Rhode Island employers cannot ask on the application
This is the law in Rhode Island whether or not your record is expunged. It is an unlawful employment practice for any employer to put a question on an employment application asking "whether the applicant has ever been arrested, charged with or convicted of any crime" — or to ask it out loud at that stage.
The rule is part of the Fair Employment Practices Act, alongside the rules against asking about race, religion and disability. An employer who puts the question on the form is not just being tactless. It is an unlawful employment practice.
The exceptions to the application rule
The law names four situations, and they are narrower than employers often assume. The first three allow a question that would otherwise be unlawful. The fourth marks where the rule stops:
- Law enforcement. Applications for law enforcement agency positions, or positions related to law enforcement agencies, are outside the rule entirely.
- A mandatory or presumptive disqualification. Where a federal or state law or regulation creates a mandatory or presumptive disqualification from employment based on conviction of specified offenses, the employer may ask about those offenses. Not about your record in general.
- A fidelity bond. Where the job requires a standard fidelity bond or an equivalent bond and conviction of specified offenses would keep you from getting it, the employer may ask about those offenses.
- At the interview. Any employer may ask about criminal convictions "at the first interview or thereafter, in accordance with all applicable state and federal laws." The rule covers the application form, not the whole hiring process.
The question still comes — just later
Plan around that fourth exception. Ban-the-box does not mean no one will ever ask. It means a form will not screen you out before a person has met you, and that when the question comes, you will be in a conversation, not a checkbox.
This is where an expungement changes the answer, not just the timing.
What an expungement adds
On any application for employment, a license, or another civil right or privilege — and any time you appear as a witness — a person whose conviction has been expunged may state that he or she has never been convicted of the crime.
Not "may decline to answer." Not "may explain the circumstances." May state that you were never convicted of the crime. That is unusual for a law to allow, and it is the practical value of the whole process.
The law also says a person whose record is expunged "shall be released from all penalties and disabilities resulting from the crime."
The five applications where you must still disclose
The law names five, and the list is complete. If you are applying for one of these, you must disclose the conviction even after it is expunged:
- A law enforcement agency position
- Admission to the bar of any court
- A teaching certificate
- A coaching certificate
- Operator or employee of an early childhood education facility
What a background check will show
Once a record is expunged, the office that keeps the records "shall not disclose the existence of the records upon inquiry from any source" — with a short list of exceptions. None of them is an ordinary employer running a background check.
The rule has teeth. Any agency or person who willfully refuses to carry out an expungement, or willfully releases or allows access to records they know were expunged, shall be civilly liable.
A copy of the order goes to any law enforcement agency and any other agency known by you, the Attorney General, or the court to hold the records. Tell the court about any you know of — the filing page covers this.
One thing an expungement does not undo
If you are convicted of a new crime, the expunged conviction may still be counted as a prior when you are sentenced. The record is gone for a job application. It is not gone for a future courtroom.
For the full picture of what the order does and does not reach, see what an expungement actually gets you.
Where to start
Whether any of this is open to you depends on how your case ended, when your sentence ended, and what the charge was. The eligibility checker works through it and names the section behind every answer.
If the job you want needs a license, the licensing rules are separate and in some ways stronger: see expungement and professional licensing.
The law behind this page
- No question about arrests, charges or convictions on an employment application, with the law enforcement, disqualification and fidelity-bond exceptions, and questions allowed at the first interview or after: R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-5-7(7).
- Released from all penalties and disabilities; an expunged conviction may be considered as a prior when sentencing a later crime: § 12-1.3-4(a).
- You may state you have never been convicted of the crime, except for law enforcement, admission to the bar, a teaching certificate under chapter 11 of title 16, a coaching certificate under § 16-11.1-1, or an early childhood education facility under chapter 48.1 of title 16: § 12-1.3-4(b).
- The record keeper may not disclose the records' existence, with a short list of exceptions: § 12-1.3-4(c).
- Civil liability for willful refusal or release: § 12-1.3-4(d).
- Copies of the order sent to agencies known to hold the records: § 12-1.3-3(c).
