The Sex Offender Registry Board, reached at (978) 740-6400 on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and by mail at P.O. Box 392, North Billerica, MA 01862, registers and classifies convicted sex offenders according to their risk of reoffense and the degree of danger they pose, with free interpreter services for anyone who asks. It serves the public by maintaining a website of Level 3 offenders and of the Level 2 offenders classified after July 12, 2013, which identifies offenders living, working or attending an institution of higher learning in the Commonwealth, while information on every Level 2 and Level 3 offender, including those classified before that date, is available at the local police department and from the board itself. The board's information page adds that a search runs by town or by a person's identifying information, that the site also lists offenders in violation of their registration and counts the offenders in each community, and that whether an offender's information can be seen at all depends on the classification level.
Three levels sort the registrants, by the board's own definitions. A Level 1 offender has a low risk of reoffending and poses a low degree of danger, and the public cannot see Level 1 information, which goes only to municipal and state police departments, the FBI, the Department of Correction and the county correctional facilities, the Department of Youth Services, the Department of Children and Families, the Parole Board, the Department of Probation and the Department of Mental Health. A Level 2 offender has a moderate risk and poses a moderate danger, with internet access to the record only for those classified after July 12, 2013 and the complete Level 2 list available through the police and by a named request to the board. A Level 3 offender has a high risk and poses a high danger, and the information is public through the local police and the online registry. The police department for every city and town is on the Massachusetts county pages.
- Search: the board's online registry for Level 3 offenders and Level 2 offenders classified after July 12, 2013, by town or by name; every Level 2 and 3 offender through the local police or a SORI request.
- Levels: Level 1 low risk, seen only by law enforcement and state agencies; Level 2 moderate risk; Level 3 high risk; each set by a board member's preliminary decision, a closed hearing on request and a 30 day appeal to Superior Court.
- Registration: every year, by mail to the board for unclassified and Level 1 offenders and in person at the local police station for Levels 2 and 3, with a $75 fee and an indigency waiver.
- Deadlines: register within 2 days of moving to Massachusetts, 10 days before moving within or out of the state, every 30 days from a homeless shelter, within 2 days of starting a job from out of state and within 10 days of starting school.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Massachusetts's own systems: the Sex Offender Registry Board home page, the board's levels of sex offenders page, the board's sex offender classification process page, the board's who has to register page, the board's register as a sex offender page, the board's page on requesting sex offender registry information, the board's information about sex offenders page, the board's information for sex offenders page, the board's list of Massachusetts sex offenses, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
How the board classifies: preliminary level, hearing, appeal
The classification process begins when an unclassified offender registers with the board and is assigned for review. The offender has 30 days to submit anything to be considered, sex offender treatment, current lifestyle, employment and living situation and alcohol or drug treatment among them, while the board gathers victim impact statements, police reports, court records, probation and parole records and the state and national criminal records that show the person's past behavior.
A single board member examines all of it against the factors the Sex Offender Registry Law sets out and issues a preliminary classification of Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3, which neither victims nor the public may see because it is not final. The offender is notified in writing and has 20 days either to accept the level, waiving the hearing and the appeal, or to request a hearing; written acceptance or silence makes the preliminary level final.
At the hearing, held before a single hearing examiner who may also be a board member and closed by law to the public and to victims, the offender receives copies of everything reviewed, including the victim impact statements, which is why the board asks victims to leave their contact details off them. The examiner later issues a lengthy written decision on the duty to register and on the current level, the board notifies the offender, who then registers with the board as Level 1 or with the police as Level 2 or 3, and the offender may appeal the final level within 30 days in the Superior Court and may ask the court to stop dissemination of the information while the appeal is pending.
Who registers, and the secondary address rule
A sex offender under Massachusetts law is anyone who lives, works or attends school in the state and has been convicted of a sex offense, adjudicated as a youthful offender or a delinquent juvenile for one, released from incarceration, parole, probation or Department of Youth Services custody for one, or adjudicated a sexually dangerous person or released from civil commitment at any time since August 1, 1981. The board's page on who registers requires the registration to list every secondary address as well as the primary one, a secondary address being anywhere the person lives or stays for at least 14 days in a year or at least four days in a month, out of state addresses included, and a person whose primary address is elsewhere still registers a Massachusetts secondary address.
Registration must also be updated whenever the person adds a secondary address, moves to Massachusetts, becomes homeless, takes work in Massachusetts or lives out of state while attending school here, and whenever personal or contact information changes.
