California Megan’s Law: Registry Tiers, Rules, and Penalties

California’s Megan’s Law is the state’s sex offender registration and public notification system. It requires people convicted of specified sex offenses to register with local law enforcement under Penal Code section 290, and it gives the public a Department of Justice website to look up registrants by name, address, or location.¹ Since 2021, a three-tier structure has set how long each person stays on the registry, with the lower two tiers eligible to petition a court for removal.

What You Can Look Up on the Public Website

The Department of Justice runs the public registry at meganslaw.ca.gov. You can search by a person’s name, by an address or zip code, or around a specific school or park.² How much information shows up depends on the registrant’s offense and tier.

Full Address Shown

Registrants convicted of the most serious offenses, and all Tier 3 registrants, appear with their full home address, name, aliases, photograph, physical description, date of birth, and criminal history.³

Community and Zip Code Only

Tier 2 registrants and people convicted of annoying or molesting a child under Penal Code section 647.6 appear with their community of residence and zip code rather than a street address. Name, photograph, description, and criminal history are still shown.³

Not Shown at All

A narrow group of registrants can apply for exclusion from the website. Exclusion is generally limited to cases where the only qualifying offense was intrafamily (the offender was the victim’s parent, stepparent, sibling, or grandparent), did not involve certain penetrative acts, and the offender completed probation successfully.³ Juvenile adjudications are also excluded. Keep in mind that being left off the public site does not end the duty to register with law enforcement.

How You’re Allowed to Use the Information

California law limits what the registry can be used for. The information is meant to help you protect yourself and your family. Using it to commit a crime against a registrant, to harass someone, or to discriminate unlawfully in housing or employment can expose you to criminal prosecution and civil liability, both of which the statute expressly authorizes.

Who Has to Register

Registration is triggered by conviction for any offense listed in Penal Code section 290(c). That list runs from rape and lewd acts with a child to felony sexual battery and kidnapping committed with sexual intent.¹ For most listed offenses the judge has no discretion; registration is mandatory. Some misdemeanors, including misdemeanor sexual battery and indecent exposure, also require registration.

A judge can additionally order registration for any crime, listed or not, after finding that the offense was committed out of sexual compulsion or for sexual gratification. The duty follows the person into California as well: anyone with a qualifying conviction from federal court, military court, or another state must register after moving here.¹

What Registration Actually Requires

A person who has to register must do so in person at the local police department or sheriff’s office within five working days of being released from custody, being convicted, or moving into a new city or county.¹ Registrants living on a University of California, California State University, or community college campus must also register with campus police.

At registration, law enforcement collects the person’s home address, employment information, the name of any school attended, physical descriptors, photographs, fingerprints, and vehicle details. Any change of address, name, or job has to be reported within five working days.

Every registrant renews annually, within five working days of their birthday, whether or not anything has changed. A person with no fixed address is treated as a transient and must re-register at least once every 30 days with the agency covering wherever they are physically present. A transient who later moves into a residence has five working days to register the new address.

The Three Tiers and How Long Registration Lasts

Before 2021, nearly every registrant in California was on the registry for life. Senate Bill 384 replaced that with a tiered system that ties the registration period to the offense.⁴ The Department of Justice assigns a tier based on the qualifying conviction and the person’s criminal history.

Tier 1

Tier 1 covers registrants whose qualifying conviction is a misdemeanor or a felony that is not a serious or violent felony under California law. The minimum registration period is 10 years.¹

Tier 2

Tier 2 applies to serious or violent felony convictions and to certain specific offenses, including incest and a second conviction for annoying or molesting a child. The minimum registration period is 20 years.¹

Tier 3

Tier 3 requires lifetime registration. It covers the most serious offenses, including murder committed during a sexual assault, kidnapping with sexual intent, aggravated sexual assault of a child, and continuous sexual abuse of a child. It also captures anyone previously found to be a sexually violent predator and anyone who commits a subsequent violent sex offense after an earlier registerable conviction.¹ A person placed in Tier 3 based on a high risk assessment score, rather than the offense itself, may be able to petition for removal after 20 years.⁴

