The City of San Antonio, Texas recently approved a new Ban-the-Box ordinance. This ordinance is titled the, “Fair Chance Hiring Ordinance,” and was signed into law by the San Antonio City Governance Committee on December 7, 2016 and goes into effect immediately. This ordinance is designed to prevent City policies or the City of San Antonio hiring managers from requiring a job applicant to disclose criminal history, or from the City performing criminal background checks, until after a conditional offer of employment has been made to the applicant. This extends to all City jobs unless law prescribes otherwise. The aim of this ordinance is described by Councilman Rey Saldana to, “…eliminate any discrimination of qualified job applicants because of their criminal past and encourage ex-offenders to apply for city jobs.” The City Council is preparing to now begin work to extend this ordinance to all employers in the coming months, private and public.
For further detailed information on the subject, please view the following sources: