Traffic Safety · Car Seat & Booster
Car Seat & Booster Laws by State
The question parents actually search — when a child can stop using a booster and ride with just a seat belt — answered for every state, plus rear-facing, front-seat, and fines. We show what is law separately from what is best practice.
Which states legislate rear-facing?
Green states set a rear-facing age by law. In amber states the statute leaves orientation to the seat manufacturer — so "rear-facing until 2" is best practice there, not law.
Law vs. best practice — read this first
The familiar four-stage ladder — rear-facing, forward-facing, booster, seat belt — is not uniformly written into law. Only 8 states set a rear-facing age by statute. The other 7 (Texas, Florida, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, Massachusetts) require a restraint used per the manufacturer's instructions and say nothing about age — so "rear-facing until 2" is a strong AAP/NHTSA recommendation there, but it is not that state's law. We never dress a recommendation up as a statute.
What is clean everywhere is the booster-to-seat-belt cutoff — but the exit rule differs sharply: North Carolina uses weight (80 lb), Washington uses height only (4'9"), Illinois, Virginia, and Pennsylvania use age only with no height line in the statute, and New York adds a 100-lb affirmative defense. The checker on each state page uses that state's exact rule.
Pick your state
Booster cutoff and rear-facing status shown on each card.
How to read a car-seat law
These laws set a minimum legal requirement, which is often looser than what keeps a child safest — best practice (rear-facing longer, boosters until the belt truly fits) usually goes further. Three things trip people up: the front-seat rule is real law in only seven states (elsewhere "back seat until 13" is a recommendation); the booster exit uses a different factor from state to state; and the rules move — Michigan's changed in April 2025, California's AB 435 doesn't take effect until 2027, and a North Carolina bill is still pending. Every page shows its review date and links to the statute. This is legal information, not legal advice.