{"id":544,"date":"2016-05-19T20:34:16","date_gmt":"2016-05-19T20:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/?p=544"},"modified":"2016-05-25T20:21:41","modified_gmt":"2016-05-25T20:21:41","slug":"banthebox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/19\/banthebox\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Certification Applications \u201cBan the Box\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_546\" style=\"width: 250px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-546\" class=\"wp-image-546 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/RLK_3462-250x313.jpg\" alt=\"Richard Bar\" width=\"240\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/RLK_3462-250x313.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/RLK_3462-768x960.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/RLK_3462-700x875.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/RLK_3462-120x150.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-546\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richard Bar<\/p><\/div>\n<h4>This post is written by guest blogger and principal at\u00a0GKG Law, P.C.,\u00a0<strong>Richard Bar<\/strong>.<\/h4>\n<p>Employers looking to hire are increasingly concerned about \u201cban the box\u201d laws.\u00a0 These laws prevent employers from asking job applicants about certain types of criminal history background questions during the job application stage (although those types of questions can be asked later in the hiring process).\u00a0 There are no \u201cban the box\u201d Federal laws.\u00a0 Nonetheless, President Obama directed Federal agencies to abide by the \u201cban the box\u201d principles.\u00a0 In addition, as of December 2015, 18 states and more than 100 cities and counties have passed \u201cban the box\u201d legislation.<\/p>\n<p>Credentialing bodies have become concerned about the applicability of \u201cban the box\u201d principals during the certification application process.\u00a0 While \u201cban the box\u201d laws vary among the different state and local governments, certification bodies are not considered to be employers in the context of the certification application process.\u00a0 Therefore, certification applications are not governed by the \u201cban the box\u201d laws of those states and municipalities that have adopted \u201cban the box\u201d legislation.<\/p>\n<p>But, that should not be the end of a credentialing body\u2019s concerns.\u00a0\u00a0 There are several steps a certification organization can take to make sure its credential applications do not run afoul of laws that prevent the stigmatization of employment applicants and disparate impact among minorities.<\/p>\n<p>Certification bodies should be mindful of the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Certification applications should avoid stigmatizing language. Do not use words like \u201cex-offender\u201d or \u201cex-felons\u201d. If you have to, use terms such as \u201cpeople with records\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Certification applications should avoid blanket exclusions. Do not indicate that an applicant automatically will be rejected unless there is a specific legal exclusion. Do not make statements such as an \u201capplicant must have a clean background check\u201d or \u201cclean background only\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Certification organizations should consider only relevant convictions. Not every conviction should be grounds for rejection.\u00a0 Convictions should have a direct connection to the credential.\u00a0 Consider the length of time since the conviction.\u00a0 Do not consider sealed or dismissed convictions. Credentialing organizations should adopt rules and procedures for reviewing convictions. Create a committee that reviews the conviction reports.\u00a0 The committee\u2019s decisions should be reasonably related to the certification and consistent with past decisions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>If a certification applicant is rejected due to a background check, notify him or her in writing and provide him or her with a copy of the background check.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Give an applicant an opportunity to respond to any concerns. There may be mitigating factors that are worth considering. Or, the conviction record may be incorrect.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Never ask for, or consider, arrest records.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Credit checks should not be conducted unless there is a substantial relationship between someone&#8217;s financial status and the credential. Some organizations may claim that there is a connection between a person&#8217;s credit rating and his\/her integrity.\u00a0 Others argue that a person&#8217;s financial habits are an indicator of how he\/she would handle an organization&#8217;s assets.\u00a0 These assumptions are dangerous.\u00a0 You must ensure that your organization&#8217;s reasons for requesting a credit report are accurate and defensible.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When it comes to their certification applications, credentialing bodies are not considered to be employers and therefore, are not governed by applicable \u201cban the box\u201d legislation.\u00a0 While that is good news, it is not the whole story.\u00a0 Credentialing bodies still have to be mindful about what questions they can ask during the certification application process so as not to be in violation of other applicable laws.\u00a0 A careful analysis and review of your organization\u2019s credentialing application will minimize the likelihood of a successful third party attack.<\/p>\n<h4>About the Author:<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gkglaw.com\/attorneys\/richard-b-bar\">Richard Bar<\/a> is a shareholder of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gkglaw.com\/\">GKG Law, P.C. in Washington D.C.<\/a>\u00a0 Mr. Bar has been practicing law for more than 30 years.\u00a0 He is outside General Counsel to more than 50 tax-exempt organizations with a specific focus on the representation of credentialing bodies.\u00a0 He is a frequent speaker and author.\u00a0 You can contact Mr. Bar directly at <a href=\"mailto:rbar@gkglaw.com\">rbar@gkglaw.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This post is written by guest blogger and principal at\u00a0GKG Law, P.C.,\u00a0Richard Bar. Employers looking to hire are increasingly concerned about \u201cban the box\u201d laws.\u00a0 These laws prevent employers from asking job applicants about certain types of criminal history background questions during the job application stage (although those types of questions can be asked later&#8230; <a class=\"view-article\" href=\"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/19\/banthebox\/\">View Article<\/a>","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":560,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544\/revisions\/560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}