Fingerprint Clearance Card: Requirements, Disqualifiers, and Appeals

The Arizona fingerprint clearance card requirements and disqualifiers come from a single statute: you must submit fingerprints, valid photo ID, and a sponsoring agency code to the Department of Public Safety, and you must not have been convicted of, or currently be facing charges for, any offense on the precluded list in ARS 41-1758.07.¹ A criminal record does not always end the process. Some offenses block approval permanently; others block approval unless the Board of Fingerprinting grants a good cause exception.²

Who Needs the Card and What It Proves

The card confirms that DPS has run your fingerprints against state and federal criminal databases and cleared you to work with vulnerable populations. Arizona law requires it for teachers, school administrators, bus drivers, and anyone else working or volunteering on a school campus. Childcare staff, foster care providers, behavioral health workers, home health aides, and certain state contractors need one too. State hospital employees and volunteers must hold a valid card or apply for one within seven working days of starting work.³ If your employer or licensing board hands you an application packet, you need one.

What You Need to Apply

Before your prints are captured, the technician will ask for a valid, unexpired government-issued photo ID. A driver’s license, an MVD-issued state ID, or a U.S. passport all work.⁴ The technician compares you to the photo and descriptors on the ID, so an expired document or one that no longer resembles you will cause problems. If the name on your application differs from the name on your ID, bring legal documentation of the name change.

The application itself asks for your full legal name, Social Security number, date of birth, and a sponsoring agency code supplied by your employer or licensing board. That code routes the background check results back to the right place. Enter it wrong and your employer never gets confirmation of your clearance, which can stall your start date even after the card is approved.² You can add or change a sponsoring agency at any time during the six years the card is active without reapplying.

You have two ways to apply: a paper application mailed to DPS, or an electronic application through the DPS Public Service Portal. Either way, fingerprints must be captured at an authorized location. Law enforcement agencies, DPS-approved vendors, and some employer sites offer the service, and each sets its own separate fee.

The DPS application fee is $67 for standard applicants and $65 for volunteers. The fee is nonrefundable whether DPS approves or denies the card. Budget for the vendor’s fingerprinting fee on top of that, paid directly to whoever captures your prints.²

DPS does not publish a guaranteed turnaround. Some agencies report waits of several weeks, and cases involving FBI fingerprint quality issues or complex criminal histories can stretch significantly longer. Apply well before any employment start date, and check your status through the online portal.

Offenses That Disqualify You

DPS compares your criminal history against a statutory list in ARS 41-1758.07. The list has two tiers. Subsection B covers the most serious offenses. Subsection C covers a broader set of crimes that are still disqualifying but leave more room during the exception process.¹ Convictions, pending trials, attempts, and conspiracies all count. Out-of-state offenses count if they are the same as or similar to an Arizona listed offense.

Subsection B: The Most Serious Offenses

Homicide, including first-degree murder, second-degree murder, manslaughter, and negligent homicide.
Sexual violence, including sexual assault, sexual abuse, sexual conduct with a minor, and child molestation.
Exploitation of minors and vulnerable adults, including sexual exploitation, commercial sexual exploitation, luring a minor for sexual exploitation, and child sex trafficking.
Child abuse, felony child neglect, and abuse or neglect of a vulnerable adult.
Sex trafficking and prostitution-related felonies, including pandering, procuring persons for prostitution, and transporting persons for prostitution.
Most felony domestic violence offenses.

Anyone currently required to register as a sex offender in any state is precluded, regardless of the underlying offense.¹

Subsection C: The Broader List

Subsection C captures serious criminal conduct that falls short of subsection B’s extremes. Common examples include theft, assault, certain drug possession charges, forgery, criminal damage, and DUI-related felonies. Drug and alcohol felonies committed within five years of the application date are specifically listed. Subsection C is long and gets updated. If you have a record and are not sure whether your offense qualifies, pull the current statute text or ask the Board of Fingerprinting.

Good Cause Exceptions When You Have a Record

A denial based on a precluded offense is not necessarily the end. In most cases, denied applicants can petition the Arizona Board of Fingerprinting for a good cause exception.⁵ The process runs in two stages.

