<p>D has a sealed juvenile record. Previous background/fingerprint checks for employment have been fine. These checks included a job working with children for a city parks and recreation department, and also her college program working with incarcerated youth at nearby prisons.</p>
<p>D recently got a part-time job which required a background/fingerprint check. She has been working for about a month. Last week her check came back DENIED from Washington state police. She has requested the report from the police. We have a letter from the county clerk where her record is sealed, saying it has been sealed and should not be any problem for any future employment, it’s as if it had never happened.</p>
<p>So her employer says she can’t work until this has been cleared up. She needs to bring the police report and the clerk’s letter. She is extremely frustrated and angry. It is also embarrassing, because she had to call some of the people she was working with and tell them why she’s not there.</p>
<p>So the questions are:</p>
<li><p>How could this have happened? How can the Washington state police have access to a sealed record from California? (The check in California was fine)</p></li>
<li><p>She is losing income while this is going on. If some government bureau screwed up, does she have any legal recourse?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I’m not a lawyer or a professional in the field, but from what I understand, only the govt. and the military have access to records that have been sealed. </p>
<p>This sounds like a really weird incident, that shouldn’t have happened. I can’t offer any advice, I’m afraid, but I hope everything will get worked out soon.</p>
<p>Is it possible her records were merger with someone else? This could all be a mix-up and have nothing to do with her records from CA. I would quickly get a copy of the report and see what is goign on.</p>
<p>She will have the report today or tomorrow. It was mailed Monday, we hope. When she talked to someone on the phone, he hinted that it was the juvenile record that triggered the denial. </p>
<p>I called the Northwest Justice Project and got a number for their Clear Line Advice and Referral. They might be able to help.</p>
<p>Update: D got the report which denied her background check. It was issued by the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services in Clarksburg, West Virgina. I checked with the county clerk once more, who assured me that she had called Sacramento to verify that the record had been sealed. I called the Record Sealing Unit in Sacramento and was told they routinely send the sealed record info to the FBI. D has to call Sacramento and I think they will refer her to the FBI in West Virginia.</p>
<p>Now here’s the scary part. The clerk at the Record Sealing Unit said it is UP TO THE FBI to decide whether they will make the information on the sealed record available or not. I thought sealing a record meant just that. The clerk was surprised because the FBI usually seals juvenile records.</p>
<p>D’s employer understands the problem and will clear her to work by the end of the week. Meanwhile she’s lost income. D feels that someone owes her back wages. I’m more concerned about getting this cleared up so it doesn’t happen again.</p>
<p>D has been working part time as an in-home caregiver. I mentioned in the original post that previous checks were OK. I think working with children is probably a higher priority for a background check than working as a in-home caregiver.</p>
<p>OK, it’s gotten worse. Her employer told her to call a local background criminal check place (don’t know exactly what it’s called) and they said even though the record was sealed, they will not clear her because of the nature of one of the charges against her. They want a VERY SPECIFIC description of the charges.</p>
<p>So she called the county clerk in California who had faxed the letter saying her record had been sealed. She said this is a real Catch 22— I can’t give them any specific information because THE RECORD IS SEALED. So she is going to fax them another letter saying that.</p>
<p>I told D that I just might contact a lawyer about this; she says it would be a waste of money. I think I’ll start with the ACLU, though.</p>
<p>Oh, let me add: she was never convicted of the charges. She had 6 months’ informal probation and finished that.</p>
<p>There is something very wrong with what is going on here. Your expereince is contrary to what is supposed to happen. Some people object to the idea of sealed Juvenile records – but if they are supposed to be sealed they should stay sealed to everyone but law enforcement. </p>
<p>I’m glad you are going to try ACLU. Good luck and keep us posted.</p>
<p>I googled and found a California attorney who specializes in sealing juvenile records. I explained the situation-- the record has been sealed, and seems to have been opened.</p>
<p>She told me that even if a record is sealed, the FBI has that information and it is ALWAYS available. This contradicts what the county clerk told me-- that the FBI usually seals juvenile records.</p>
<p>Having had fingerprints denied once in CA and once in WA (and having to have them redone 3x on one occasion), I’d wonder if it’s something very simple, like fingerprints that weren’t taken carefully and thus weren’t approved. (I don’t have any sort of record; teaching in public schools in WA and CA both require a fingerprint/background check.)</p>
<p>Her fingerprints are obviously on file but they are part of the sealed juvenile record. She is planning on a career in teaching, and I don’t want this to happen up again. The CA attorney said it is up to the employer to decide whether they want to hire her or not, knowing she has a juvenile record. It sounds as if the FBI will always make this information available.</p>
<p>You cannot imagine how upset and angry D is. This incident happened four years ago when she was in her “wildchild” stage (sorry, MomofWildChild, I have two of them). She and another girl walked away from their EG boarding school and were classified as runaways. The police found them, and they resisted physically, hence the charges. “Assault and battery” against a police officer is a bit different from attacking a little old lady on the street.</p>
<p>Kinshasa, your problem is that there is state and federal jurisdiction involved. California has the authority to “seal” its own records, but not to “seal” the FBI’s records. So if arrest records & fingerprints are transmitted to the FBI, there is nothing that can undo them. I put “seal” in quotes because there are some other exceptions to the rule or idea that the history goes away. (For example, the California 3-strikes law can count some types of juvenile dispositions as prior convictions or “strikes”)</p>
<p>Also, your understanding of the juvenile procedure with your daughter may be mistaken; you say that “she was never convicted of the charges. She had 6 months’ informal probation and finished that.” A person cannot get “probation” without being convicted of something - but in juvenile court in California, the word “conviction” is not used. Instead the word “disposition” is used – so most likely your daughter went to court and “admitted” to some aspect of the charges against her, for which she received a “disposition” of 6 months’ probation. If that is what happened, it would be the equivalent of a conviction … though, because it is not an adult conviction, it would be truthful for your daughter to answer that she had not been convicted of any crime on an employment application.</p>
<p>But the bottom line is… nothing is really ever erased entirely.</p>
<p>The county clerk used that terminology-- that she had never been convicted and had had 6 months’ informal probation. </p>
<p>When I researched the FBI’s web site in Clarksburg, West Virginia, I saw that there was a form R-84 Arrest Disposition Submission. Following is information about the form:</p>
<p>The FBI defines a disposition as an action regarded by the criminal justice system to be final. A disposition states that arrest charge(s) have been modified, dropped or reports the findings of a court. </p>
<p>A complete Criminal History Record is important to Law Enforcement for investigative purposes. A complete Criminal History Record is also important for non-criminal justice background checks for employment, licensing, adoption, citizenship and firearm purchases. In any of these cases, if a disposition is not present on the applicant’s Record, this could prevent or delay finalization of these proceedings. </p>
<p>If a certified or authenticated copy of a court ordered expungement is submitted with the R-84 Final Disposition Report, please check the box “Court Ordered Expungement,” on the R-84 Final Disposition Report and attach the court order.
An expungement is a deletion of a single arrest or an entire Record. Each state employs unique forms for submitting expungement information to the CJIS Division to ensure the Criminal History Record at the FBI is expunged.</p>
<p>It appears that the FBI can expunge a criminal record. I dont know if a sealed record is the same as an expunged record.</p>