Kansas keeps one list for three kinds of offender. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation, a division of the Office of Attorney General, established its registered offender website to give the public access to information about people convicted of certain sex, violent and drug offenses under the Kansas Offender Registration Act, K.S.A. 22-4901 and following, and the disclaimer notes that the act was amended effective July 1, 2005 to require the website to identify prominently whether an offender is or is not a sex offender. The bureau makes no representation that the site is complete or accurate, updates it every fifteen minutes, and warns that the registry is compiled partly from what the offender reports, so it may hold errors, which go to its Offender Registration Unit by mail, email or telephone along with any information about an offender whose address shows as being verified. Two further limits matter. Some offender information is not subject to public disclosure, and under the Kansas Supreme Court's decision in State v. Myers, 260 Kan. 669 (1996), the information for offenders who committed their offense before April 14, 1994 is closed to the public. And the site does not hold a complete criminal history for anyone, so obtaining information from it does not amount to a valid background check for employment, housing or any other purpose, which is what the bureau's separate criminal history record check is for.
The registry is local at the point of contact and central at the point of record: the registering law enforcement agency, usually the county sheriff, takes the registration in person and the bureau in Topeka at 1620 SW Tyler Street, (785) 296-8200, holds the file and runs the website and the community notification sign up. The sheriff's office that registers offenders in each county is on the Kansas county pages.
- Search: the Kansas Bureau of Investigation registered offender search after the disclaimer, updated every fifteen minutes, with each entry marked as a sex, violent or drug offender; offenses committed before April 14, 1994 are closed to the public.
- Registration: in person with the registering law enforcement agency within three business days of coming into any county where the offender lives, works or attends school, and again within three business days of any change in that status or of a name change.
- Reports and fee: four in person reports a year, in the birth month and every third, sixth and ninth month before and after it, each with an updated photograph and a $20 payment to the sheriff in every county of residence, work or school.
- Duration: 15 years or 25 years from parole, discharge, release or conviction depending on the offense, life for the gravest offenses, for a second registrable conviction and for anyone declared a sexually violent predator, with time out of compliance never counted.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Kansas's own systems: the Kansas Bureau of Investigation registered offender website disclaimer, the bureau's contact page, K.S.A. 22-4905 on the duties of a registered offender, K.S.A. 22-4906 on the duration and termination of registration, K.S.A. 22-4907 on the information required in registration, K.S.A. 22-4909 on public access to registration information, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Registering, and the four reports a year
K.S.A. 22-4905 has an offender register in person with the registering law enforcement agency within three business days of coming into any county or location of jurisdiction where the offender resides or intends to reside, maintains or intends to maintain employment, or attends or intends to attend school; an offender who physically cannot appear, through incapacitation or hospitalization certified by a physician or through involuntary commitment under the Kansas sexually violent predator act, is verified by other means the agency sets.
Every sex offender, including a violent or drug offender who is also a sex offender, then reports in person four times each year to the agency in each county of residence, employment or school, and a violent or drug offender does the same except that the agency may let one of the four reports be made by certified letter sent to the reported residence, which the offender marks with any changes and returns by certified mail within ten business days.
The four reports fall in the month of the offender's birthday and in the third, sixth and ninth months occurring before and after it, with the agency free to set the days. An offender in the custody of a correctional facility registers with the facility within three business days of initial custody and updates nothing until discharge, parole, furlough or work or school release, the form then going within three business days to the registering agency where the offender is incarcerated, works or studies and to the bureau; an offender involuntarily committed as a sexually violent predator registers within three business days of arriving in the county of commitment and becomes personally responsible again on placement in a reintegration facility or on transitional or conditional release.
A transient reports in person within three business days of arriving in a county and then every 30 days, or more often if the agency requires, listing the places slept in and frequented since the last registration and the places where the offender can be reached and intends to sleep and frequent before the next one.