The board conducts an expedited review within 20 days of receiving the application. At that stage the board decides whether the applicant has shown that no conviction actually occurred (useful when charges were dismissed or records are inaccurate) or that the applicant has been successfully rehabilitated and is not a repeat offender. If the board is satisfied, it grants the exception without a hearing.⁶

If the expedited review does not resolve things but the applicant is still eligible, the board schedules a full hearing within 45 days. You must attend in person and may bring a representative. The board has up to 80 days after the hearing to issue a decision. Failing to appear without good cause is grounds for denial.

At a hearing the board weighs the overall scope of the applicant’s record, the time elapsed since the offense, the nature and severity of the crime, any mitigating circumstances, the applicant’s degree of participation, and evidence of rehabilitation. That evidence includes completion of probation or parole, restitution payments, drug or counseling program certificates, and personal references. The board may also require disclosure of substantiated allegations of child or vulnerable adult abuse or neglect, even if those never produced criminal charges.⁶

The good cause exception fee is $7, paid alongside the standard DPS fingerprint clearance card fee.⁷

What Happens After the Card Is Issued

Approval is not the end of screening. Arizona participates in the FBI’s Rap Back service, which continuously monitors card holders between application cycles. Once your prints are enrolled, the system notifies authorized agencies if you are arrested anywhere in the country, if a case disposition is recorded, or if you are added to a sex offender registry.⁸ A disqualifying arrest in another state surfaces just as quickly as one within Arizona.

If you are arrested for any offense on the precluded list after your card is issued, DPS suspends it. The same automatic suspension applies if you become subject to sex offender registration in any jurisdiction. DPS notifies both you and your sponsoring agency in writing, including the criminal history information that triggered the suspension.⁹ For a subsection C arrest, you can request a good cause exception hearing while the card is suspended. For a subsection B arrest, the path is narrower and the suspension is much harder to overcome. Tell your employer immediately either way.

Renewing the Card

A fingerprint clearance card is valid for six years from the date of issuance. DPS recommends submitting a renewal roughly three months before the expiration date so you avoid a gap that could interrupt your employment. The renewal fee is the same as the initial application: $67 standard, $65 volunteer.

If your current card shows an IVP number on the front, you may not need to submit new fingerprints. DPS stores those prints electronically and can reuse them if you include the IVP number on the renewal form. Without the number, DPS cannot process the application. The FBI can still reject stored prints for quality reasons, in which case you will need to be reprinted.² A full background check runs again at every renewal, so a clean record at initial issuance does not guarantee approval if your history has changed.

Fixing a Wrong Denial

Errors in criminal history databases are more common than most people expect. A denial based on someone else’s record or on an expunged conviction that was never properly removed is a fixable problem. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, when an employer takes an adverse action based on background information, you are entitled to a copy of the report and an opportunity to dispute inaccuracies before the action becomes final.¹⁰

If your card is denied and you believe the underlying record is wrong, pull your own FBI Identity History Summary and compare it against your actual court records. Misidentification, dismissed charges still shown as convictions, and records belonging to another person with a similar name can all be corrected through the FBI’s challenge process. Resolving a database error is often faster than pursuing a good cause exception for something you did not do.

1
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 41-1758.07 – Level I Fingerprint Clearance Cards Definitions
2
Arizona Department of Public Safety. Fingerprint Clearance Card
3
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 36-207 – Fingerprinting Requirements Definition
4
Arizona Department of Housing. Fingerprinting Requirements and Fingerprint Verification Form
5
Arizona Board of Fingerprinting. Applying for a Good Cause Exception
6
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 41-619.55 – Good Cause Exceptions Expedited Review Hearing
7
Arizona Board of Fingerprinting. Article 1 Board of Fingerprinting – Section R13-11-113 Fees
8
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Privacy Impact Assessment for the Next Generation Identification Rap Back Service
9
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Code 41-1758.04 – Denial Suspension or Revocation of Fingerprint Clearance Card
10
Federal Trade Commission. Background Checks What Employers Need to Know