FAQ Listing

The SMART Office can provide training and technical assistance to tribes, nations and pueblos working toward substantial implementation. Typical methods of assistance have been arranged through onsite assistance, conference calls, webinars, peer-to-peer support and training and community outreach events. If your tribal jurisdiction is interested in receiving assistance, please email [email protected] or call 202-514-4689.

Because every jurisdiction’s laws and policies differ, the SMART Office must work within the framework of SORNA’s final guidelines provided by the Attorney General when determining substantial implementation, and we offer the following guidance to help jurisdictions institute SORNA-compliant laws, policies, and procedures.

The guidelines state that jurisdictions’ programs cannot be approved if they substitute some approach to sex offender registration and notification that does not incorporate SORNA’s baseline requirements. In addition, the guidelines state that implementation programs cannot be approved if they dispense wholesale with categorical requirements set forth in SORNA.

On the other hand, the guidelines do provide that a jurisdiction’s implementation efforts that do not exactly follow all specifications of SORNA or the guidelines may be approved. The guidelines require SMART to consider, on a case-by-case basis, whether jurisdictions’ departure from a SORNA requirement will or will not substantially disserve the objectives of the requirement.

After assessing whether a jurisdiction has sufficiently addressed each SORNA requirement, SMART examines the jurisdiction’s implementation program as a whole to determine if it promotes the overall objectives of SORNA.

Jurisdictions should reach out to the SMART Office as early as possible when developing their SORNA implementation program and discuss specific issues that may arise. SMART will be as flexible as possible within the framework established by the Act and the guidelines, and looks forward to advising each jurisdiction in efforts to achieve substantial implementation.

See Part II.B and E of the Final Guidelines for more detail.

States and territories that fail to substantially implement SORNA are subject to a 10% reduction in Byrne Justice Assistance Grant funding pursuant to 34 U.S.C. 10151 et seq. Tribal jurisdictions that fail to substantially implement SORNA are subject to delegation. Section 127(a)(2)(C) of SORNA provides that if "the Attorney General determines that the tribe has not substantially implemented the requirements of this subtitle and is not likely to become capable of doing so within a reasonable amount of time" then the sex offender registry function may be delegated to the state.

See Parts II.A and II.E of the Final Guidelines for more detail.

Please visit Submitting Substantial Implementation Materials to the SMART Office page.

SORNA requires sex offenders to register and keep their registration current in each jurisdiction in which they reside, are employed, or attend school. A sex offender must also initially register in the jurisdiction in which convicted if it is different from the jurisdiction of residence. Jurisdictions’ registration programs must incorporate theses requirements to implement SORNA.

See Part VIII of the Final Guidelines for more detail.

Jurisdictions must register incarcerated sex offenders before their release from imprisonment for the registration offense or, in case of a non-imprisonment sentence, within three business days of sentencing for the registration offense.

See Part IX of the Final Guidelines for more detail.

A sex offender must, not later than three business days after each change of name, residence, employment, or student status, appear in person in at least one jurisdiction in which the sex offender is required to register and inform that jurisdiction of all changes in the information required for that sex offender in the sex offender registry. This information must immediately be provided to all other jurisdictions in which the sex offender is required to register. Jurisdictions must also require a sex offender to provide notice if he or she is leaving the jurisdiction prior to the move; the sex offender must provide information about the jurisdiction to which he or she is going.

See Part X of the Final Guidelines for more detail.

A sex offender must appear in person, allow the jurisdiction to take a current photograph, and verify the information in each registry in which that sex offender is required to be registered not less frequently than:

• Annually for a tier I sex offender,
• Every six months for a tier II sex offender, and
• Every three months for a tier III sex offender. 

Sex offenders must carry out this schedule of personal appearances in all jurisdictions where they reside, are employed and attend school.

See Part XI of the Final Guidelines for more detail.

The use of the "tier" classifications in SORNA relates to substance, not form or terminology. Thus, to implement the SORNA requirements, jurisdictions do not have to label their sex offenders as "tier I," "tier II," and "tier III," and do not have to adopt any other particular approach to labeling or categorization of sex offenders. Rather, the SORNA requirements are met as long as sex offenders who satisfy the SORNA criteria for placement in a particular tier are consistently subject to at least the same minimum duration of registration, frequency of in-person appearances for verification, and extent of website disclosure that SORNA requires for that tier.

Tier I: Predicate offenses include whatever offenses do not support a higher classification, such as misdemeanor registration offenses and child pornography possession.

Tier II: Predicate offenses include most felonious sexual abuse or sexual exploitation crimes involving victims who are minors, including distribution and production of child pornography.

Tier III: Predicate offenses generally encompass sexual assaults involving sexual acts regardless of victim age, sexual contact offenses against children below the age of 13, nonparental kidnapping of minors, and attempts or conspiracies to commit such offenses.

See Part V of the Final Guidelines for more detail.

A sex offender must, not later than three business days after each change of name, residence, employment, or student status, appear in person in at least one jurisdiction in which the sex offender is required to register and inform that jurisdiction of all changes in the information required for that sex offender in the sex offender registry.