Florida Level 2 Background Screening: Statute 435.04 Disqualifiers

A Florida Level 2 background screening is a fingerprint-based criminal history check required under Chapter 435 for anyone working in a position of trust with children, elderly adults, or people with disabilities. Your prints are run through state, federal, and local databases, and a single disqualifying offense blocks you from the job unless you obtain a formal exemption. The process covers employees, contractors, and volunteers across healthcare, childcare, behavioral health, education, and other regulated fields.

What Gets Searched

Level 2 is not a name search. A technician captures digital images of your fingerprints on a LiveScan station, and those prints are checked against three sets of records: the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s state files, the FBI’s national criminal history database, and local law enforcement records.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 435.04 – Level 2 Screening Standards The FBI requires electronic submission for the national check.2Florida Department of Law Enforcement. National Criminal History Record Check Because the check runs off biometric data, a name change or an alias will not hide anything.

The screening also searches sex offender and sexual predator registries in every state where you have lived during the previous five years.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 435.04 – Level 2 Screening Standards

Who Has to Get One

Chapter 435 applies to positions of trust across several state agencies. The Department of Children and Families requires Level 2 screening for programs it licenses or regulates that serve children and vulnerable adults.3Florida Department of Children and Families. Background Screening The Agency for Health Care Administration handles screening for healthcare facilities and also runs the statewide results database. Other agencies with screened populations include the Department of Juvenile Justice, the Department of Elder Affairs, and the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (which screens security guards and concealed weapon permit applicants).

Offenses That Disqualify You

The statute lists dozens of offenses that make a person ineligible. This is not a weighing process. A single qualifying conviction, guilty plea, or nolo contendere plea ends it, and a withhold of adjudication still counts. If you have a pending arrest for a listed offense, you are ineligible until the case is resolved.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 435.04 – Level 2 Screening Standards

The disqualifying offenses fall into several broad categories:

  • Violent crimes, including murder, manslaughter, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, kidnapping, false imprisonment, human trafficking, and vehicular homicide.
  • Sexual offenses, including sexual battery, lewd or lascivious conduct, and exploitation of a child.
  • Abuse and neglect offenses, including child abuse, neglect of a child, abuse or neglect of an elderly person or disabled adult, and failure to report child abuse.
  • Any offense that qualifies as domestic violence under Florida law.
  • Any felony under Chapter 893 (Florida’s drug abuse prevention and control law), and any drug offense involving a minor.
  • Exploitation of a vulnerable adult, welfare fraud if charged as a felony, and various financial crimes against protected populations.

Attempts, solicitation, and conspiracy to commit any of these offenses count, and so do equivalent offenses from other states.1Florida Senate. Florida Code 435.04 – Level 2 Screening Standards There is no look-back period. A conviction from 20 years ago disqualifies you the same as one from last year. The only route around a disqualifying record is a formal exemption.

What to Bring and How to Schedule

You need three things before you can be fingerprinted:

  • A valid government-issued photo ID, such as a Florida driver’s license or U.S. passport.
  • Your Social Security number, which is required for electronic submission.
  • An Originating Agency Identifier (ORI) number from your employer. The ORI is a routing code that tells the system which state agency should receive your results. Without the correct ORI, results cannot be processed.

Ask your employer for the ORI before you schedule anything. Then pick an approved LiveScan vendor from the FDLE’s list of registered service providers.4Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Current Registered LiveScan Submitters Most vendors let you register and pay online in advance, and some also take walk-ins. Some employers use a preferred vendor or handle registration directly through the Clearinghouse.

The Appointment and Your Results

At the appointment, a technician takes digital images of your fingerprints. No ink. The images transmit electronically to the FDLE for the state check, and the FDLE forwards them to the FBI for the national check. Results usually come back within 3 to 10 business days. Delays happen when prints have to be resubmitted for quality reasons.

Results feed into the Care Provider Background Screening Clearinghouse, a secure database run by the Agency for Health Care Administration and shared by nine state agencies.5Florida Department of Children and Families. Care Provider Background Screening Clearinghouse Your employer sees whether your status is “eligible” or “not eligible” without handling the underlying criminal history. If you later move to a different employer that participates in the Clearinghouse, your existing results can transfer, which can save you from being reprinted.6Florida Senate. Florida Code 435.12 – Care Provider Background Screening Clearinghouse

What It Costs

Florida law lets either the employer or the employee pay for the screening. Employer policy or agency rules usually settle this, so ask before you book. The government processing fees charged by the FDLE and FBI depend on the agency category:7Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Criminal History Record Check Fee Schedule

  • DCF, DJJ, and Elder Affairs vendors (including daycare workers and juvenile treatment staff): $20 total ($8 state, $12 federal).
  • Agriculture and Consumer Services (security guards, concealed weapon permit applicants): $42 total ($15 state, $27 federal).
  • Most other screened workers (school employees, nursing home staff, doctors, realtors): $60 total ($24 state, $36 federal).
  • Volunteers of qualified entities caring for children, elderly, or disabled persons: $28 total ($18 state, $10 federal).

