Jobs for Felons in Colorado

Colorado's ban-the-box law covers private employers of every size (since September 1, 2021), including staffing and employment agencies. An employer cannot put “people with a criminal history may not apply” in a job ad or on an application, and cannot ask about your criminal history on the first written or online application.

That is all it controls. An employer can still ask later, in an interview for example, and can pull a public background report at any time. Government employers are covered by a different law (below).

The law does not apply to jobs where another law bars people with a specific record, jobs where a law requires a background check, or jobs set aside for a program that encourages hiring people with records.

If an employer asks on the first application or runs a “no felons” ad, file the Chance to Compete complaint form with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) within 12 months. There is no private lawsuit under this law. Penalties run from a warning and an order to comply for a first violation, to up to $1,000 for a second, to up to $2,500 for a third or later.

A felony or other conviction does not, by itself, stop you from getting a public job in Colorado. There are exceptions, such as peace officers, jobs with direct contact with vulnerable people, educators, and the Departments of Public Safety, Corrections and Revenue.

Public agencies cannot advertise that people with a record may not apply, unless a law bars that record for that job. Local government agencies (other than Corrections and Public Safety) cannot run a background check until you are a finalist or have a conditional offer. After that, they cannot hold against you an arrest with no conviction, a pardoned conviction, a sealed or expunged conviction, or a conviction covered by a court order of collateral relief. They must weigh the nature of the conviction, how it relates to the job, your rehabilitation, and how long ago it was.

For licenses handled by boards under Title 12 (many trades and professions), a conviction alone does not disqualify you. A board can generally consider a conviction only for 3 years from the conviction or your release, whichever is later, if you have no new conviction. After that, only if the crime is directly related to the job. To deny you, the board must prove by clear and convincing evidence that your record creates an unreasonable risk to public safety in that job.

You can ask a board at any time, even while you are incarcerated or before you start training, whether your record will count against you. Do that before you spend money on a program. Teaching and some other licenses follow their own rules.

On paper, Colorado law says a background check company may not report arrests, indictments or convictions more than 7 years old (counted from the end of the case, release or parole), and may not report sealed records, expunged records, or cases that did not end in a conviction.

Federal law puts no time limit on reporting convictions, and federal law may override the state 7-year limit, so expect older convictions to show up anyway. The limit also covers background check companies only, not an employer searching court records itself. That is why sealing still matters. If an old conviction shows up, ask legal aid whether this applies to you.

You file a motion in your criminal case. Waiting periods: 1 year for petty offenses, 2 years for class 2 or 3 misdemeanors and drug misdemeanors, 3 years for class 4, 5 and 6 felonies, level 3 and most level 4 drug felonies, and class 1 misdemeanors, and 5 years for other eligible offenses. The clock starts at the later of the end of your case or your release from supervision. You cannot have a new conviction in that time, and you cannot seal while you still owe restitution.

Records that cannot be sealed this way include misdemeanor traffic offenses and DUI or DWAI, offenses involving unlawful sexual behavior, child abuse, domestic violence sentences, crimes of violence, and class 1, 2 or 3 felonies. A listed misdemeanor can still be sealed if the district attorney agrees or the court finds strong reasons.

Get your Colorado criminal history report from CBI (cbirecordscheck.com), then file the court's JDF 612 motion in your criminal case within 20 days of that report, and mail a copy to the prosecutor. The processing fee is $65, and the court waives it if you cannot afford it. If you are denied, you must wait 1 year to ask again. The JDF 611 guide walks you through it.

The state court system seals eligible records on its own, with no filing, once enough time passes with no new conviction: 4 years for civil infractions, 7 years for petty offenses and misdemeanors, and 10 years for eligible felonies, counted from the later of the end of the case or release from supervision. Felonies were added starting July 1, 2025. Crimes covered by the Victim Rights Act are left out, and a district attorney can object. If yours has not been sealed, you can still file yourself.

Once a record is sealed, employers cannot require you to disclose it on an application or in an interview. You can leave it out of your answers and may say you have not been criminally convicted. Employers and agencies that a law requires to run a criminal history check can still see sealed records. Sealing does not vacate the conviction.

This is a court order, entered in your criminal case, that can lift job and license barriers tied to your conviction. You can ask at sentencing or any time after. It is not available for crimes of violence, registrable sex offenses, or some serious-injury felonies, and it cannot lift barriers for teaching licenses or jobs with courts, Corrections, youth services or law enforcement. After sentencing, the extra fee is $30 plus the filing fee, waived if you cannot afford it.

If an employer gets sued over something an employee did, the employee's record cannot be used as evidence if it is not directly related to what happened, if it was sealed or pardoned before the incident, if it was an arrest with no conviction, or if it was a completed deferred judgment. That lowers the risk an employer takes by hiring you, and it is worth a sentence in your interview.

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. In Colorado, your working tools are the Chance to Compete Act, sealing, and an order of collateral relief.