NYC Fair Chance Act 2026 Rules: What Employers and Staffing Agencies Should Check

By BackgroundChecks.com Editorial Team. Updated October 2026.

New York City's amended Fair Chance rules take effect Friday, October 30, 2026. The New York City Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) adopted them on September 15, 2026, to bring its rules in line with the 2021 amendments to the city's Human Rights Law. The underlying changes to the law, made by Local Law 4 of 2021, took effect July 29, 2021. What the rules add is detail: what counts as a per se violation, how the five-business-day response window works, and what a temporary help firm can and cannot do for its clients.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has also voted to rescind its 2012 guidance on arrest and conviction records. The NYC obligations below come from city law and city rules, not from EEOC guidance, so that vote does not change them.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Talk to your counsel about how the NYC Fair Chance Act and the 2026 rules apply to your business.

What takes effect on October 30

The adopted rules update Title 47 of the Rules of the City of New York, mainly Chapter 2. You can read the adopted rule and notice on the NYC Rules site. Changes employers should know about:

• Five business days to respond. If you are considering withdrawing an offer or taking adverse action based on criminal history, you share a written copy of your inquiry and your written Fair Chance Employment Analysis (the rules call the notice the "Fair Chance Employment Notice"), and the applicant or employee gets at least five business days to respond. Business days exclude weekends and New York City legal holidays. The old rules said three. The clock starts when the person has received both documents. You may not permanently place someone else in the role during that time.

• Pending cases and current employees. The rules cover pending cases, unsealed violations and unsealed non-criminal offenses, and they apply the Fair Chance process to current employees, not just applicants.

• A longer list of per se violations. Among them: using any form or application that asks about or refers to criminal history before a conditional offer, even with a disclaimer or a "skip this question" note, unless another law requires it. Also failing to consider additional information the person provides on time, and failing to run a new Fair Chance analysis when the person points out an error that matters to the decision, such as a wrong disposition.

• Decisions in writing. If, after reviewing what the person sends back, you decide not to hire them or to take an adverse action, you must tell them that decision in writing, in a timely way.

• Everything you relied on. You must give the person "a complete and accurate copy of each and every piece of information" you relied on, including any consumer report.

• Exemptions read narrowly. If you rely on an exemption, you carry the burden of showing it applies to each specific action.

The CCHR's Fair Chance Act legal guidance explains the process in more depth. It says the law applies to employers with four or more employees. That guidance was last updated for the 2021 amendments, so read it alongside the 2026 rule text.

NYC Fair Chance Act: staffing agency rules

Staffing firms have their own section in the rules, 47 RCNY 2-04(f). If you place workers in New York City, these are the points to build into your process.

Your conditional offer is a labor-pool offer. For a temporary help firm, the conditional offer is the offer to place someone in your labor pool, the group you select from when you fill client assignments. Criminal history inquiries wait until after that offer.

Judge against the pool, not a single client. When you evaluate job duties as part of the Fair Chance Employment Analysis, you may only consider "the minimum skill requirements and basic qualifications necessary for placement in its applicant pool."

Do not filter referrals on a client's preference. The rules say a temporary help firm "shall not determine which candidates to refer to an employer based on an employer's preference not to employ persons with a specific type of conviction or criminal history generally."

Hold criminal history until the client's conditional offer. A temporary help firm "shall not provide the applicant's criminal history to prospective employers until after the employer has made a conditional offer of employment to the applicant."

Your clients have the same limits. A business that uses a temporary help firm may not make statements or inquiries about an applicant's criminal history until the firm has assigned that worker. After assignment, the client may ask about criminal history, and if it wants to take adverse action based on it, it must go through the Fair Chance Employment Process before doing so. Your firm still may not give the client a worker's criminal history until the client has made a conditional offer. If you and your client may be joint employers, agree with your counsel on who sends the inquiry and notice.

Watch your job posts. CCHR guidance says ads cannot say "background check required," "no felonies" or "clean records only." The rules treat unsolicited statements about criminal background checks before an offer as a violation, and before an offer you may not ask permission to run a criminal background check or reference that background checks will be conducted. That covers recruiter scripts, candidate FAQs and text or email templates, not just ads. You may still encourage people with records to apply, and you may answer an applicant's question about whether you run criminal checks. If you post for many client sites, review every template, not just your main careers page.

Plan for current associates. For a pending case, or a conviction that occurred during employment, the rules permit (but do not require) paid or unpaid leave for a reasonable time while you run the Fair Chance Employment Process. There is a rebuttable presumption that a reasonable time will not exceed five business days.

For a broader view of setting up client-ready packages, see our client-ready screening program for staffing firms.

How to order checks around the conditional offer

NYC law splits screening into two stages. Before the conditional offer, you can verify non-criminal information such as employment history and education. Criminal history, including county criminal searches and national criminal records, comes after the offer. Our earlier post on bifurcated background checks covers this split.

