How to Get Your Juvenile Record From State Courts

To get a copy of your juvenile record, send a written records request to the clerk of the juvenile or family court that handled your case. That court holds the most complete file. If you also need arrest records or fingerprint data, you may have to contact the law enforcement agency that arrested you, your state’s criminal history repository, or the FBI separately, because juvenile records are not stored in one central place.

Where Your Juvenile Record Actually Lives

Depending on what happened in your case, pieces of your record may sit with several different agencies. You may need to contact more than one to get a full picture.

The juvenile or family court that adjudicated your case holds the petitions, hearing transcripts, disposition orders, and probation records. Start here.
The police department or sheriff’s office that arrested you keeps its own arrest reports and booking information, separate from the court file.
Many states forward juvenile fingerprint and arrest data to a central state agency, often the state police or department of public safety.
The FBI may hold fingerprint data if your prints were taken during a juvenile arrest and forwarded to its national database. You can check by requesting an Identity History Summary for $18.¹

Most juvenile cases are handled in state courts. Federal juvenile cases are far less common and follow separate access rules, covered below.

Requesting Your Record From a State Juvenile Court

Contact the clerk’s office of the juvenile or family court in the county where your case was handled. Most courts publish a records request form on their website, and you can also pick one up at the clerk’s window. If you are not sure which court handled the case, try the county where the incident occurred.

You will typically need to provide:

Your full legal name, including any aliases you used as a minor.
Your date of birth.
Approximate dates of your court involvement, or case numbers if you have them.
A copy of a government-issued photo ID.

If a parent or guardian is submitting the request on your behalf, they may need to show proof of the relationship, such as a birth certificate.

Fees vary by court. Expect anywhere from a few dollars to a modest flat fee for plain copies, and more for certified copies. Some courts add postage for mailed records. If cost is a concern, ask the clerk about fee waivers. Many courts waive fees for people who can show financial hardship.

Processing times depend on the court’s workload and whether the file needs to be reviewed for confidential information before release. An in-person request may be fulfilled in a few days. A mailed request can take several weeks, longer if the court has a backlog or a manual record system. If you have not heard back after a reasonable period, follow up with the clerk’s office directly.

Requesting Arrest and Fingerprint Records

The court file will not include the arresting agency’s internal reports. If you need those, submit a separate records request to the police department or sheriff’s office that made the arrest. Procedures and fees are set by that agency.

To check whether the FBI has fingerprint data on you from a juvenile arrest, request an Identity History Summary. You can submit the request through an FBI-approved channeler, at a participating U.S. Post Office that captures fingerprints electronically, or by mailing a completed fingerprint card directly to the FBI. The fee is $18, payable by credit card or money order. The FBI does not accept personal checks or cash for these requests.¹

Requesting a Federal Juvenile Record

If your case was handled in federal court under the Federal Juvenile Delinquency Act, different rules apply. Federal law protects juvenile delinquency records from disclosure to unauthorized persons and prohibits releasing them in response to employment applications, licensing inquiries, or requests related to civil rights or privileges.²

The statute does authorize disclosure in specific situations, including inquiries from other courts, law enforcement agencies investigating crimes, agencies preparing presentence reports, treatment facility directors, agencies evaluating someone for a national security position, and victims of the offense.² The district court that handled the case is required to inform the juvenile and their parent or guardian, in writing, about their rights regarding the record.

To request your own federal juvenile record, contact the clerk of the U.S. District Court where your case was adjudicated.

If Your Record Was Sealed or Destroyed

Many people request their juvenile record only to discover it is no longer accessible. At least 15 states have laws that automatically seal or expunge juvenile records once certain conditions are met, often tied to reaching a specific age or going a set number of years without further offenses.³

The rules differ substantially from state to state. In some states, court records seal automatically on the juvenile’s 18th birthday. Others wait until 21 or later. Some auto-seal only minor offenses and leave felony-level adjudications accessible. And some states destroy records rather than seal them. Virginia, for example, requires courts to destroy juvenile files annually once the person is at least 19 and five years have passed since the last hearing, except for felony-level offenses.⁴

If your record was sealed rather than destroyed, you may still be able to see it. Several states explicitly allow the person who is the subject of the record, along with parents, guardians, and attorneys, to view sealed records.⁴ You would typically petition the court or submit a request to the clerk’s office explaining who you are and why you need access. A judge may need to approve release.

If the records were physically destroyed, they are gone. No petition or court order can reconstruct them, and the court and law enforcement agencies are legally required to respond to inquiries as if no record ever existed. That works in your favor for most purposes, but it creates a problem when you need documentation for something like an immigration application. In that situation, you would provide evidence that the records are unavailable under your jurisdiction’s law rather than the records themselves.⁵

Why the Reason You Need It Matters

Which copies you ask for depends on what the record is for. A few common situations:

If you are preparing a petition to seal or expunge, get the complete court file from the clerk, so you have the case number, offense, disposition, and dates on hand.
If you are enlisting in the military, every branch requires disclosure of all offenses on enlistment paperwork, including juvenile adjudications, even those that were dismissed, diverted, or expunged. Under Department of Defense qualification standards, a juvenile adjudication is treated as an adverse adjudication regardless of whether the record was later sealed or the charges dropped after compliance with conditions. Disposition documents from the court are usually what a recruiter wants to see.⁶
If you are filing an immigration application, USCIS still requires disclosure of all arrests and charges, even though juvenile delinquency findings are not criminal convictions under immigration law. You will need the court record proving the juvenile disposition, or evidence of unavailability if records were sealed or destroyed.⁵
If you are trying to verify a background check, having your own copy lets you compare what a reporting company found against what the court actually shows, and dispute inaccuracies. Under federal law, consumer reporting agencies generally cannot include arrest records or other adverse items more than seven years old in a background report, and juvenile adjudications, because they are not convictions, fall under that seven-year cap rather than the unlimited window that applies to criminal convictions.⁷

Match your request to your purpose. Someone gathering documents for a sealing petition needs the whole court file. Someone answering a recruiter’s question may only need certified disposition documents. Someone concerned about what a background check company reported may want both the court file and an FBI Identity History Summary, so they can see everything a checker might see.

1
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Checks Frequently Asked Questions
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 5038 – Use of Juvenile Records
3
National Conference of State Legislatures. Automatically Sealing or Expunging Juvenile Records
4
National Conference of State Legislatures. Automatic Expungement of Juvenile Records
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 7, Part F, Chapter 7 – Special Immigrant Juveniles
6
U.S. Department of Defense. DoD Instruction 1304.26 – Qualification Standards for Enlistment, Appointment, and Induction
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports