a fingerprint-based Level 2 screening that runs $36 or more and is required for jobs involving children, the elderly, or other vulnerable people. Which one applies depends on why the check is being done and who is asking. Florida’s broad public records law also makes court files, arrest reports, and county dockets unusually accessible compared with other states.

Getting a Florida Criminal History Record

Anyone can request a statewide criminal history check from the FDLE. The agency runs a name-based search of its Computerized Criminal History database and returns Florida arrests and case dispositions. Under the January 2025 fee schedule, a general public or business request costs $24.¹ Non-certified results usually take about five business days; certified copies take six to seven, before mail time.²

Two limits are worth knowing. First, this search covers Florida only. It does not pull FBI records or records from other states. Second, because it matches on name and identifiers rather than fingerprints, results can miss records tied to aliases or return records belonging to someone else with a similar name.

For court-level detail — civil suits, evictions, local criminal filings — you have to go county by county through each Clerk of Court. Florida’s public records law requires custodians to allow inspection and copying at reasonable times,³ and most counties post free or low-cost docket searches online. Depth varies widely by county.

Level 1 vs. Level 2 Screening

When a Florida employer is required by statute to screen an applicant, Chapter 435 sets the standard. It splits screening into two tiers, and the position determines the tier.

Level 1

Level 1 is a name-based check. It includes an employment history review, an FDLE statewide criminal correspondence check, and a search of the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website.⁴ Local criminal records checks may be added. There are no fingerprints, so it’s faster and cheaper, but it depends on name matching to be accurate.

Level 2

Level 2 is the deeper screen and applies to positions of trust — most healthcare workers, school employees, child care staff, and anyone with routine access to children, the elderly, or people with disabilities. The applicant submits electronic fingerprints to the FDLE, which runs its own check and forwards the prints to the FBI for a national search.⁵ The process also queries sex offender registries in every state the applicant has lived in during the prior five years.

The base cost for most applicants is $36: $24 for the state check and $12 for the FBI check. Department of Children and Families screenings run $20, and volunteer screenings cost $28.¹ The vendor that captures the fingerprints charges separately, typically somewhere between $10 and $50.

Florida also runs a Care Provider Background Screening Clearinghouse that stores Level 2 results so a cleared worker moving between qualified employers in the same regulated sector doesn’t restart from zero. Fingerprints are rechecked against new arrests statewide, and a fresh FBI check is required every five years. A break in service of more than 90 days triggers a new screening.

What Disqualifies Someone From a Level 2 Position

An applicant is disqualified if they’ve been found guilty of, entered a no-contest plea to, or are currently awaiting final disposition on any offense on the statutory list. Juvenile adjudications count unless the record has been sealed or expunged, and similar offenses under other states’ laws count too.⁵ The list runs to more than 50 sections and includes categories such as:

Violent crimes including murder, manslaughter, aggravated assault and battery, kidnapping, and human trafficking
Sexual offenses including sexual battery, lewd or lascivious offenses, and sexual misconduct with developmentally disabled or mental health patients
Abuse, neglect, or exploitation of the elderly or disabled, and failure to report child abuse
Sale, manufacturing, or delivery of controlled substances
Arson, robbery, burglary, carjacking, and felony welfare fraud
Exhibiting firearms within 1,000 feet of a school and possessing weapons on school property

A pending arrest with no trial outcome is enough to block hiring until the case resolves. That catches applicants off guard more than anything else on the list.

Exemptions From Disqualification

A disqualifying offense isn’t necessarily permanent. The head of the relevant agency or qualified entity can grant an exemption if the applicant meets specific criteria.⁶

For a disqualifying felony, at least two years must have passed since the applicant completed confinement, supervision, or any nonmonetary court-imposed condition. For misdemeanors, the applicant only needs to have finished those conditions. For juvenile offenses that would have been felonies as an adult, the wait is three years. Every court-ordered fee, fine, restitution amount, and lien tied to the disqualifying offense must be paid before applying.

The applicant then has to prove rehabilitation by clear and convincing evidence. The agency weighs the circumstances of the offense, how much time has passed, harm to any victim, and the applicant’s conduct since. The burden sits entirely on the applicant.

What Employers Must Do Under the FCRA

When a Florida employer uses a third-party background screening company, federal law adds requirements on top of whatever Florida requires. The Fair Credit Reporting Act controls the process.

