Law / United States / 
Maryland
Criminal history questions on undergraduate admissions applications and campus residency decisions: Maryland Fair Access to Education Act
Md. Code Ann., Educ. §§ 26-501 to 26-506 (Title 26, Subtitle 5)
In force since .
A sensitive categories rule binding public and private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Prohibition, Disclosure, Governance
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- If you are an institution of higher education that receives State funds, do not use an admissions application, an individual application to enroll as an undergraduate student, that contains questions about the criminal history of the applicant, meaning an arrest or a criminal conviction (Educ. 26-502, 26-503(a) and 26-501(b) and (c)).
- If you use a third-party admissions application, one you do not control, that contains criminal history questions, do not use it to disqualify an applicant based on criminal history, and post a notice on your website stating that a criminal history does not disqualify an applicant from admission (Educ. 26-503(b)).
- When you inquire into or consider a student's criminal history for campus residency decisions, do not automatically or unreasonably restrict the student's access to campus residency based on that history, except through a process you may develop for a student convicted of a sexual crime, a crime of violence or a substantially similar crime in another state (Educ. 26-504(b)).
- To deny or limit a student's access to campus residency, develop a written process for determining whether there is a relationship between the student's criminal history and campus residency, and include in it the student's age when any aspect of the history occurred, the time elapsed, the nature of the history and any evidence of rehabilitation or good conduct the student produces (Educ. 26-505).
- When you inquire into or consider a student's criminal history consistently with the subtitle, consider the State's policy to promote the admission of students with criminal records, including formerly incarcerated individuals (Educ. 26-506).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
Who enforces it
Settledness
- As of
What record it asks for
Logging duty
An institution may not use an admissions application with criminal history questions, may use a third-party application only if it does not use it to disqualify an applicant and posts a website notice, and must keep a written process for campus residency decisions. The subtitle requires no log, register or retention period; the written process and the website notice are documents the institution maintains, not records of individual decisions.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
An admissions application is an individual application to enroll as an undergraduate student at an institution of higher education. Criminal history means an arrest or a criminal conviction. An institution of higher education includes public, private nonprofit and for-profit institutions of higher education. The subtitle applies to institutions of higher education that receive State funds.
Section 26-503 of the Education Article bars an institution of higher education from using an admissions application that contains questions about the criminal history of the applicant.
An institution may use a third-party admissions application, one it does not control, that contains criminal history questions if it does not use the application to disqualify an applicant based on the applicant's criminal history and posts a notice on its website stating that a criminal history does not disqualify an applicant from admission.
In making inquiries or considering information about a student's criminal history for campus residency decisions, an institution may not automatically or unreasonably restrict a student's access to campus residency based on that criminal history.
An institution may develop a process for determining or restricting access to campus residency for a student who has been convicted of a sexual crime under Title 3, Subtitle 3 of the Criminal Law Article, a crime of violence under Title 14 of the Criminal Law Article, or a substantially similar crime in another state.
To deny or limit a student's access to campus residency, an institution must develop a process for determining whether there is a relationship between the student's criminal history and campus residency. The process must be set forth in writing and must include consideration of the student's age when the criminal history occurred, the time that has elapsed, the nature of the criminal history and any evidence of rehabilitation or good conduct.
An institution that inquires into or considers information about a student's criminal history in a manner consistent with the subtitle must consider the State's policy to promote the admission of students with criminal records, including formerly incarcerated individuals. The Maryland Fair Access to Education Act went into effect on , after the General Assembly overrode the Governor's veto.
Chapter 676 of the Acts of 2021 (Senate Bill 127) repealed and reenacted sections 26-503 to 26-505 with amendments. The amendments took effect .
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