Those are just the government fees. The LiveScan vendor charges its own service fee on top, usually somewhere between $12 and $45. For the most common category, expect roughly $75 to $105 all in.

Starting Work While Results Are Pending

Waiting on results does not always mean waiting at home. Section 435.06 lets an employer hire you provisionally for training and orientation while the screening is still processing. Provisional status is limited: you would not be placed alone with vulnerable clients during that window, and if your result comes back “not eligible,” the provisional arrangement ends immediately.

If You Come Back Ineligible

A “not eligible” result is not always the end. There are two things worth checking: whether the record is right, and whether you can seek an exemption.

Fixing an Inaccurate Record

Records are only as accurate as the data entered by courts and law enforcement. Dismissed charges, records that should have been sealed, and cases belonging to someone with a similar name all show up in screening results.

If the error is in your FBI record, you can challenge it directly with the FBI at no cost. Identify the specific information you believe is wrong and provide documentation, such as a court docket showing dismissal or an expungement order. The FBI typically responds within 45 days. Federal arrest data can only be removed from the FBI’s file when the FBI receives a federal court order directing expungement or when the submitting agency requests removal.8Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Checks Frequently Asked Questions For state records, contact the FDLE or the originating court. State-level records follow the sealing and expungement procedures of whatever state created them.

Applying for an Exemption

If the record is accurate, Florida law still allows the head of the relevant agency or qualified entity to grant an exemption when you can show, by clear and convincing evidence, that you have been rehabilitated and do not pose a danger to vulnerable populations.9Florida Senate. Florida Code 435.07 – Exemptions From Disqualification

Before you can apply, minimum waiting periods must pass:

  • Felonies: at least two years since you completed or were released from confinement, supervision, or any other court-imposed condition.
  • Misdemeanors: you must have completed all court-imposed conditions, with no additional waiting period beyond that.
  • Juvenile delinquency findings for offenses that would be felonies if committed by an adult, where the record has not been sealed or expunged: at least three years since completing all conditions.

You also have to pay every court-ordered financial obligation from the disqualifying case in full before you can apply. That includes fines, restitution, court costs, and fees.9Florida Senate. Florida Code 435.07 – Exemptions From Disqualification

The application asks for evidence of rehabilitation: character references, proof of steady employment, and documentation that you have stayed out of trouble. The agency considers the circumstances of the original offense, how much time has passed, the harm to any victims, and your record since. Approval is not guaranteed. The burden is on you, and the reviewing agency has broad discretion to deny.

Staying Eligible After You Pass

The FDLE retains your fingerprints for five years. Before that period expires, your employer needs to initiate a Clearinghouse renewal to keep your eligibility current. If the renewal is not requested in time, the FDLE purges your prints and your eligibility ends. You would then have to go through the full fingerprinting process again at full cost.10Agency for Health Care Administration. Clearinghouse Renewals There is no grace period once prints are purged. A gap in employment longer than 90 days also triggers a new national criminal history check even if the five-year window has not closed. Track your retention expiration date and remind your employer; a timely renewal is much cheaper and faster than starting over.

Between screenings, Florida participates in the FBI’s Rap Back service. Once your prints are in the system, they are continuously searched against new records entered nationwide. If you are arrested after your initial screening, the subscribing agency receives an electronic notification automatically, instead of waiting for the next five-year renewal to surface it.11Federal Bureau of Investigation. Privacy Impact Assessment for the Next Generation Identification Rap Back Service Agencies can also receive alerts for sex offender registry changes and warrant activity. When you leave a monitored position, the agency must remove your Rap Back subscription within five business days of the final determination.

Employers register with the Clearinghouse and must report status changes within five business days.6Florida Senate. Florida Code 435.12 – Care Provider Background Screening Clearinghouse If you leave a job, ask your former employer to remove you promptly, since the Rap Back subscription is tied to your prints and should end with the employment relationship.