Strengths

• Requires evidence of rehabilitation.
• Created a pre-determination petition process.

Areas of Improvement

• Ban boards from considering arrests, old convictions, and an applicant’s perceived “moral character.”
• Raise relatedness test to “directly related,” a much more stringent standard.

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Updated November 2021

In 2020, Vermont enacted a “second chance” petition process and followed up the next year with a law that requires boards to consider evidence of rehabilitation and the time elapsed since conviction. Previously, Vermont was one of the only states that lacked any protections for people with felony records who wanted to obtain an occupational license.

Confusingly, although the state expressly allows boards to deny licenses based on a felony conviction “whether or not related to the practice of the profession,” if an applicant has a so-called “conviction of concern,” licensing boards must still consider “the relationship of the crime to the ability, capacity, and fitness required to perform the duties and discharge the responsibilities of the profession.”

Statute: Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 3, §§ 123(k), 129a(a)(10) (2021)