The $20, the photograph and the other duties
The same section requires the offender to pay $20 to the sheriff's office as part of each quarterly report, in every county of residence, employment or school. Registration is completed whether or not the money is paid, but failing to pay in full within fifteen days of registration violates the act and is prosecuted under K.S.A. 22-4903; no payment is due for an ordinary update or an initial registration unless it falls in the birthday month or one of the three month marks, none is due from a transient reporting every 30 days outside those months, and none is due from an offender a court found indigent within the last three years with the finding recorded.
At every registration or report in a county of residence, employment or school the offender submits to an updated photograph, and to another whenever identifying characteristics such as scars, marks and tattoos change. The offender must also register in any out of state jurisdiction whose law requires it, report in person within three business days of beginning, changing or ending a residence, employment, school attendance or any other registered detail to the agencies last registered with and give written notice to the bureau, report a name change in person within three business days, tell any treatment facility of the offender status and tell the agency for the county of an inpatient stay and its expected length, renew the Kansas driver license or identification card every year, surrender the licenses and identification cards of other states and the District of Columbia when Kansas is the primary residence, unless on active military duty or an immediate family member of someone who is, read and sign the registration form noting whether the requirements were explained, and report in person and in writing to the bureau 21 days before any travel outside the United States with an itinerary giving the destination, the means of transport and the length of the trip, or within three business days of making the arrangements in an emergency.
What the registration form holds
K.S.A. 22-4907 puts the registration on a form the bureau approves, signed by the offender and, except for a certified letter report, witnessed by the registering officer, carrying the name and all alias names, the date and city, state and country of birth with any alias dates or places, the title and statute number of every offense with the date of each conviction or adjudication and the court case numbers, the place of conviction, the sex and date of birth or purported age of each victim of every registrable offense, the current residence, any anticipated future residence and any temporary lodging of seven days or more with its address, telephone number and travel dates, with a transient's list of places stayed and frequented, every telephone number including mobile numbers, the Social Security number and any alias numbers, the identifying characteristics from race, ethnicity and skin tone to height, weight, hair and eye color, scars, tattoos and blood type, the occupation and the name, addresses and telephone number of every employer and anticipated employer, every current driver license or identification card with a photocopy and the numbers, states and expiry dates, the plate, registration number, other identifier and description of every vehicle owned, operated or regularly driven for personal use or work and where each is habitually parked, the same for any aircraft or watercraft with where it is docked or kept, every professional license, designation and certification, documentation of any treatment received for a mental abnormality or personality disorder drawn from records readily available to the agency, facility or court and from the offender, photographs, fingerprints and palm prints, every school and satellite school attended or expected with its location and telephone number, every email address, online identity, personal web page or social network membership and internet screen name, all travel and immigration documents, and the name and telephone number of the probation, parole or community corrections officer.
The offender also gives biological samples for DNA analysis on a bureau authorized kit, unless a search of the state criminal justice information system shows a profile already on file.
Fifteen years, 25 years or life
K.S.A. 22-4906 sorts the terms by offense. Fifteen years, counted from the most recent parole, discharge or release when confined and from the conviction when not, follows sexual battery, adultery and lewd and lascivious behavior where one party was under 18, promoting the sale of sexual relations, patronizing a prostitute where one party was under 18, capital murder, first and second degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, the listed subsections of involuntary manslaughter, criminal restraint of a victim under 18 by anyone but a parent, sexual extortion where one party was under 18, the listed breach of privacy subsections, any act found beyond a reasonable doubt to have been sexually motivated unless the court finds on the record that it involved non forcible sexual conduct with a victim of at least 14 and an offender no more than four years older, any offense a court orders registration for, any person felony where the court finds on the record that a deadly weapon was used, the manufacture of a controlled substance and the possession of its precursors with intent to manufacture, and attempts, conspiracies and solicitations of those offenses.
Twenty-five years follows criminal sodomy where one party was under 18, indecent solicitation of a child, electronic solicitation, aggravated incest, indecent liberties with a child, unlawful sexual relations, sexual exploitation of a child where the victim was 14 to 17, aggravated sexual battery, internet trading in child pornography, the aggravated form of that offense where the victim was 14 to 17, promoting prostitution where the person selling sexual relations was 14 to 17, and the attempts, conspiracies and solicitations.
