FOR BACKGROUND SCREENING COMPANIES
Give your clients a consistent starting point for adjudication.
The Bushway Opportunity Score™ is a research-based measure your clients can receive alongside your background reports. It connects to the system you already use. We don’t pull records, and we don’t compete with you.
The problem your clients bring to you
Your client gets back a report with a conviction on it, and then someone has to decide what it means. Two reviewers can read the same record and reach opposite decisions.
Large employers have adjudication teams. Many of your clients don’t. They need a starting point that is the same every time, and that they can explain later.
What the score is
- What it measures
- Modeled risk of reconviction within the next year, estimated from the facts of a conviction record.
- Where it comes from
- Peer-reviewed research by criminologist Dr. Shawn D. Bushway and colleagues, published with RAND. It is a published statistical model, not AI.
- What it is not
- It is decision support. It never makes the hiring decision; your client does. Bushway Works does not publish or endorse any cutoff.
It uses only a few facts from the report:
- Age at screening
- Age at first and at most recent conviction
- Time since the most recent conviction
- Number of felony and misdemeanor convictions
Never name, race, gender, address or Social Security number. Convictions only: no arrests, dismissed charges or pending cases. The charge itself is not an input.
How the score fits into your platform
The score is data, not just a document. Your platform sends a few facts from the report to Bushway Works through a secure connection (an API), and the score comes back in seconds as structured data your systems can use wherever your workflow needs it.
- 1Your client orders a background check from you, as usual.
- 2When the report shows a conviction, your platform sends a few facts to Bushway Works.
- 3The score comes back in seconds as structured data, with a case record that explains it.
- 4You decide where it appears: in your adjudication dashboard, in your client portal, in the candidate’s file in their hiring system, or as a separate case record.
Your report itself is never changed. The score sits beside it, as its own data and its own record.
Ways to integrate
Use whichever fits how your clients review cases. Most screening companies combine more than one.
Score data in your platform
The score, its score ID, the model version and the time it was scored arrive as structured data. Show it in your adjudication dashboard next to the report, or use it to organize a review queue.
When a record can’t be scored
The response says why, for example that the applicant is outside the validated age range. Your workflow can handle it as its own outcome, not as a missing value.
The case record and audit trail
Every score comes with its case record. Your platform receives the score and a secure link to the full case record: a plain-language explanation plus the audit details of which facts were scored, the model version and when it was scored.
Your clients’ hiring systems
For clients who review inside their applicant tracking system, the score and a link to its case record can be written to the candidate’s record.
Our web app
Clients who aren’t connected yet can score cases directly in Bushway Works Context.
If you run an adjudication platform
Many screening companies offer their own adjudication tools, with rules and decision matrices their clients configure. The score can be one of the inputs those tools use, shown to the reviewer alongside everything else.
However it is integrated, the score supports a reviewer’s decision. It can send a case to a person for review. It should never reject a candidate on its own.
See it in action
Your report stays yours. The case record arrives as its own document.
Same person, same report, two job locations. In Hawaii, state law lets an employer consider misdemeanors from the last five years only, so a 2017 conviction is set aside. In Maine it counts. The case record shows which rule was applied.
- Your background report is not changed in any way
- The case record is a separate document with its own record number
- The rule for the job’s location is applied and recorded
- No name, date of birth, or Social Security number is needed to score
Why it works for a screening company
We don’t compete with you
Bushway Works doesn’t pull records or sell background checks. The score only exists because your report does.
Your report stays yours
Nothing in your report changes. The score is added beside it, in whatever form fits your platform.
Room for your margin
Screening companies buy the score per case, priced so you can set your own price to your clients.
Something different to offer
An adjudication service built on published research gives your clients a reason to choose you.
Try it before you connect
Your team can score built-in sample cases in our web app before anything is connected.
If you also serve individuals
Some screening companies sell background checks to people who want to see their own record. Through our nonprofit partner, Fortasse, a person will be able to get their record’s score free, using a real background check as the starting point. It costs you nothing and can’t be resold. It simply adds something useful to what you already provide.
Start with a 20-minute conversation
We’ll show you the score and its case record on a sample report, walk through how the connection works, and talk about what would fit your clients. Technical documentation for your team is available on request.
The Bushway Opportunity Score is decision support for employers. It does not make hiring decisions, and it is not a substitute for an employer’s own individualized review. Nothing on this page is legal advice.