Registering each year: by mail or at the police station, and the $75 fee
Everyone required to register does so every year, and the board's instructions split the method by level: an unclassified or Level 1 offender completes the Sex Offender Registration Form and mails it to the board at P.O. Box 392 in North Billerica, while a Level 2 or Level 3 offender cannot register by mail and must go in person to the police department of the Massachusetts residential address, or, for a nonresident, to the city or town police of the Massachusetts job, school or secondary address.
The registration fee is $75, paid by check to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at P.O. Box 412235, Boston, MA 02241-2235 or through the online fee portal, with an indigency form for a waiver, and the board also publishes a SORNA compliance form and a Spanish registration brochure. A registrant who knowingly fails to verify the registration information, fails to give a current address or gives false information is prosecuted.
Moving, working and studying: two days and ten days
A sex offender moving to Massachusetts from another state registers within two days of the move. A resident moving to another address in the state registers the new address at least ten days before moving, and a registrant leaving the state notifies the board at least ten days before and registers in the new state. A registrant living in a homeless shelter verifies the registry information every 30 days at the local police department.
Someone who lives in another state but works in Massachusetts registers within two days of starting the job and registers the work address within ten days, and reports any new Massachusetts job within ten days of starting it; an out of state resident attending a Massachusetts school registers within ten days of starting. A first knowing violation, whether a failure to register, to verify, to update an address, job or school or a false statement, carries between six months and two and a half years in a house of correction, or up to five years in state prison, a fine of up to $1,000, or both, and a repeat violation carries a minimum of five years in state prison.
Asking the board or the police: SORI requests
Sex offender registry information, which the board calls SORI, can be requested three ways. Online, through the ESORI Portal, a request needs a first name, a last name and a date of birth, with a help line at 978-740-6478 when those details are missing and the board's Victim Services Unit at 978-740-6440 for victims. By mail, the Sex Offender Inquiry Form goes to the SORI Coordinator at the board's post office box. In person, anyone may go to the local city or town police station with valid identification, fill out the request form and give a name, address and reason, and learn whether a specific person is a sex offender, by name or by identifying information, or whether any sex offenders live, work or study in that city or town, at a specific street address within the same town, or in an area code.
In every case the public receives information only about Level 2 and Level 3 offenders, and because the online database holds only the Level 2 offenders classified after July 12, 2013 and the Level 3 offenders, the complete Level 2 list comes from the police. The board also publishes a community notification brochure, a school brochure and a portal user guide in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole and Chinese, and its records access officer answers public records requests at sor.rao@massmail.state.ma.us under the public records law strengthened on June 3, 2016.
The offenses that require registration
The board's list of offenses runs: indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, on a person with an intellectual disability or on a person of 14 or over; rape; rape of a child under 16 with force; rape and abuse of a child; assault, or assault of a child, with intent to commit rape; kidnapping of a child; enticing a child under 16 to commit a crime; enticing away a person for prostitution or sexual intercourse; drugging a person for sexual intercourse; inducing a minor into prostitution; living off or sharing the earnings of a minor prostitute; a second or later conviction for open and gross lewdness, excluding a single juvenile adjudication before August 1, 1992; incestuous marriage or intercourse; disseminating matter harmful to a minor; posing or exhibiting a child in a state of nudity; disseminating visual material of a child in a state of nudity or sexual conduct; possession of child pornography; unnatural and lascivious acts with a child under 16; aggravated rape; any attempt at those crimes under chapter 274 and any like offense under the law of another state, the United States or a military, territorial or tribal authority; plus the aggravated and repeat versions of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, rape of a child under 16 with force and rape and abuse of a child, enticing a child under 18 by electronic communication into prostitution, human trafficking or commercial sexual activity, trafficking of persons for sexual servitude, including of a person under 18 and any second violation, and sexual contact with an animal.
Reading a Massachusetts result
An online listing means a final Level 3 classification, or a Level 2 classification made after July 12, 2013, after the board's hearing process has run; a Level 2 offender classified earlier is found only at the police station or through a named SORI request, and a Level 1 offender is never disclosed to the public at all, so an empty search settles nothing about a Level 1 or an older Level 2 registrant. The local police department holds the complete Level 2 and 3 list for its town, and the board in North Billerica answers the named requests.
Questions about the Massachusetts sex offender registry
Related Massachusetts records
Massachusetts's other public records are covered on this site: the Massachusetts arrest records guide for what a booking makes public, the Massachusetts inmate search guide for the Department of Correction and the county houses of correction, the Massachusetts court records guide for the trial court case search, and the Massachusetts county pages for every police department and sheriff.