Jobs for Felons in Arkansas

As far as we can find, Arkansas has no statewide ban-the-box law for public or private employers. An employer can ask about your record on the application. Plan how you will answer, and seal what you can before you apply.

Under federal law, a background check company can report a conviction no matter how old it is. Arrests that did not lead to a conviction generally drop off after seven years (the limit does not apply to jobs paying $75,000 a year or more). We found no Arkansas law that shortens that for convictions. Sealing is what takes an old case off the table.

Under Arkansas's sealing law, a nonviolent Class C or Class D felony, or most unclassified felonies, can be sealed right after you finish your sentence, no matter when the case happened. A violent Class C or D felony can be sealed 5 years after you finish the sentence. Limits apply, including for drug felonies, felony DWI and people with earlier felonies.

Class Y, A and B felonies (with narrow exceptions), manslaughter, felony sex offenses and felonies involving violence generally cannot be sealed.

The free public copy of the Arkansas Code only shows parts of these sections without a login, so check the current statute, or have legal aid check it, for your case.

You can generally petition to seal a misdemeanor right after you finish the sentence, pay restitution and court costs, and pay any driver's license reinstatement fees. The court is supposed to seal it unless someone shows clear and convincing evidence it should not. Some misdemeanors, including DWI, have their own waiting rules. Check the current statute for your case.

In most cases, once a record is sealed, the law treats the conduct as never having happened, and you may say it did not occur and that no record exists. There are exceptions, so check the current statute before you answer a question about a sealed case for a sensitive job.

Arkansas lists specific serious offenses that bar most state licenses, but a conviction that was sealed, pardoned or expunged does not count, and a board can grant a waiver. You can ask a licensing board at any time whether your record would disqualify you and whether you could get a waiver. Some boards have stricter rules of their own. Check the current statute and ask the board before you pay for training.

Federal EEOC guidance from 2012 warns employers that blanket “no felons” policies can violate Title VII, but since April 2025 a federal executive order has told agencies to deprioritize this kind of case. We found no Arkansas law that stops a private employer from asking about or using a record, so your leverage is sealing and picking the right employer.