Sealing A Juvenile Record
RCW 13.50.260 — an administrative sealing hearing set at disposition, with no petition needed
Scheduled at disposition. At the disposition hearing of a juvenile offender, the court schedules an administrative sealing hearing for the first regular sealing hearing after the latest of the respondent's eighteenth birthday, the anticipated end of probation, or release from confinement or completion of parole. The respondent does not have to attend.
What the court finds. It enters a written order sealing the juvenile court record if it finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the respondent is no longer on supervision for the case and has paid the full restitution owed to the individual victim, not counting restitution owed to an insurer.
When no hearing is set. Administrative sealing does not apply where an offense was a most serious offense, a sex offense, or a drug offense as the statutes define them at the time it was committed.
Sealing by motion, for records outside administrative sealing, is set out later in the same section. Adult records, federal agencies' own files, immigration consequences, and sex offender registration are outside this page. Whether a particular record qualifies, and what a sealed record still allows an agency to see, are questions for a licensed Washington attorney.
Sources for this section (1)
- RCW 13.50.260 — Sealing hearings; sealing of records
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Washington attorney.