Child Passenger Safety Week · September 20–26
This week, someone near you will check your car seat for free.
I'm here because:
Most car seats are installed wrong. Many are past their expiration date. And most recalled seats never get fixed. This week, certified technicians across the Bay Area check seats for free. Two things to do: answer five questions here to see what you don't know about your seat, then book a time with someone who can look at it.
None of this is easy to figure out, and nobody handed you a guide. Half of parents don't know that car seats expire at all. If any of this is new to you, that is not your fault.
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What you told us
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This is based on your answers, not on the seat itself. We did not look your seat up anywhere, and nobody can promise a used seat is safe just from its label. To have the seat itself checked, see a certified technician in person. It's free.
This does not replace a certified car seat technician (a CPST), or the manual that came with your seat.
Check your inbox.
The checklist is on its way. Write back and tell us what worries you most about your seat. We read every reply. It's how we decide what to build next, and how we pick the first group.
In person · free · by appointment
Get your seat checked in the Bay Area
A certified technician checks how the seat is put in, how it fits your child, whether it has been recalled, whether it has expired, and whether your child is ready for the next seat. All of it, free, in about half an hour. These free car seat checks and inspections run all year, and many programs add extra times during this week. Appointments fill up fast, so call ahead.
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San Francisco
California Highway Patrol, San Francisco
By appointment(415) 557-1094Open to all
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East Bay
City of Berkeley Childhood Injury Prevention Program
2100 MLK Jr. Way, Berkeley(510) 981-5980Ask about residency
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South Bay
CHP San Jose · Sunnyvale Dept. of Public Safety
CHP by appointment(408) 961-0900Sunnyvale, Wednesdays 1–4pm(408) 730-7179Sunnyvale residents only
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Peninsula
Stanford Children's Health Car Seat Program
725 Welch Road, Palo Alto · by appointment
Waitlists run long -
North Bay
CHP Napa · Marin fire stations
Napa CHP(707) 253-4906call your local stationOpen to all
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Everywhere else
AAA Northern California
Free inspections at 90+ locations across Northern California, membership not required. Call your branch for an appointment.
What actually happens
You do the installing. The technician won't take your car and hand it back done. They show you, and you put the seat in yourself. It worked if you can do it on your own afterward.
It takes 20 to 30 minutes. Longer if you have questions, and questions are the whole point. It's free, and nobody will try to sell you anything.
Bring both manuals. The car seat manual and your car's manual. Look up "child safety seats" in the back of the car manual. Bring your child too, and know how tall they are and how much they weigh.
Nobody is grading you. These experts see seats put in wrong all day long. That's the job. They are not judging you.
Three things they check first. The three most common mistakes are a seat that installed too loosely, a forward-facing seat installed without the top tether, and a harness left too loose on the child. All three are quick to fix once someone shows you.
From Safe Kids Worldwide's guide for parents.
Common-mistake numbers come from the National Digital Car Seat Check Form database, shared by AAA and the National Safety Council.
Not in the Bay Area? Find a certified technician near you
These three finders cover the whole country, and they are maintained by the groups that train and certify the technicians.
- Safe Kids — Find a Tech Search for certified technicians near you by place, by language, or by special-needs training. Use this one if you'd rather not do this in English.
- Safe Kids — Events & Inspection Stations Local groups hold more than 8,000 free car seat check events a year. This week is their busiest.
- NHTSA — Inspection station directory The government's list of check locations, next to its recall search.
Put together from public county and hospital lists, last checked in August 2026. Some county programs have Spanish-speaking technicians, and some only help people who live there. Ask when you call. Hours change, so always check before you drive over. Know a program we missed, or see something wrong here? Tell us.
If English isn't your first language, or money is tight
Help exists, and it's free
Santa Clara County's health department said it plainly when it asked for car seat funding: manuals sold in California come in English and Spanish, and almost never in any other language. The families with the least help are the ones asked to follow the hardest instructions.
- Search for help in your language. Safe Kids' national list lets you search by the language a technician speaks. Start there instead of calling around: search certified technicians.
- Virtual checks in Spanish. The National Safety Council offers video visits with Spanish-speaking certified technicians. They cover which seat to use, which way it faces, where it goes, and how to put it in. Good if nothing nearby works for you.
- CHP Contra Costa, Martinez, 5001 Blum Road · (925) 646-4980. Lists Spanish-speaking services, by appointment.
- Free seats and classes for families who qualify. Santa Clara County Public Health holds car seat classes in English and Spanish and gives a free seat or booster to families who qualify: (800) 310-2332. You may qualify through Medi-Cal, cash aid, or Head Start. Other counties have programs like this too. Ask your county health department.
- The official materials exist in Spanish. AAA and the National Safety Council put out their car seat safety fact sheet in both English and Spanish, free to download and print.
- Your county may have more. California's Office of Traffic Safety keeps a county-by-county list of low-cost car seat programs and local car seat coordinators.
The part nobody teaches
Read a listing with me
Here is a listing like the ones you'll really see: an infant seat and stroller, pick up nearby, way cheaper than new. A nice person wrote it, and it's a decent listing. It is also missing almost everything you need to know before you buy. That isn't the seller's fault. Nobody ever told them what to put in it.