CCHR guidance adds two practical points:

• Driving records wait. Because criminal and non-criminal details are hard to separate on a driving abstract, CCHR says employers must not review motor vehicle records until after a conditional offer.

• One report needs a wall. If you cannot run two separate reports, CCHR says you can internally segregate criminal history so decision makers see it only after the offer. You carry the burden of proving they could not see it earlier.

The Fair Chance process does not replace your FCRA steps. You still need a proper disclosure and authorization before you order, and you still follow adverse action steps before a final decision based on a report. Our Help Center covers what disclosures applicants sign and how to send a pre-adverse notice or a final adverse event letter. Our FCRA compliance checklist for 2026 puts these steps in order. Both processes start before any final decision. Under the FCRA, before taking adverse action based in whole or in part on a consumer report, you give the person a copy of the report and a summary of their rights, and you send an adverse action notice after the decision. Under NYC rules, before withdrawing an offer or taking adverse action based on criminal history, you give the person what you relied on, your written Fair Chance Employment Analysis and at least five business days to respond. New York also has its own state FCRA. Ask your counsel how to combine and order the NYC and FCRA steps.

The EEOC's vote on its 2012 guidance

The EEOC's 2012 enforcement guidance explained how the agency applied Title VII to arrest and conviction records. It discussed the nature of the offense, the time since the offense, and the nature of the job, along with individualized assessment. In a press release dated October 29, 2026, the EEOC announced that the Commission voted to rescind its 2012 guidance on arrest and conviction records, effective immediately. Ask your counsel what it means for hiring outside NYC.

For NYC hiring, the result does not change your checklist. The Fair Chance Act is part of the New York City Human Rights Law, and the CCHR rules take effect on October 30 regardless of the EEOC's vote. If you hire in other states or cities, check their fair chance laws with your counsel too. Federal guidance and local law are separate.

EEOC guidance explains how the agency applies the law; it is not the law itself. Title VII contains a disparate impact provision (42 U.S.C. 2000e-2(k)), and the Supreme Court recognized disparate impact claims in Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424 (1971). Changes to guidance do not change that statute, or state and local fair chance laws. Ask your counsel what any change means for your screening policies.

What to do this week

1. Pull every job post, application and offer template used for NYC roles, including client-specific versions. Remove criminal history questions and "background check required" language.

2. Confirm your conditional offer step for each worker type. For staffing, that is the labor-pool offer.

3. Set your packages so criminal components and driving records run after the conditional offer, and decide who on your team can see results.

4. Update your Fair Chance analysis steps for the five-business-day window, written decisions, and a fresh analysis when someone shows a material error.

5. Brief your client-facing team. They should not share criminal history with a client before the client's conditional offer, and they should not decide which candidates to refer based on a client's preference against a type of conviction or criminal history generally.

6. Have counsel review your notices and your process before October 30.

Set up your order flow before October 30

Trusted by over 100,000 companies. BackgroundChecks.com is PBSA-accredited, and our disclosures, forms and notices are FCRA-compliant. Most reports return in under 48 hours. Speed helps only when the order happens at the right step, so set up your packages to match the two-stage NYC process. We provide the background report. The Fair Chance Employment Analysis and the hiring decision are yours, and we do not provide legal advice, so consult your own counsel. Read an independent review of BackgroundChecks.com on TechRadar, or create an account and talk with our team about your staffing workflow. See more on our staffing and recruiting page and in our resources for employers.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Talk to your counsel about how these rules apply to you.

FAQ

What do the NYC Fair Chance Act 2026 rules change?

The CCHR rules that take effect October 30, 2026 align the city's rules with the 2021 amendments to the Human Rights Law. They reflect the minimum of five business days for a response, cover pending cases and current employees, list more per se violations, and require you to tell the person in writing if, after reviewing their response, you decide not to hire them or to take an adverse action.

How does the NYC Fair Chance Act apply to a staffing agency?

A temporary help firm's conditional offer is the offer to place someone in its labor pool. When it evaluates job duties in its Fair Chance Employment Analysis, the firm can consider only the minimum skill requirements and basic qualifications for that pool. It may not decide which candidates to refer based on a client's preference not to employ people with a specific type of conviction or criminal history generally, and it may not share criminal history with a client before the client makes a conditional offer.

Has the EEOC criminal background check guidance been rescinded?

Yes. In a press release dated October 29, 2026, the EEOC announced that the Commission voted to rescind its 2012 guidance on arrest and conviction records, effective immediately. Ask your counsel what it means for hiring outside NYC.

Do NYC employers still need the Fair Chance process if the EEOC guidance changes?

Yes. The Fair Chance Act is city law, and the CCHR rules apply on their own terms. A change to federal guidance does not, by itself, change NYC requirements.