Petitioning to Get Off the Registry

Tier 1 and Tier 2 registrants can petition the superior court in the county where they are registered for termination once the minimum registration period has run. The petition can be filed on or after the registrant’s next birthday following expiration of that period.⁵

If no one objects, the court grants the petition as long as the registrant is currently registered, has no pending charges that could change their tier, and is not in custody, on parole, on probation, or on supervised release. When the district attorney or a law enforcement agency requests a hearing, the court weighs the facts of the offense, the registrant’s conduct since conviction, completion of a certified sex offender treatment program, and the person’s assessed risk of sexual or violent reoffense.⁵

A narrower early-termination path exists for some Tier 2 registrants. A Tier 2 registrant may petition after 10 years from release if the offense involved only one victim between 14 and 17 years old, the offender was under 21 at the time, and the offense was not a violent felony or a human trafficking offense.⁵

Penalties for Failing to Register

Missing a registration deadline is a separate crime. The level depends on the offense that triggered registration.

If the underlying conviction was a misdemeanor, a willful violation of any registration requirement is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in county jail.⁶
If the underlying conviction was a felony, a willful violation is a felony carrying 16 months, two years, or three years in state prison. The felony penalty also applies to anyone with a prior failure-to-register conviction, regardless of whether the first was a misdemeanor or felony.⁶
A transient who misses the 30-day re-registration window faces a misdemeanor carrying a minimum of 30 days and up to six months in county jail. A third or later violation becomes a felony.⁶

Even when a court grants probation on a failure-to-register conviction, the defendant must serve at least 90 days in county jail as a condition of probation.⁶

Other Consequences of Being on the Registry

Working With Minors

A registrant who applies for or accepts a paid or volunteer position involving direct, unaccompanied work with minors on more than an occasional basis must disclose their registration status to the employer or organization. The same disclosure applies to accompanied positions that involve regularly touching children.⁷

For registrants whose victim was a child under 16, the rule is stricter: they are barred outright from working in an unaccompanied setting with minors or holding supervisory authority over children, whether as employee, independent contractor, or volunteer. Violation is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in county jail, a fine up to $1,000, or both.⁷

Passports and International Travel

Under the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, registered sex offenders must notify their registering agency at least 21 days before any international travel, with destination, dates, flight details, purpose, passport number, and contact information abroad.⁸ The information is forwarded to the U.S. Marshals Service’s National Sex Offender Targeting Center.

Under 22 U.S.C. § 212b, the State Department will not issue a passport to a covered sex offender unless the passport book carries a printed statement reading: “The bearer was convicted of a sex offense against a minor, and is a covered sex offender pursuant to 22 USC 212b(c)(1).”⁹ The State Department can revoke a previously issued passport that lacks the identifier. A “covered sex offender” is anyone currently required to register under any jurisdiction’s sex offender registration program, and the identifier can be removed only when the person is no longer required to register.¹⁰

Federal Housing

Federal regulations require Public Housing Agencies to deny admission to any applicant subject to a lifetime sex offender registration requirement under state law. The rule applies to public housing and to Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) programs. The determination is made at application: a person on the lifetime registry when they apply must be denied, even if they have a pending challenge to their status. For California, that means Tier 3 registrants are categorically ineligible for federally assisted housing. Tier 1 and Tier 2 registrants cannot be denied housing solely on the basis of a time-limited registration requirement.¹¹ Sex offender status is not a protected class under the Fair Housing Act.

1
California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 290 – Sex Offender Registration Act
2
State of California – Department of Justice – Office of the Attorney General. Megan’s Law
3
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 290.46
4
California Department of Justice. California Tiered Sex Offender Registration (Senate Bill 384) FAQs
5
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 290.5
6
California Legislative Information. California Code PEN 290.018
7
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 290.95
8
Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART). SORNA: Information Required for Notice of International Travel
9
U.S. Department of State. Passports and International Megan’s Law
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 22 USC 212b – Unique Passport Identifiers for Covered Sex Offenders
11
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). State Registered Lifetime Sex Offenders in the Housing Choice Voucher and Public Housing Programs FAQ