Resale listing · illustrative
$150 (Pacific Heights)
Nuna Doona+ Infant Car Seat Stroller, and Base 1
Selling our car seat & stroller, complete with the car base and bonus back seat mirror. 2 This was one of our favourite baby purchases and made life so much easier: simply lift it out of the car and unfold it into a stroller in seconds. Perfect for everyday outings and travel.
The set is used and in good condition, with normal signs of wear from regular use, and is fully functional. 3
Includes: car seat & stroller, car base. 4 I believe cost for these new would be more than $700+. 5
A fantastic all-in-one travel system for new parents.
4 photos 6
- The brand and the model don't belong to the same company. Nuna and Doona are two different companies. Sellers mix them up all the time. Here the mixed-up name shows up in the title and in both detail lines, so it looks like a fact instead of a mistake. That matters: if you search recalls under the wrong brand, you get nothing back, and nothing back feels just like no recalls. Search the name printed on the seat's own label, not the name in the ad.
- The "bonus" is the one thing to leave behind. Back seat mirrors and other add-ons did not come with the seat and were not tested with it. In a crash, they can fly around the car. Certified technicians will tell you the same thing. It's not a bonus. Leave it.
- "Good condition" and "fully functional" are not "never in a crash." Read the ad again. It says three things about how the family liked the seat and nothing about what happened to it. "Good condition" is a choice from a menu, not something the seller wrote. There is no menu option for "never in a crash," so leaving it out isn't hiding anything. A seat can be damaged in a crash with nothing to see on the outside. No one brings this up on their own, so ask: has this seat ever been in any collision, however minor?
- No manual in the includes list. Ask if they still have it. If not, download it from the company that made the seat before you buy. It's the only place that tells you the height and weight limits, how to put the seat in, and how many years the seat can be used.
- The price anchors on new, not on what's left. Comparing it to $700 new tells you nothing about how much life is left in it. Car seats expire. If this one has two years left, two years is what you are buying. That is what the price should be measured against, and you cannot work it out without the date.
- Four photos, and none of them is the label. This one message is worth more than all the others. Before you drive across town, ask: could you send a photo of the sticker with the manufacture date, and one of the base? If they can't find it, that tells you something. If they send it, they just saved you a trip.
Four messages that settle almost everything
- "Has the seat ever been in a collision, even a minor one?"
- "Could you send a photo of the manufacture-date sticker, on the seat and on the base?"
- "Do you still have the manual, and are all the original parts there?"
- "Are you the original owner?"
None of this is rude, and a reasonable seller won't mind. If they do mind, that's your answer. And if the seat turns out to be expired or recalled, it isn't worth $150. A seat you can't use is worth nothing, no matter how good it looks.
One thing catches people out with infant seats: children outgrow them by height much sooner than parents expect, often before the first birthday. A used infant seat can be in fine shape and nearly finished at the same time. Check the height and weight limits against your child before you buy, not after.
Do this today · takes five minutes
Find the date on your seat
Fewer than half of parents know a car seat expires. It is not hidden to trick you. It is printed where a manufacturer prints a part number, which means where nobody looks. Two dates matter here, and they are not the same date.
Where to look
- Turn the seat over. The date sticker is usually white, on the bottom of the seat or on the base.
- Check the sides and the back. Some are on the side near where the seat belt goes, under the fabric.
- Look for molded text. If the sticker is gone, many seats have the date pressed into the plastic. Tilt the seat toward a light to see it.
- Open the manual. If you can't read a date anywhere, the manual usually says how many years the seat lasts. You just won't know when the clock started.
What you'll find
- Date of manufacture
- This is on every seat somewhere. Everything else counts from it: when the seat expires, and whether a recall covers your seat.
- Expiration or "do not use after"
- Sometimes it's right next to the date, sometimes only in the manual. Most seats last six to ten years, but what the company says about your seat is what counts.
- Nothing at all
- Some manufacturers never publish a service life. When that happens, the honest answer is that it is unknown. It is not something you can work out from the date of manufacture. Most websites just guess at it. Ask a technician instead.
Why it matters: plastic gets brittle, straps wear out, and the metal parts of the harness wear down. An older seat may also have been built before the safety rules changed. That does not mean the seat is broken. It means the company that made it will no longer say it is safe to use.
Do this today · takes two minutes
Check your seat against recalls
Search NHTSA recalls nhtsa.gov/recallsHow to read what it gives you
- Search the brand and model exactly as they appear on the seat's label, not the name on the box or in a store listing.
- Find the range of manufacture dates. Every recall lists one. Most people skip right past it, and it's the part that decides whether the recall is about your seat.
- Compare it to the date on your seat. A recall covers a model. Only the date tells you if it covers your seat.
- Read the fix. The law says it has to be free. Usually they mail you a small kit, not a new seat.
What the answer doesn't tell you
"No results" does not mean "this seat is fine." It means nothing matched the words you typed. Seats often get listed under names that don't match the label, older recalls have less information in the system, and a seat with no readable date can't be matched to a date range at all.
