The FCRA’s most litigated employer requirement is also its simplest: before you order a background check, the disclosure must be a stand-alone document — not a paragraph buried in the application, not bundled with a liability waiver, not combined with anything else. Class actions have been built entirely on employers stapling these documents together.
This template pack gives you both required documents, correctly separated: a stand-alone disclosure that tells the applicant a consumer report may be obtained and what it may contain, and a distinct authorization form the applicant signs. Placeholders cover the consumer reporting agency’s identity and the investigative-report notice where applicable.
Who should use this template
- Employers running background checks through any consumer reporting agency
- HR coordinators who inherited a combined ’disclosure and release’ form
- Staffing and hiring managers standardizing pre-employment screening
- Organizations screening current employees, not just applicants
What it helps prevent
- Disclosure-and-waiver combo documents that violate the stand-alone rule
- Background checks ordered before any authorization was signed
- Missing investigative-report disclosures when interviews are involved
- Authorization language that expires when screening continues during employment
- FCRA class-action exposure built on a single defective form
What’s inside
- Document 1 — Stand-alone FCRA disclosure with report-content descriptions
- Consumer reporting agency identification block
- Investigative consumer report notice language
- Document 2 — Separate authorization for background investigation
- Duration language covering candidacy and ongoing employment
- Editable Word format with bracketed placeholders
Before you process payroll, terminate, classify, deduct, or respond to a claim, get the decision reviewed.
Faulkner HR Solutions helps Texas employers, nonprofits, municipalities, and growing businesses fix the people systems behind recurring workplace problems. If this resource raised a risk flag, do not guess your way through the next step.