Minnesota Background Check Guide · 2025
Whether you're applying for a teaching license in St. Paul, a healthcare role at Mayo, or a security position at Mall of America, the people reviewing your file already have a portrait of your past. In Minnesota, that portrait comes from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), which maintains the state's official criminal history repository, and the BCA gives you a free, public-facing version of the same database.
This guide walks you through how to run an official Minnesota self background check, what shows up, and how recent Clean Slate reforms have changed which records employers can see.
Minnesotans tend to be practical, and a self background check is a practical move. The BCA's free public system makes it almost trivial to look up your own record, which means there's no reason to walk into an interview without already knowing what an employer or licensing board is going to see.
BCA data is pulled in from every county court and law enforcement agency in Minnesota, plus the Minnesota Judicial Branch. Mistakes are common, particularly cases where a charge was dismissed but the disposition was never updated, or where someone with a similar name was incorrectly tagged. The free public search lets you spot these quickly and contact the BCA Identity Theft and Records Unit to correct them.
Minnesota's 2023 Clean Slate Act expanded automatic expungement to cover most misdemeanors after 2 years and many gross misdemeanors and low-level felonies after 4 or 5 years. The first wave of automatic sealings began rolling out in early 2025. A self-check is the easiest way to confirm yours actually happened.
Minnesota's Department of Human Services runs its own background study system (NETStudy 2.0) for anyone working with children, the elderly, or vulnerable adults. These studies are stricter than employer checks and dig into far more sources. Knowing what's on your record beforehand prevents disqualification surprises.
Landlords in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Duluth lean heavily on criminal history checks. Minneapolis passed a 2018 ordinance restricting how landlords can use criminal records, but the screening still happens. Knowing what shows up, and how, helps you push back if you're rejected unfairly.
The BCA maintains two layers of data: a "public" record that anyone can search for free, and a "private" record available only to authorized criminal justice agencies. Here's what you'll typically find on each:
Felony and gross misdemeanor convictions in any Minnesota court appear on the public side, unless they've been sealed or expunged. The record shows offense, date, county of conviction, and final disposition.
Active charges and arrests are not on the public side of the BCA but do appear on the private side and on the Minnesota Court Records Online (MCRO) system. If you've been arrested but the case hasn't resolved, that arrest is visible to anyone searching the courts directly.
Records sealed under Chapter 609A or auto-expunged under Clean Slate should not appear on either side, they're removed from public-facing systems and restricted on the private side. If you see a sealed record on a self-check, contact the BCA immediately.
Federal court cases, out-of-state convictions, juvenile records (with limited exceptions), most traffic offenses, civil judgments, and credit history are all outside the BCA system. A complete self-check usually means combining the BCA search with a federal records check and out-of-state queries.
Go to chs.state.mn.us, the Minnesota Public Criminal History site. Enter your name and date of birth, agree to the terms, and you'll see the public conviction record. It's free, takes about a minute, and is genuinely the same data employers see on the public side.
For a formal, BCA-issued report, the kind you can hand to a landlord or licensing board, file a Request for Public Criminal History Information at the BCA's St. Paul office or by mail. The informal version is $8; a certified, sealed copy is $15. Mail-in turnaround runs 2–3 weeks.
The Minnesota Judicial Branch runs MCRO at publicaccess.courts.state.mn.us, where you can search active and historical cases county-by-county. This catches pending charges and dispositions that may lag in the BCA system.
If you've lived outside Minnesota or want a single report covering Minnesota plus federal, multi-state, and sex offender registry data, a professional service is the easier path. Background-Check.com runs a 50-state search and federal records in one report.
For nationwide fingerprint-based coverage, request an Identity History Summary directly from the FBI for $18. This is the most thorough check available and pulls every state where your fingerprints are on file.
Signed by Governor Walz in May 2023, with automatic expungements starting January 1, 2025, the Clean Slate Act covers:
Excluded offenses include violent crimes, sexual offenses, and DWI. The BCA handles the sealing administratively, no petition required.
For convictions not covered by Clean Slate, Minnesota's expungement statute (Chapter 609A) lets people petition to seal records. The 2014 Second Chance Act expanded eligibility significantly. The judge weighs public-safety factors and whether sealing serves the petitioner and the public.
Minnesota Statutes §364.021 prohibits both public and private employers from asking about criminal history on a job application. Employers can ask after the initial interview or after a conditional offer. Penalties for violations run from $500 to $2,000 per violation.
When a Minnesota employer uses a third-party screener, the FCRA controls: written consent before the check, a copy of any report used adversely, and the right to dispute errors. State-issued reports requested directly from the BCA aren't covered by the FCRA but are still subject to BCA accuracy rules.
The MHRA doesn't list "criminal history" as a protected class, but the Minnesota Department of Human Rights has issued guidance against blanket criminal-history bans and supports individualized assessment in line with EEOC standards.
The free BCA public search makes the decision easy, there's no real reason not to. Run it. If anything looks off, the time to find out is now, not after a conditional offer gets withdrawn. People most likely to find surprises: anyone with a conviction more than 5 years old (Clean Slate may have already sealed it), anyone with cases in multiple counties, anyone who's ever been arrested without conviction, and anyone applying for a job that runs a DHS background study.
If you'd rather see a complete report that combines Minnesota BCA data with federal records, sex offender registries, and any other states where you've lived, run a full personal background check through Background-Check.com.
The quickest method is the BCA's free public search at chs.state.mn.us. For a formal report, request a public criminal history record from the BCA for $8 (informal) or $15 (certified). For broader coverage, use a professional service or an FBI Identity History Summary.
There's no statutory cap on how far back convictions can be reported in Minnesota. The federal FCRA caps non-conviction records (arrests not leading to conviction) at 7 years on third-party reports. Convictions can be reported indefinitely unless expunged.
Records sealed under Clean Slate or expunged under Chapter 609A should not appear on public BCA searches or on FCRA-compliant employer background reports. If you find one that should be sealed, contact the BCA Identity Theft and Records Unit.
BCA public search: free. BCA informal self-check: $8. BCA certified report: $15. FBI Identity History Summary: $18. Fingerprint-based DHS background study: varies by program ($20–$45). Professional comprehensive multi-state checks: $20 to $80.
Yes, when they use a third-party background check company, federal FCRA requires written consent. Even when they go directly to the BCA, employers under §364 must follow Minnesota's Ban the Box rules and cannot ask about criminal history on the initial application. You always have the right to see and dispute any report used in a hiring decision.