1.3 Background Checks, Fingerprinting & Disqualifying Conduct
Key Takeaways
- RCW 46.82.325(1) requires instructors, owners and affiliated persons with regularly scheduled unsupervised student contact to complete a Washington State Patrol and FBI background check including a fingerprint check, rechecked every five years.
- DOL instructs candidates to pass the required exams before submitting fingerprints, and warns that state and national background results can take up to six weeks.
- RCW 46.82.350(2) authorises denial, suspension or revocation on conviction of a felony or any crime involving violence, dishonesty, deceit, indecency, degeneracy or moral turpitude.
- RCW 46.82.325(2) adds a Washington criminal identification system check at the time of application for any renewal licence, in addition to the five-year fingerprint recheck.
1.3 Background Checks, Fingerprinting & Disqualifying Conduct
[!NOTE] Statutory foundation. RCW 46.82.325 creates the background-check duty. WAC 308-108-070 sets the timing for each category of person. RCW 46.82.350 supplies the substantive grounds on which criminal history can cost someone a licence. DOL's published application instructions supply the sequencing and the realistic processing time.
Who must be checked
RCW 46.82.325(1) reaches three categories: "Instructors, owners, and other persons affiliated with a school who have regularly scheduled, unsupervised contact with students." WAC 308-108-070 describes the same population as "an instructor, owner, or other person affiliated with a school who has contact with students."
The check has two components that travel together:
- a background check through the Washington State Patrol criminal identification system; and
- a background check through the Federal Bureau of Investigation, including a fingerprint check using a fingerprint card.
WAC 308-108-070(4) adds a definitional bridge that owners sometimes miss: for purposes of chapter 46.82 RCW, "a person affiliated with a school is considered to be a person directly or indirectly interested in the driver training school's business." That phrase reappears in the disciplinary grounds, so an unvetted silent partner is a compliance exposure for the whole school.
When each category must complete the check
| Category | Initial timing | Recheck timing | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instructor licence applicant | At the time of initial application | If not checked within the past five years, at the time of the next renewal application | WAC 308-108-070(1) |
| School owner | At initial application for a school licence | If not checked within the past five years, at the next school renewal | WAC 308-108-070(2) |
| Affiliated person with student contact | At the time of initial affiliation with the school | If not checked within five years, within the 60 days before the school's next renewal application | WAC 308-108-070(3) |
RCW 46.82.325(1) states the recheck cycle plainly: "Persons covered by this section must have their background rechecked under this subsection every five years."
RCW 46.82.325(2) stacks a second, lighter obligation on top: in addition to the five-year fingerprint cycle, covered persons "must have a background check through the Washington criminal identification system at the time of application for any renewal license." So a renewing instructor always gets a state-level check, and gets the full fingerprint package only if five years have elapsed.
RCW 46.82.325(3) puts the cost on the individual: "The cost of the background check shall be paid by the person."
The conditional-start rule for affiliated staff
WAC 308-108-070(3) contains the one provision that lets a person begin work before results are complete. A newly affiliated person "may begin duties following the department's notice that it has received an acceptable local criminal background check through the Washington state patrol criminal identification system, pending the outcome of the fingerprint check." This conditional start is available only to the affiliated-person category. It is not available to an instructor licence applicant, who is not licensed at all until the application is complete.
Where the check sits in the application sequence
DOL's published instructions put the steps in a fixed order, and one instruction is emphasised on the page itself:
"You must pass your test before submitting your fingerprints for background checks."
The practical sequence is therefore:
- Meet the eligibility requirements and complete the approved training.
- Schedule an appointment with a licensing service office and take the knowledge and skills exams.
- Gather documents - a complete driver's abstract from every state outside Washington where you have held a licence, proof of completed instructor training, and the application fee.
- Submit the application online through SecureAccess Washington or by mail.
- Submit fingerprints. Inside Washington this is scheduled through Idemia (IdentoGo), the state's electronic fingerprinting vendor. Out-of-state applicants follow the DOL fingerprinting and background-check instructions for mailing prints and for disputing an FBI criminal history record.
DOL then waits for Washington State Patrol results for the state and national checks and warns this "can take up to 6 weeks." A licence is issued only after approval; once the instructor establishes an association to a school in License Express for Business, the printable licence appears on the dashboard within 24 hours.
What criminal history can disqualify
Washington does not publish a mechanical list of barrier crimes with fixed lookback years for driver training instructors. Instead, RCW 46.82.350 gives the director discretionary authority to "suspend, revoke, deny, or refuse to renew" a licence, or impose other discipline authorised under RCW 18.235.110, on any of nine enumerated causes. Three of the nine turn on character evidence:
- RCW 46.82.350(2) - the applicant, licensee, owner, "or any person directly or indirectly interested in the driver training school's business" has been convicted of a felony, or any crime involving violence, dishonesty, deceit, indecency, degeneracy, or moral turpitude;
- RCW 46.82.350(6) - the person has committed fraud, induced another to commit fraud, or engaged in fraudulent practices in relation to the business, including inducing another to use fraud to obtain a driver licence;
- RCW 46.82.350(7) - the person "has engaged in conduct that could endanger the educational welfare or personal safety of students or others."
Subsection (7) is deliberately broad and does not require a criminal conviction at all. Together with the incorporation of "unprofessional conduct as defined by RCW 18.235.130" in the opening line of RCW 46.82.350, it is the hook for conduct that never reaches a courtroom.
Be careful with any source that states a fixed disqualification window such as "any felony within the preceding ten years." Chapter 46.82 RCW contains no such window for instructors. The statute lists the categories; the director exercises judgement within the Uniform Regulation of Business and Professions Act framework that RCW 46.82.285 applies to this chapter.
[!WARNING] Exam traps in this section
- Exams come before fingerprints. DOL states this explicitly.
- Five years is the recheck cycle, and a state-level check happens at every renewal regardless.
- The applicant pays for the background check.
- Only the affiliated-person category may start duties on an acceptable state check pending fingerprint results.
- There is no published ten-year felony bar. RCW 46.82.350(2) lists offence categories without a lookback period.
According to the Department of Licensing's published instructions, when must a driver training instructor applicant submit fingerprints for the background check?
How often does RCW 46.82.325 require a covered person's fingerprint-based background check to be repeated?
Which statement about criminal-history disqualification for a Washington driver training instructor is accurate?