Disclosure and Consent

Before pulling a consumer report for employment, the employer has to give the applicant a clear written disclosure in a standalone document that a background report may be obtained, and the applicant has to authorize it in writing.⁷ Standalone means standalone. Tucking the disclosure into a job application form violates the statute.⁸

Adverse Action Notices

If an employer plans to reject an applicant based even in part on a background report, the law requires two notices. First a pre-adverse action notice with a copy of the report and a summary of the applicant’s FCRA rights, giving the applicant a reasonable window to review and dispute. Then, if the employer still rejects, a final adverse action notice that names the consumer reporting agency, states that the agency didn’t make the hiring decision, and tells the applicant they can get a free copy of the report within 60 days and dispute anything wrong in it.⁹ Skipping either notice is one of the most common FCRA failures and opens the employer up to private lawsuits.

The Seven-Year Reporting Limit

Consumer reporting agencies generally can’t report arrest records, civil judgments, or other adverse items older than seven years. Criminal convictions have no time cap and can be reported indefinitely.¹⁰ The seven-year limit on non-conviction adverse items also drops away for positions paying $75,000 or more per year.

Arrests, Convictions, and Hiring Decisions

Florida has no statewide ban-the-box law for private employers, so most private companies can ask about criminal history right on the initial application. A handful of Florida municipalities have adopted local fair-chance ordinances, but those apply only within their jurisdictions.

Florida law lets employers consider arrests that didn’t result in a conviction unless the record has been sealed or expunged. Federal EEOC guidance is more cautious: an arrest by itself doesn’t prove criminal conduct, so an employer can’t refuse to hire someone just because they were arrested. The employer can look into the underlying conduct and ask the applicant to explain.¹¹

For convictions, the EEOC recommends assessing three factors: how serious the offense was, how much time has passed since the conviction or the end of the sentence, and how the offense relates to the job.¹¹ Blanket no-hire policies for any criminal record can create disparate impact liability under Title VII if they disproportionately screen out applicants by race or national origin.¹²

Sealing or Expunging a Florida Record

Florida treats sealing and expungement as two related but distinct remedies. Both hide the record from most background checks. They differ in what the record physically becomes and where you still have to disclose it.

Sealing

A sealed record is confidential and exempt from public records requests, though criminal justice agencies and certain state licensing bodies can still see it. To qualify, the applicant must not have been found guilty of the offense, must have completed any court supervision, must never have had a prior record sealed or expunged, and must pay a $75 fee to the FDLE for a certificate of eligibility.¹³ Sealing covers one arrest or one incident, though directly related arrests can be included.

With a sealed record, you can lawfully deny the arrest on most job applications. You still have to disclose it when applying to a criminal justice agency, seeking Florida Bar admission, or applying at certain state agencies including the Department of Children and Families and the Department of Education.¹³

Expungement

Expungement goes further. A court order to expunge directs every criminal justice agency holding the record to physically destroy or obliterate it. The FDLE keeps a confidential copy, exempt from public disclosure.¹⁴

The disclosure exceptions for expungement are the ones to watch. You must still disclose the expunged record when applying for employment with a criminal justice agency, seeking Florida Bar admission, appearing as a defendant in a criminal prosecution, applying to work with or be licensed by state agencies overseeing children, the elderly, or people with disabilities, seeking a job with the Department of Education or a school, or applying to serve as a court-appointed guardian.¹⁴ These are largely the same categories Level 2 screening exists to cover.

Where Other Rules Take Over

Two contexts sit outside the standard employment framework and are easy to overlook.

Landlords in Florida can screen for credit, prior evictions, and criminal records, and they can charge a screening fee (Florida law does not cap it). If they use a third-party screening company, they owe applicants the same FCRA disclosure and adverse action notices an employer does. Blanket criminal-record denials in housing carry disparate impact exposure under the federal Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability.

Anyone applying for a job at an FDIC-insured bank faces an additional federal screen under Section 19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, which bars people convicted of crimes involving dishonesty, breach of trust, or money laundering from working at or participating in the affairs of an insured institution. Pretrial diversion for a covered offense counts too.¹⁵ This federal bar applies on its own terms, whether or not Florida’s Level 2 rules also cover the position.

1
Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Criminal History Record Check Fee Schedule
2
Florida Department of Law Enforcement. State of Florida Criminal History Record Check
3
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes Chapter 119
4
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes Chapter 435
5
Justia Law. Florida Statutes 435.04 – Level 2 Screening Standards
6
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 435.07 – Exemptions From Disqualification
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 15 Section 1681b
8
Federal Trade Commission. Background Checks on Prospective Employees – Keep Required Disclosures Simple
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 15 Section 1681m
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 15 Section 1681c
11
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Arrest and Conviction Records – Resources for Job Seekers, Workers and Employers
12
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
13
Justia Law. Florida Statutes 943.059 – Court-Ordered Sealing of Criminal History Records
14
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 943.0585 – Court-Ordered Expunction of Criminal History Records
15
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Your Guide to Section 19