Texas Background Check Guide · 2025
From a healthcare role at Houston Methodist or Baylor Scott & White, an oilfield position in the Permian Basin, a tech job at Dell or AT&T, or a teaching license through TEA, every Texas employer is pulling your record through the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Records Division (CRD). DPS runs the state's Computerized Criminal History (CCH) system, and you can search it on yourself for $1 per credit.
This guide explains how Texas's record system works, what shows up, and how the state's two-track record-clearing framework, expunction (Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 55A) and nondisclosure (Government Code Chapter 411), affects what employers can see.
Texas has 254 counties, each with its own court system feeding records into DPS, plus more than 2,500 city police departments. With that scale, errors and disposition gaps are common. The DPS CCH search is the cheapest official source, $1 per credit, and there's no faster way to see what employers will actually pull.
Common Texas errors: cases listed as "active" long after dismissal, deferred adjudications that should be eligible for nondisclosure but were never sealed, and identity-confusion matches in counties with common names. Catching these before a Texas Workforce Commission–regulated background check is much easier than disputing them.
This matters more in Texas than almost any other state. Expunction orders and nondisclosure orders from Texas district courts have to be transmitted to DPS, and any other agencies that hold the record, to actually clear or seal the record. The transmission isn't always clean. Running a self-check 60 days after an order confirms it actually worked.
Texas's massive healthcare, energy, and tech sectors all run thorough background checks. Licensing boards for nursing, medicine, real estate, security, and many other professions require DPS + FBI fingerprint-based checks. Knowing what's on your record beforehand lets you address concerns through Texas's individualized-assessment requirements.
Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio have some of the tightest rental markets in the country, and landlords lean heavily on commercial screening reports built on DPS and county court data. Fixing errors at the source produces cleaner reports going forward.
Felony convictions and most Class A and B misdemeanor convictions processed in Texas district, county, and municipal courts appear on the DPS CCH record unless expunged or sealed. The report shows offense, court, conviction date, and sentence.
Arrest records, including arrests not leading to conviction, appear on the DPS CCH record. Under CCP Chapter 55A, non-conviction arrests are eligible for full expunction.
Texas's deferred adjudication procedure (CCP Article 42A.101) lets a defendant complete community supervision without a formal conviction being entered. Completed deferred adjudications appear on the DPS record but are eligible for nondisclosure under Government Code Chapter 411.
Open and pending charges appear on the DPS CCH record. If a case was dismissed and the disposition wasn't transmitted to DPS, the record may still show "pending" until corrected.
Federal court records, out-of-state convictions, juvenile records (generally restricted), most traffic offenses (excluding DWI), and civil cases fall outside the DPS CCH system. A complete personal check usually combines the state report with federal and multi-state sources.
Create an account at securesite.dps.texas.gov/dpswebsite/criminalhistory, purchase search credits ($1 each, plus 2.25% credit card surcharge + $0.25 transaction fee), and run name-based searches against the CCH database. This is the same source most Texas employers and landlords use for name-based checks. Results are returned instantly.
For licensed professions and the most accurate record, register for a fingerprint-based DPS + FBI check through the FACT Clearinghouse at securesite.dps.texas.gov/Clearinghouse. Total cost: approximately $28–$40 including the IDEMIA fingerprinting fee. Viewing your record after submission costs $1 per 31-day window.
Texas counties run their own court record systems. Harris (Houston), Dallas, Tarrant (Fort Worth), and Travis (Austin) counties offer free online case searches. This catches case histories that may not yet be in DPS CCH.
For a single report combining Texas DPS data with federal courts, multi-state records, and sex offender registries, a professional service is fastest. Background-Check.com consolidates all of this in one report.
For nationwide coverage based on fingerprints, request an Identity History Summary directly from the FBI. Useful if you've lived or been arrested in multiple states.
Texas calls full record destruction "expunction." It's available only for non-conviction situations. Eligibility includes:
Convictions, including deferred adjudications that completed without dismissal, cannot be expunged. Expunction is petition-based.
For convictions and deferred adjudications, Texas offers "orders of nondisclosure" that seal the record from public view (including from most private employers and landlords). Available for:
SB 1902 (2017) significantly expanded nondisclosure eligibility. Some nondisclosures are now automatic for first-time misdemeanants who complete probation. Sealed records remain accessible to law enforcement, licensing agencies, and some other regulated entities.
Texas has no statewide Ban the Box law. Private employers can ask about criminal history on initial job applications. Local fair-chance ordinances exist in:
Third-party background checks in Texas are governed by the FCRA: written consent required, pre-adverse-action notice required, right to dispute errors, and 7-year cap on non-conviction reporting.
Texas's consumer report law mirrors many FCRA protections at the state level and adds additional restrictions on the reporting of certain non-conviction information.
Yes, particularly because of the expunction-versus-nondisclosure distinction. Many Texans believe their record was "cleared" when in fact only one type of order was granted, leaving the underlying record still visible to certain types of background checks. A $1 DPS search on yourself shows you exactly what's still in CCH and whether you need to pursue additional record-clearing steps. The cost is trivial; the clarity is significant.
For a comprehensive personal report combining Texas DPS data with federal records, sex offender registries, and out-of-state convictions, run a multi-source check through Background-Check.com.
The fastest route is the DPS Computerized Criminal History public site: $1 per search credit, instant electronic results. For deeper coverage, run a fingerprint-based DPS + FBI check via the FACT Clearinghouse (~$28–$40), search county court records, or use a professional multi-state service.
Texas has no state cap on conviction reporting. The federal FCRA caps non-conviction records (arrests not leading to conviction) at 7 years on third-party employment reports. Expunged records are removed entirely; nondisclosed records are sealed from most parties.
Records expunged under CCP Chapter 55A should not appear anywhere, they are destroyed. Records sealed under an Order of Nondisclosure (Gov. Code Chapter 411) should not appear on FCRA-compliant employer background reports but remain accessible to law enforcement and certain licensing agencies.
DPS CCH public site: $1 per search credit + 2.25% credit card surcharge + $0.25 transaction fee. DPS fingerprint-based + FBI: approximately $28–$40 depending on vendor. FBI Identity History Summary: $18. Professional comprehensive multi-state checks: $20 to $80.
Yes, when they use a third-party background check company, the federal FCRA requires written authorization. Employers in Austin and other Texas cities with fair-chance ordinances cannot ask about criminal history on initial applications. You always have the right to see any report used in a hiring decision and dispute inaccuracies.