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The discipline map
“Has this contractor been disciplined?” is the question every license check is really asking. Whether the published records can answer it depends entirely on the state — in one, the actions are inside the license record; in another, they are published a year behind; in another, the roster’s own discipline field answers “no” for everyone, including the licensees with actions on record.
Illinois: the channel that works the way people assume
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation records discipline in the same records as the licenses themselves. Among the 4,828 roofing licenses published here, 199 carry recorded actions — 418 actions in all, each printed on its license’s page with its case number, dates and outcome as recorded. It is the fullest channel of the thirteen: the board records the actions in the same records as the licenses themselves, so nothing has to be matched across two separate publications.
Florida: published, separately, and a year behind
Florida’s DBPR publishes its construction discipline separately from its license records, in yearly sets. The two newest sets hold 1,936 actions naming 370 licenses. Matching by license number, 592 of those actions join onto 227 licenses published here — see any of them on the Florida records — and 143 of the named licenses no longer appear in the license records at all (their story is told in The disappearing license).
The lag is structural. The newest set contains no action entered after May 19, 2026, and this site states Florida discipline as published through June 30, 2026 — because that is where the board’s publication ends. A Florida check run today cannot show discipline from the months since, however recent the underlying event. That is not a backlog anyone can clear from outside; it is the shape of the channel, and the through-date on every Florida record page is there so the limit is read before the answer is.
Arizona: a list of its own
The Arizona Registrar of Contractors publishes discipline as a standalone list: 483 actions against 212 licenses, 376 recording a revocation and 107 a suspension. Because the Registrar’s current-license list drops licenses when they end, the two publications barely meet: exactly 2 licenses appear in both, carrying 6 actions, and those actions are printed on the licenses’ pages with the Registrar’s own caution that some discipline is temporary or may be remedied. For the other 210 licenses, the list is the only place the action exists in the published records.
Delaware: the field that says nothing
Delaware’s Division of Professional Regulation publishes a license roster that includes a discipline field. On every one of its 31,319 rows, that field reads “no.” The division’s separate discipline records hold 669 actions in the trades, naming 378 licensees — every one of whom is in the roster, under a field that says they have no discipline. A field that answers “no” for people with recorded actions is worse than no field at all: it invites a confident wrong answer. This site does not use that field. Delaware discipline here comes only from the separate records — 1 of the 8 business licenses published here carries actions from them; most of the 378 licensees are individual tradespeople, whose records are not published here.
California and Minnesota: a bond line and a flag
California’s license records carry no discipline narrative. What they carry, on 1,850 records, is a disciplinary bond line — the bond a licensee was required to post in connection with a disciplinary case — and on 1,818 of those records, the case number itself. That is the whole of what the records say, and it is all a California record page prints: the bond line, the case number where one is recorded, and the board’s own lookup for the case behind it. Minnesota’s DLI publishes even less: an enforcement flag, yes or no, with no type, date or outcome beside it — 3,778 records carry it across the department’s published data, 596 of them among the 11,580 licenses published here. Pages here print the flag as the single dated sentence the records support, and point to DLI for anything further.
Where there is no channel
In the remaining seven states, the boards’ published records contain no per-license discipline at all — Texas publishes its enforcement as announcements rather than as records attached to licenses, and the others publish nothing of the kind in their contractor records. On those record pages, this site prints a pointer to the board’s own enforcement lookup and nothing more — as on the Washington pages, where the absence of discipline on a page means the channel does not exist, not that nothing ever happened.
| State | What the board publishes | What appears here | Reach |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illinois | Actions recorded inside the license records themselves | The actions, on the license's own page | 199 licenses · 418 actions |
| Florida | Discipline separately, in yearly sets | Actions matched to licenses by license number | 227 licenses · 592 actions · through June 30, 2026 |
| Arizona | A separate published list of disciplinary actions | The action, on the rare license that appears in both the list and the current records | 2 licenses · 6 actions (the list itself: 483 actions, 212 licenses) |
| Delaware | Separate discipline records — while the roster's own discipline field reads “no” on every row | Actions from the separate records only; the roster field is not used | 378 licensees · 669 actions |
| California | No action detail in the license records — a disciplinary bond line, with a case number where one is recorded | The bond line and case number, exactly as recorded, and the board's own lookup for the case | 1,850 records carry the bond line; 1,818 record a case number |
| Minnesota | An enforcement flag — yes or no, with no type, date or outcome published beside it | One dated sentence stating the flag, and the board's own lookup | 596 of 11,580 published licenses |
| Texas | Enforcement as announcements, not as per-license records | A pointer to the board's own enforcement information — nothing more is published to show | — |
| Washington | No per-license discipline in the published contractor records | A pointer to L&I's own lookup | — |
| Connecticut | No per-license discipline in the published credential records | A pointer to DCP's own lookup | — |
| Oregon | No per-license discipline in the published license records | A pointer to the CCB's own lookup | — |
| Virginia | No per-license discipline in the published lists | A pointer to DPOR's own lookup | — |
| Ohio | No per-license discipline in the published roster | A pointer to the board's own lookup | — |
| District of Columbia | No per-license discipline in the published records | A pointer to the Department's own lookup | — |
Three reasons a page can show no discipline
When a record page shows no discipline, one of three things is true, and they are not interchangeable: the board publishes a real channel and it records no action for that license (Illinois, Florida, Arizona and Delaware, within their stated dates); the board publishes only a flag or a bond line, and it is absent (California, Minnesota); or the board publishes no channel, and the page can only point (the other seven). A fourth possibility sits behind all of them: the license left the published records entirely, discipline and all. Reading a discipline answer starts with knowing which of those situations the state is in — which is what the map above is for.
Methodology
Sources: the published records of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, the Arizona Registrar of Contractors, the Delaware Division of Professional Regulation, the California Contractors State License Board and the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, and the contractor records of the other seven boards covered here — Arizona’s dated November 2, 2026, the rest November 3, 2026.
Actions are counted as recorded in the boards’ publications; a license is counted as carrying actions when its license number appears in the board’s discipline publication for the same period. Florida’s counts cover the department’s two newest yearly discipline publications, and Florida discipline is stated throughout this site as published through June 30, 2026 — the capped wording the publication supports. Delaware’s roster field is described as it reads in the published records; this site takes no discipline information from it. Where a board publishes no per-license discipline in its records, this study says the channel does not exist in those records — it makes no claim about what a board may hold or publish elsewhere.
More studies
- The disappearing licenseIn some states a revoked license isn't marked — it leaves the published records entirely, and a search that finds nothing starts to look like a clean answer.
- “Active” is a word, not a factRecords whose status word says current while their own expiration date has already passed — counted state by state, word and date side by side.
- Licensed, or just registered?Most Washington contractor records are registrations, Minnesota keeps a register literally named “Registered Unlicensed,” and the two words do not mean the same thing.
- Licensed since whenHow long the current licenses in each state's records have been held: medians, the share held 25 years or more, and the oldest license still current in California — issued in 1950.