Adopting or fostering with a criminal record
This is the page where we most often have to tell people something they do not want to hear, and where getting it wrong would do the most harm.
How the process works
Anyone seeking to foster or adopt through the California system goes through resource family approval, which includes a fingerprint-based criminal background check of every adult in the home. That check is run under the community care licensing framework, not under ordinary employment rules.
Exemptions
There is a criminal record exemption process. For many convictions, a person can seek an exemption by showing rehabilitation, and exemptions are granted. The exemption is discretionary and evidence-led: time since the offence, what you have done since, letters, treatment, stability.
For a defined list of serious offences, no exemption is available at all. Those are non-exemptible by statute, and no amount of rehabilitation evidence changes it.
Where a dismissal still helps
- It is evidence of rehabilitation in an exemption application, and it is good evidence — a court has formally found it appropriate to dismiss the case.
- A reduction from a felony to a misdemeanour can change which category the offence falls into, which occasionally changes everything.
- It helps with every other part of your life at the same time.
What we will tell you
If you tell us during intake that fostering or adoption is the goal, we will say plainly whether the relief available is likely to get you there. If it is not, we will decline the work and refund you, because a petition that cannot achieve the thing you came for is not worth your money however technically available it is.
Common questions
Will an expungement let me foster?
Not by itself. The resource family approval check sees the case regardless, and the question becomes whether you can obtain a criminal record exemption. A dismissal is useful evidence in that application rather than a substitute for it.
What offences cannot be exempted?
A statutory list of serious offences, including specified violent and sexual offences and crimes against children. Where a conviction is on that list, no exemption is available.
Does it matter how long ago it was?
A great deal, for an exemption. Time, stability and evidence of what has changed are the substance of these applications.
Legal information on this page was last checked against primary sources in October 2026. California law changes; if you are reading this long after that date, confirm before you rely on it.