I can't speak to your State's law. In my state, there are exemptions to an expungment. We don't have a sealing procedure so I expect that our expungment procedure might to be somewhere in between.
What I can tell you is that the title of a law is often the worst tool to determine what it actually does. Just because the dictionary definition of a word support an argument that the law means X doesn't make it so. This is particularly true after the law has been on the books for a while and has been tinkered with.
I note that page 4 of the Illinois PD's FAWs says:
"No, and it is against the law for employers orI have to tell employers about it? potential employers (except those specifically allowed by law) to ask you whether you ever had any records expunged or sealed."
the FAQs go on to say:
"You don't have to disclose the expunged conviction unless the law requires it on occupational licensing forms."
I can tell you that a Michigan law license application specifically asks about arrests not leading to conviction and expunged/pardoned convictions.
By the way, the Illinois manual is very well done. I forwarded a copy of the same to a friend who is the Director of the State Appellate Defender's Office in Detroit with a suggestion that they might want to use it as a model for their Michigan version of the same.
Note the parenthetical notation. I posted your position on a lawyer's listserv with a number of Illinois lawyers on it. I will