Clean Slate Initiative

During the 2022 legislative session, HB 3316 was introduced and passed, creating the Clean Slate law in Oklahoma.  The bill modified Title 22 O.S. § 18 and 19, which contains the process for petition-based expungements of criminal history records. 

The bill contained language that, pending the availability of funding, allowed the Clean Slate process to be implemented within three years of the bill’s effective date of November 1, 2022, however, no funding was provided during the 2022 legislative session (FY23).  

At the time, Title 22 O.S. § 18 contained 15 paragraphs, each describing circumstances that qualified for expungement, ranging from acquittal up to various types of felony convictions.  HB 3316 made 11 of those paragraphs “Clean Slate eligible” and modified 22 O.S. § 19 to create a Clean Slate expungement process, as shown below.  

During the 2023 legislative session, the OSBI received a one-time appropriation for the FY24 budget year, to be used for a new computerized criminal history (CCH) system capable of implementing Clean Slate.  During the 2024 legislative session, the OSBI received recurring appropriations, starting with the FY25 budget year to assist with staffing to support Clean Slate.  

While there is not a clear deadline for implementation, the earliest possible deadline from HB 3316 would be November 1, 2025.  Due to the amount of work remaining to be able to fully implement Clean Slate, OSBI staff have developed an implementation plan that will bridge the gap between the current petition-based expungement process and the future Clean Slate process.  The ever-evolving implementation plan now has two identified major phases, with three distinct milestones or sub-phases identified for the first phase.