Virginia's Clean Slate Act, which took effect July 1, 2026, is not only a record-sealing law. It also redefines how employers in the state run criminal background checks, what they can ask about, and what they must do once they learn that an applicant's conviction has been sealed. The employer-side provisions are the second half of the same statute and they affect every Virginia employer who uses a third-party screening service and every applicant whose record has been sealed under the new law.
What the Clean Slate Act changed for employers
The Act requires employers with fifteen or more employees to wait until after a conditional offer has been made before asking about or running a criminal background check. The same threshold applies to most staffing agencies and to employers using consumer reporting agencies. A background check pulled before the conditional offer is a violation of the law, and the Virginia Attorney General's office has described the change as a "ban the box" expansion.
The Act also requires that any sealed conviction be treated, for employment purposes, as though it did not occur. An employer who learns through any source that an applicant has a sealed Virginia conviction cannot use that conviction to reject the applicant, rescind an offer, or demote an existing employee. The same rule applies to housing decisions under the parallel provisions of the law.
Who is now covered by the rules
The employer-side rules apply to private employers in Virginia with at least 15 employees, all state and local government employers regardless of size, employment agencies, and staffing firms that place workers in Virginia. The threshold mirrors what already existed in the Virginia Human Rights Act for other protected categories, which makes it a familiar line for in-house counsel.
There are several narrow carve-outs. The limits do not apply to positions where a federal law or regulation requires a background check before an offer — law enforcement, certain licensed healthcare roles, child-care positions, and jobs subject to Department of Transportation or Financial Industry Regulatory Authority background-check mandates. The Act also leaves unchanged rules for volunteer positions, unpaid internships, and roles barred by separate statutory authority.
How sealed records interact with the new rules
This is where the law is most often misunderstood. The automatic sealing provisions mean that some misdemeanor convictions disappear from the public record entirely, while certain felony convictions become eligible for sealing through a streamlined petition. A sealed record may still show up in an FBI check, a private database, or a background check run in another state where the conviction occurred.
When that happens, both the employer and the applicant have new rules to follow. The employer cannot simply decide that "the record exists somewhere, so the sealing is irrelevant." The Act requires employers to disregard sealed convictions for non-licensed employment decisions and, in many cases, to give the applicant a written explanation before rescinding an offer. The applicant, in turn, can point to the sealing order and demand that the employer follow the Virginia rule rather than rely on an out-of-state database that does not yet reflect the seal.
What applicants should do in practice
Before applying, anyone with a Virginia record should confirm whether the conviction has been sealed under the Act or whether it is the kind of conviction that needs a petition. The Virginia State Police and the circuit court clerks can confirm a sealing status. Applicants whose records have been sealed but who still see the conviction in a background check should ask the screening service for the source of the report, prepare a short written statement identifying the sealing order, and provide that statement to the employer with the application materials.
If an employer rescinds a conditional offer after seeing a sealed conviction, the path forward is a complaint to the Virginia Attorney General's Office of Civil Rights, which can investigate and impose civil penalties and recover lost wages. A complaint that names the employer, the background check provider, and the specific decision is the practical starting point.
Why this angle matters in 2026
Virginia is the latest state to treat the employer side and the record-sealing side of clean slate as one law. Earlier clean slate states, including Pennsylvania and New York, have run into confusion in the years after sealing became automatic because employers were still able to see convictions in their own databases or rely on out-of-state information. The Virginia law tries to close that gap from two directions: sealing most records at the source, and forbidding employers from using what slips through. The two halves only work together if applicants know both halves exist.