Tools · Car Seat
California Car Seat & Booster Checker (2026)
Enter your child's age, height, and weight to see the minimum seat stage California law requires and the first-offense fine ($100). This is the legal minimum — not best safety practice.
California car seat checker
4′9″ = 57 in. Enter only the boxes you have — California uses exit at age 8 or 4′9″, whichever comes first.
Heads up: AB 435 (signed October 2025) adds a 5-step fit test for ages 8–15 and a ban on rear-facing seats in front of an active airbag — but it is not operative until January 1, 2027. The rules on this page are the ones in effect now.
- Child
- Not entered
- Minimum legal stage
- Enter age / height / weight
- Booster-exit rule
- exit at age 8 or 4′9″, whichever comes first
- First-offense fine
- $100
Plain-language summary, not legal advice.
This shows the minimum legal requirement in California — not best safety practice, which is usually stricter, and not legal or safety advice. Always follow your car seat's manufacturer instructions. For the full four-stage rules, front-seat rule, and citation, see the California car seat law reference, cited to Cal. Veh. Code §§27360, 27363, 27360.6 (last reviewed 2026-07-09).
How California car seat law works
California is one of the eight states that actually legislate the rear-facing stage by age: Vehicle Code §27360 requires rear-facing until age 2 unless the child is 40 lb or 40 in. The most-searched question — when a child can stop using a booster — has a clean answer here: age 8 or 4′9″, whichever comes first. California also has a real front-seat law (children under 8 must ride in back, with limited exceptions), which many states only recommend. One thing to get right on timing: AB 435 was signed in October 2025 and adds a 5-step fit test plus a rear-facing-airbag ban, but it does not take effect until January 1, 2027 — so the numbers that govern today are the ones above, not the 2027 version some blogs already describe. The first-offense fine is $100 (rising to $250 for later offenses), before court costs.
This checker shows the California minimum legal requirement — not best safety practice, which is usually stricter — and is not legal or safety advice. For the full four-stage rules, front-seat rule, and citation, see the California car seat law reference.
Car seat checkers for other states
Same tool, each with its own booster-exit rule.