It also can't tell you whether a recall that does cover your seat was ever fixed. Across 61 car seat recalls, only about 14 out of every 100 seats were ever fixed. So a used seat with a recall on it was most likely never repaired. Ask the person you got it from whether a kit ever arrived in the mail.
You just did this once. If a new recall comes out next spring, you would have to do it all over again, and nobody will remind you. That is the part we are building: you tell us your seat's model and date, and when it is ready, new recalls get checked against your seat, not just your model.
Get on the list →Three things that change after the sale
A technician checks all of this the day you bring the seat in. But a car seat is the only piece of baby gear that expires, gets recalled, and gets outgrown. Each of those arrives later, on its own schedule, long after the appointment. Nobody is watching for them on your behalf, so it helps to know what to look for.
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Recalls land on a model, not a seat
NHTSA posts the recall along with a range of manufacture dates, then leaves the math to you: does this cover your seat, or just your model? The steps for checking that are further down this page.
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The expiration date is hidden on purpose
Most seats hide it on a sticker underneath, and fewer than half of parents know there is one. Some manufacturers never publish a service life at all. Most websites just guess at it. We would rather tell you we don't know.
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Children cross limits quietly
Kids pass height and weight limits without any warning, and the more common mistake is moving them up too soon, not too late. We only tell you when a limit is crossed. We will never rush your child into the next kind of seat.
What we're building
The part that happens after you leave
We have one job: keep watching a seat after your visit is over, so a recall filed next spring still reaches the family it belongs to. A small group of parents and certified technicians is testing it now. It is not open to everyone yet.
Check your inbox.
The checklist is on its way. Write back and tell us what worries you most about your seat. We read every reply, and it's how we decide what to build next.
Are you a Bay Area CPST?
This page is here to put your work in front of the parents who need it. If you're holding an event this week or taking appointments, we'll list you here, free, with no strings, and we'll never post your name without asking.
Holophote itself is an independent Bay Area project building one thing: a recall watch that keeps going after your appointment ends, so a recall filed next spring still reaches the family it belongs to. A small group of parents and CPSTs is testing it now.
Everything this week runs on is already free to use. The National Child Passenger Safety Board's resource center collects materials from AAA, the National Safety Council, NHTSA and Safe Kids Worldwide, covering every stage from car seats to boosters to seat belts: cpsboard.org. The National Safety Council also runs a help line for event organizers: 844-573-6531.
Get your program listed →Why a week like this exists
Not opinions. These come from government records and published surveys.
- 14.3%
- Across 61 car seat recalls, this is the typical share of recalled seats that were actually repaired. Computed from NHTSA quarterly recall reports, 2015–2026
- 67.1%
- Share of car seats brought in for a check in 2024 that were being used or installed wrong. This counts only seats people brought in, which is not the same as all seats on the road. National Digital Car Seat Check Form database, via AAA and the National Safety Council
- 111,310
- Seats in one 2021 recall that were never reached, out of 150,599. Nobody could find the families. NHTSA quarterly recall reports
- <50%
- Share of parents who knew car seats have an expiration date at all. State Farm parent survey
- 1 in 5
- Parents who ask an expert for help putting in a seat or buckling their child. AAA and the National Safety Council consumer survey
Holophote is a helping hand for parents. Everything on this page already exists: the technicians, the federal recall record, the county programs. Almost nobody knows where to find it, so this year we put it in one place. What we're building is simpler than it sounds: a way to keep watching your seat after the appointment, so a recall filed next spring still finds you.
Questions
What is Child Passenger Safety Week?
A week set aside by the government and the National Child Passenger Safety Board, September 20–26 this year. It ends with Seat Check Saturday on the 26th, when fire stations, hospitals, and highway patrol offices around the country hold free car seat checks. It exists because most seats are used or installed wrong, and twenty minutes with a certified technician fixes most of it.
Can you tell me whether a used seat is safe?
No, and nobody can do that from a label alone. We can tell you if a recall covers that seat, if the seat is past its expiration date, and what parts of its history are missing. We can't see whether it was in a crash, how it was stored, or if pieces are missing, and those things matter. A certified technician can hold the actual seat in their hands. We can't. That's why the free check places are on this page.
What do the five questions actually do?
They show you what you don't know yet: whether you can trace the seat's history, whether you can find the date of manufacture, and whether anyone has checked it for recalls. This page does not look your seat up anywhere. It shows you the gaps, so you know what to bring to a certified technician and what to ask the person who gave you the seat. The lookup part is what we're building, and it isn't open yet.
What if my seat isn't found?
We'll say so plainly. "We found no recall" is not the same as "this seat is fine," and we won't mix the two up. When we can, we'll show you everything the government lists for that brand so you can look for yourself.
What happens to my email address?
You get the checklist, then a note now and then about recalls and outgrowing. We don't sell or share it. You can stop the emails from any message we send.
Is there an app?
It works, and a small group of families and certified car seat technicians (CPSTs) is testing it now. It isn't open yet. Join the list and we'll ask you before we open it up.