One flawed hiring workflow in Washington can now cost you a penalty for every applicant it touches. Ask 15 people about their criminal history before a conditional offer, and that is potentially 15 separate violations from one bad process. The expanded Washington Fair Chance Act takes effect July 1, 2026. If you employ 15 or more people in the state, here is what changes, where the exposure sits, and how to be ready.
What changed: HB 1747
Washington already had a Fair Chance Act. HB 1747 expands its reach, tightens the rules, and adds real enforcement teeth, on a two-phase timeline:
- 15 or more employees: comply by July 1, 2026.
- Fewer than 15 employees: by January 1, 2027.
It applies statewide. Exemptions are narrower than most assume; HB 1747 adds a federal-contract exemption on top of the existing ones. They mainly cover federally restricted positions, roles with unsupervised access to children or vulnerable adults, jobs where law expressly requires criminal-history review, and law enforcement.
The core rule: no background check before a conditional offer
No criminal background check, interview question, or application checkbox until after a genuine conditional offer. Criminal-history review moves to the very end of your hiring funnel. The offer has to be real, based on qualifications and interviews, not a formality to unlock records.
Postings can say an offer is contingent on a check; that is disclosing intent, not screening early.
If an applicant volunteers a record, you still cannot use it pre-offer, and you must immediately give them a written Fair Chance Act notice and the Washington Attorney General's Fair Chance Act guide. In practice, your criminal background checks now run only at the final stage, which is exactly where KRESS configures the hold.
What cannot disqualify a candidate
- Arrests without convictions cannot drive an adverse decision. The narrow exception is a pending adult charge where the applicant is on bail or released pending trial.
- Juvenile convictions are off-limits, no exceptions.
- Adult convictions count only with a legitimate business reason tied to the role. Blanket bars like "no felony convictions" are prohibited, and you must run an individualized assessment for each applicant. Postings cannot say "clean record required" or similar.
The adverse action process
When a record could disqualify someone, the workflow is four steps, individualized assessment first:
- Run the individualized assessment, weighing the EEOC factors: the nature and gravity of the offense, the time since it, and its relevance to the role. This is your call; KRESS supplies the prompts, notices, and audit trail, not the decision.
- Send a pre-adverse action notice naming the specific conviction, not a vague "information found in your background check," with the report and the CFPB Summary of Rights.
- Give the applicant time to respond, correct errors, or show rehabilitation. Washington requires holding the position open at least two business days, but if you fold this into the FCRA pre-adverse action notice (the usual flow), wait at least five business days before acting. Cutting the window short is a separate, per-applicant violation.
- If the decision stands, send a final notice stating the decision, clarifying the screening agency did not make it, and giving dispute rights, with your role-specific reasoning documented.
An automated adverse action workflow keeps these steps consistent so none gets skipped under deadline pressure.
Penalties stack per applicant
The Washington Attorney General enforces the Act, with graduated penalties: up to $1,500 for a first violation, up to $3,000 for a second, and up to $15,000 for a third or any subsequent one. Crucially, they are assessed per aggrieved applicant, per violation: one flawed workflow produces a penalty for every person it touched. The AG can waive a first violation in favor of a warning, but that is discretionary and first-time only.
Your compliance checklist
Work it in order, locking each phase before the next:
- Audit and clean up. Map every pre-offer point where criminal history is asked about or checked, and fix job postings that reference it.
- Templates and vendor alignment. Build a pre-adverse action notice, a voluntary-disclosure notice paired with the AG's guide, and a final decision form. Confirm your provider can hold checks until a conditional offer and support the two-business-day window. KRESS provides these as configurable templates.
- Policies, criteria, and training. Update hiring policies and offer letters, define job-relevance criteria per role in advance, and train everyone who interviews or hires.
- Pre-launch validation. Run a mock adverse action end-to-end, and confirm your ATS and screening integrations do not auto-trigger a check at the application stage.
Ongoing: add a second-party QA review of every adverse action decision before it reaches the applicant.
Where KRESS fits
Your partner has to hold the check until the conditional offer, run adverse action workflows with mandatory hold periods, and produce the documentation HB 1747 requires. The assessment stays your decision; KRESS gives you accurate, human-reviewed records and the audit trail behind it. Automated-only screening misses the context that protects an assessment when challenged, like an expunged record that should not appear, which is why human verification matters.
Frequently asked questions
When does it take effect? July 1, 2026 for employers with 15 or more employees, and January 1, 2027 for those with fewer than 15.
Are any employers exempt? A handful, narrower than most assume: federally restricted positions, roles with unsupervised access to children or vulnerable adults, positions where law expressly requires criminal-history consideration, and law enforcement. Confirm with counsel before relying on one.
What are the penalties? Per aggrieved person, per violation: up to $1,500 (first), $3,000 (second), and $15,000 (third or later). A first violation may be waived at the AG's discretion.
Before July 1
July 1 is close, and penalties stack per applicant, so one unfixed workflow can scale fast. If you hire in Washington, pressure-test your post-offer timing and adverse action workflow now. Request a compliance review and we will flag any gaps before the deadline.