Texas Fair Chance Hiring 2026

Austin's Fair Chance Hiring Ordinance, effective April 4, 2016, places restrictions on private employers' criminal-history inquiries. It has never been repealed, and the city still advertises enforcement through its Office of Civil Rights.

Against it stands Texas Labor Code 1.005, part of the 2023 Texas Regulatory Consistency Act (HB 2127), which declares local regulation of private employers' hiring practices void and unenforceable. An appeals court upheld that preemption law, and the cities of Houston, San Antonio, and El Paso have petitioned the Texas Supreme Court for review (docket 26-0521, opened May 22, 2026; petition for review filed June 29, 2026); the State's response is due September 23, 2026.

The honest status is neither dead nor fully active: an ordinance that remains on the books, with a city still advertising enforcement, whose enforceability is clouded until the preemption question resolves.

Whenever an employer in any state obtains a background check through a consumer reporting agency, the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act sets the baseline procedure. State fair-chance laws layer on top of it, never instead of it.

Before the check. A standalone written disclosure that a consumer report may be obtained for employment purposes, and the applicant's written authorization (15 U.S.C. 1681b(b)).

Before any adverse action based on the report. A copy of the report plus the summary of rights, "A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act." The current edition is the CFPB's September 2018 version, published on the CFPB model forms and disclosures page; superseded FTC-branded copies still circulate.

With the adverse-action notice. The consumer reporting agency's name, address, and toll-free phone number; a statement that the agency did not make the decision and cannot explain it; and disclosure of the rights to a free report within 60 days and to dispute the report's accuracy (15 U.S.C. 1681m(a)).