SEARCH Survey on State Compliance with the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA)

April 2009

Summary

Not one of the 47 states that responded to questions in a recent survey will meet the July 2009 compliance deadline for implementing the sex offender registration and notification standards required by the Adam Walsh Act.

The seven-question email survey of the states was conducted in February 2009 by SEARCH, The National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics.

Title I of the Walsh Act, titled the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act or SORNA for short, sets minimum standards for sex offender registration and notification in the United States that, in many instances, are stricter than those established by individual states.

States that fail to comply with SORNA requirements by July 27, 2009, risk losing 10 percent of their funding under the federal Byrne Justice Assistance Grant.

States may apply for two one-year extensions of the deadline. Not surprisingly, almost all of the states responding to the survey expect to file for extensions and a few have already received them.