Yes, a criminal charge or conviction can put a Texas professional license at risk, but it does not happen automatically and there are real limits on what a licensing board can do. Texas Occupations Code Chapter 53 says a board can usually act only when the offense directly relates to the licensed occupation, and the board has to weigh several factors before it does.
This is a general overview and is not legal advice.
If you hold a license through a state board, a criminal case is really two separate problems running at the same time. One is the criminal case in court. The other is what your licensing board decides to do about your record. They are handled in different places, by different people, under different rules.
Two separate cases, two separate decisions
The criminal court decides whether you are guilty and what the punishment is. It does not decide whether you keep your license.
That decision belongs to your licensing authority. For a nurse, that is the Texas Board of Nursing. For a teacher, the Texas Education Agency. For a doctor, the Texas Medical Board. Many other trades, from cosmetologists to electricians to air conditioning techs, fall under the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR). Each board runs its own process and reaches its own conclusion.
So even a good result in your criminal case does not automatically settle the license question, and a license problem does not get fixed by the judge in your criminal case. Defending the license is a separate piece of work from defending the charge.
A board cannot act on just any conviction
This is the part many people do not know. Under Texas Occupations Code Section 53.021, a licensing authority generally may suspend, revoke, or deny a license based on a conviction only when the offense directly relates to the duties and responsibilities of the licensed occupation, or when the offense is one the Legislature has specifically listed for that field.
The Legislature tightened this in 2019 with House Bill 1342. The change narrowed when a board can use an old conviction against an applicant and added more steps a board has to follow before it says no.
To decide whether a conviction directly relates to the job, Section 53.022 tells the board to look at things like the seriousness of the offense, how the offense connects to the reasons the license exists, whether holding the license would give a chance to commit the same kind of offense again, and how the offense lines up with the abilities the job requires.
An arrest is not a conviction
Being arrested or charged is not the same as being convicted, and the law treats them very differently.
Under Section 53.0232, a licensing authority may not consider an arrest that did not lead to a conviction or to deferred adjudication. In plain terms, an arrest that went nowhere should not be held against your license on its own. That is one of the reasons how a criminal case ends matters so much.
How deferred adjudication is treated
Deferred adjudication is its own category. In a deferred case you plead guilty or no contest, the judge does not enter a finding of guilt, you complete a period of community supervision, and the case is dismissed.
Section 53.021 limits how a board may treat a deferred adjudication that ended in dismissal, so for many people it is not handled the same way as a straight conviction. There are exceptions for certain serious offenses and certain sensitive positions, so this is not a blanket rule. The takeaway is that the kind of resolution you reach in the criminal case can change what your board is allowed to do later.
The board has to give you a chance to respond
If a board is leaning toward denying a license over your record, it cannot just send a rejection. Section 53.0231 requires the board to give written notice of the reason and allow at least 30 days for you to submit information about your fitness for the license.
After the board decides a conviction does relate to the job, Section 53.023 still requires it to weigh more factors before acting. Those include how much time has passed since the offense, your age when it happened, your conduct and work history before and after, evidence of rehabilitation, your compliance with the terms of any supervision or parole, and other proof of fitness such as letters of recommendation. You are generally the one who has to gather and submit that evidence, so the response window matters.
Each board also has to publish guidelines, under Section 53.025, explaining which offenses it treats as related to its licenses. Those guidelines are a useful place to start if you want to understand how your specific board thinks about your situation.
Why clearing the record matters
Because the criminal outcome drives so much of the license question, what you do with the record afterward can matter just as much.
If your case qualifies, an expunction can erase the record of an arrest or charge, and an order of nondisclosure can seal a record from public view in many situations. Clearing or sealing a record can change what shows up on a background check and what a board is looking at. Whether either is available depends on how your case ended and the specific offense, so it is worth checking your eligibility. You can read more about record clearing on our expunction page.
What to do if you hold a license and you have been charged
Take the criminal case seriously from the start, because its result feeds directly into the license question. Find out whether your board requires you to report the arrest or charge, and what the deadline is, since some boards have self-reporting rules with short windows. Keep copies of everything, and do not assume that a dismissal or a deferred outcome ends the matter with your board without confirming it.
You do not have to sort out the criminal case and the licensing board on your own. If you are facing a charge in Collin County and you hold a professional license, you can start with our Collin County criminal defense overview.
Call (214) 982-1408 for a free, confidential consultation about your situation.
This article is general legal information about Texas law and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice about a specific situation, consult a licensed attorney.