Lifetime registration follows rape, aggravated indecent solicitation of a child, aggravated indecent liberties with a child, the listed subsections of criminal sodomy, aggravated criminal sodomy, aggravated human trafficking, sexual exploitation of a child or aggravated internet trading in child pornography where the victim was under 14, promoting prostitution where the person selling sexual relations was under 14, kidnapping, aggravated kidnapping, commercial sexual exploitation of a child, and the attempts, conspiracies and solicitations; it also follows a second or later conviction of any registrable offense, and anyone declared a sexually violent predator registers for life.
No period of incarceration and no period of noncompliance counts toward any term, the duty does not end if the offender becomes liable to register again during the period, a person moving to Kansas after an out of state conviction serves whichever is longer, the other jurisdiction's period or the Kansas one, and a person living, working or studying here after an out of state conviction that required no registration there serves the Kansas period for the comparable offense.
Juveniles
The same section handles juveniles separately. For an offender under 14 adjudicated for an act that would be a sexually violent crime if committed by an adult, the court must either require registration until the offender turns 18, or until five years from the adjudication or from release from confinement, whichever is later, or decline to require it on substantial and compelling reasons stated on the record, or require it with the registration closed to the public and off every website, in which case the offender hands the court order to the registering agency and the agency forwards it to the bureau; the same three choices apply to an offender of 14 or older whose act would be a sexually violent crime that is not an off grid felony or a severity level 1 nondrug felony, and in either case a violation of a condition of release lets the court impose the full registration.
An offender of 14 or older adjudicated for an act that would be an off grid or severity level 1 sexually violent crime registers for life. Where a diversion agreement, a probation order or a juvenile sentencing order requires registration for an offense that would not otherwise require it, the whole act applies but the length is whatever that agreement or order says.
What the website shows, and what it withholds
K.S.A. 22-4909 makes the registration statements open to inspection at the registering agency, at bureau headquarters and on any website either sponsors, and subject to the Kansas Open Records Act. A website must identify prominently whether the person is a sex, violent or drug offender and must carry the name and aliases, the address of every residence or, without one, other information about where the offender lives or habitually stays, with a note when the offender is in violation or cannot be located, the temporary lodging, the address of any school, the plate number and description of every vehicle, aircraft and watercraft, the physical description, the offense of registration and every other conviction or adjudication, a current photograph and all professional licenses.
It must not carry the address of any place where the offender works or any other information about the workplace, and must say instead that employment information is public and can be had from the registering agency or by signing up for community notification through the bureau's official website. An offender given a new identity and relocated under the federal witness security program, one who has worked as a confidential informant and any other protected witness registers without public posting on a court finding the prosecutor petitions for, and an offender whose registrable conviction is expunged keeps registering but drops off the public registry, unless another registrable conviction remains, which stays public.
Five things never go out beyond law enforcement: anything that identifies a victim, the offender's Social Security number, arrests that did not lead to a conviction or adjudication, travel and immigration document numbers, and the offender's internet identifiers.
Reading a Kansas result
An entry on the bureau's site is marked as a sex, violent or drug offender, carries the addresses, vehicles, photograph and licenses the statute requires, and never names the employer, so an employment question goes to the registering agency or to the community notification sign up; a note that the address is being verified means the agency has not confirmed it. A missing name may belong to an offender whose crime predates April 14, 1994 and is closed to the public, a protected witness, an offender whose conviction was expunged, a juvenile the court kept off the public list, or someone whose term has run, remembering that neither incarceration nor time out of compliance counts toward it.
The sheriff or other registering agency takes the four yearly reports, the $20 payments and every three business day change, and the bureau in Topeka holds the central record.
Questions about the Kansas sex offender registry
Related Kansas records
Kansas's other public records guides on this site are the Kansas arrest records guide for what a booking makes public, the Kansas inmate search guide for the Department of Corrections offender search and the county jails, the Kansas background check guide for the bureau's criminal history record checks, and the Kansas county pages for every sheriff and police department.