On Thursday, the Pennsylvania Department of State’s Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs (BPOA) released the final regulations to implement Act 53 of 2020, commonly known as “the Occupational Licensing Reform Act.”
Prior to Act 53, thousands of fully qualified Pennsylvania workers faced legal barriers to occupational licenses because of old and unrelated criminal records. As a result, these workers could not access family-sustaining careers for which they completed training. Act 53 reformed occupational licensing by getting rid of outdated criminal record restrictions for the professions and occupations which are regulated by boards and commissions within BPOA. Under the law, applicants can only be denied for convictions that are directly related to the practice of the profession, or where the applicant’s criminal actions demonstrate a substantial risk to coworkers or customers.
The new regulations (Regulation #16A-66: Consideration of Criminal Convictions) implement the intent of Act 53 by limiting the list of offenses to which a presumption of unfitness attaches. BPOA removed hundreds of unrelated offenses from the originally proposed lists. For those offenses to which a presumption of unfitness does attach, their consideration is limited to a five-year period following conviction and may be rebutted during that period by evidence of fitness.
These narrowly drawn limitations are consistent with research showing that the recidivism risk of those with a prior criminal record falls below the risk of arrest for the general population approximately after four years without another conviction for drug offenders and three to four years for property offenders.
Sharon Dietrich, litigation director for Community Legal Services, said, “These regulations will allow people who do not present risk to move on to better jobs and provide better lives for their families. They will also help businesses fill job openings with fully qualified workers. We thank the Shapiro Administration and the boards and occupations for issuing these win-win regulations.”
Approval of the regulations by the Independent Regulatory Review Commission is anticipated at its meeting March 21.
Community Legal Services led a diverse coalition of stakeholders from across the state to protect occupational licensing reform from overbroad regulations that would undermine Act 53’s intended goals. BPOA subsequently released final regulations that will ensure that people can gain entry to the license professions.
According to the 2018 report of a task force on occupational licensing appointed by former Gov. Wolf, around one million Pennsylvanians — about one in 12 state residents — are licensed by the boards and commissions that comprise BPOA.
More than two dozen occupations are regulated by BPOA, from architects to veterinarians. CLS clients most affected by these restrictions work as barbers, cosmetologists and nurses.
