Almost 10 years ago, as a single mother of my baby boy, I shoplifted some things for him with a friend. I got caught and had to go to court and pay fines. Shortly thereafter(Oct. 1997), I did it once more, had to go to court again, pay fines and go to a 8 hr course at the local jail. I never shoplifted again. In 2001, I was working for a company that did a background check and I was dismissed because of the charges. I went to get them expunged, but they said I had 1 more year, so needless to say, that 1 year went and almost 5 more years and I never went through the proceedings againt to expunge my record. Well, I have just been accepted into a Nuclear Medicine program at school and a background check is required. The clinical sites get to view the findings and decide whether they will allow me to do my clinical there. If one site denies me, I am out of the nuclear medicine program. I am so nervous because I was 19 or 20 then. I am 29, married, with a FT job. I don't want to get kicked out of my program.

Can someone tell me how far the background checks go back?
What is the likelihood that my charges are bad enough to get denied?
Do I have a chance?

Thanks to anyone who can help. I am so scared and nervous because I have worked so hard.

Depends on how they ask, but normally all the way back to show any criminal activity that is on your record, If they had asked about arrests and you were honest on the applications, there should be no problem

What you need to do is list the problems on your application and attach a letter of explanation. You don't say whether you had done so for the job that terminated you. If you didn't you were more likely dismissed because of lying on your application then for the actual charges.

If you are honest and explain the charges, you probably won't have a problem.

It may depend on what state you live in or who you try to work for. I was in your situation. Single mother, shoplifted some clothes for my 1yr old back in 1996, got caught, went to jail. In 1998 I went to nursing school. I have worked in clinics, doctor offices and now I work in a hospital. They all required a back ground check and I have a couple of associates that were denied employment here at the hospital because of their background check. Maybe it depends on what you did.

For the job that dismissed me, they were going to wait for my expungement and let me stay, but since I had a whole year to wait, I told my boss to go ahead. He hired a temp and everything to hold them over. I was working as a secretary for a security company.

Also, I just submitted the paperwork for the background check and I didn't even have to get my fingerprints done. I am confused on that one. It was a short piece of paper that required my name, address, DL#, SS#, and that was basically it. There was no application to submit with it because they have a certain # of clinical sites and they give the background info to them and the site can accept or deny me depending on what the report says and if just one denies me, I am out of the program. But there was nothing to really attach an explanation to. I do have a meeting on the 23rd with an advisor that may be able to help. I am just so scared of my dream being washed away.

I would hate to see them deny someone the opportunity to live a better life based on a mistake made so many years ago. I hope everything works out for you!

I hope so too. Thanks for the advice. If anyone else has any more advice, I would love to hear it. I will also keep you updated on how everything turned out because maybe it could be great help to anyone else going throug the same situation. Thanks again.