What the New Child Car Seat Regulations Mean for Parents
The federal standard now includes testing for side-impact collisions. Here’s what you need to know, whether you’re buying a car seat soon or already own one.
Car crashes continue to be a leading cause of injury for kids under age 12. In 2022, more than 100,000 children were injured in traffic collisions. This year, changes are coming to car seats to make them even more effective in side-impact collisions.
Two-vehicle collisions account for the most deaths in crashes, especially in crashes where two vehicles collide at an angle. Compared with front-end or rear-end collisions, getting “T-boned” or experiencing a side-impact collision can be especially dangerous, according to the National Safety Council. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says: “Side impacts are especially dangerous when the impact is on the passenger compartment because, unlike a frontal or rear-end crash, there are no substantial, energy-absorbing structures between the occupant and the impacting vehicle or object. The door collapses into the passenger compartment and the occupants contact the door relatively quickly after the crash at a high relative velocity.”
This is why safety experts and advocates at Consumer Reports have pushed for improvements to child car seats to make them more protective in side-impact collisions. “Manufacturers have been making claims about side-impact protection for many years,” says Emily A. Thomas, PhD, associate director of auto safety at CR, but up until now, “there wasn’t an industry standard.”
The changes have been a long time coming. “NHTSA proposed rulemaking in 2014 to include side-impact protection for car seats in the regulatory standard,” Thomas says. “The final rule wasn’t released until June 2022. Here we are in 2025, coming up on the compliance deadline.” The required changes were set to take effect on June 30, 2025, but a proposal has been made for NHTSA to extend the compliance deadline to Dec. 5, 2026.
Here’s what to know as manufacturers make design and manufacturing changes to child car seat to make them as safe as possible.
What's Changing and When for Child Car Seats
The new standard, called the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 213a, is currently set to go into effect on June 30, 2025. After that date, all car seats sold in the U.S. that are designed for children under 40 pounds will have to meet new standards that aim to improve side-impact protection.
What This Means if You're Already Using a Car Seat
You don’t have to replace your existing car seat; all car seats are already tested to a pretty tough standard. Just make sure your car seat isn’t expired or has been recalled, meets existing safety standards, and is installed correctly with your child properly harnessed.
“The car seat you have now and the car seats that will be available in the future are all safe and will protect your child in a crash if used properly,” Thomas says. While car seat manufacturers have been testing side-impact protection for many years, the new regulations mandate a standard minimum level of side-impact protection—in other words, side-impact protection is now an official part of what manufacturers must test car seats for. “You can rest assured that your car seat has been rigorously tested to meet the minimum safety standard.”
Here’s what to check to make sure that your current car seat is safe to continue using:
Fit: The safest car seat is one that fits your car and your child every time, Thomas says.
Height and weight: Check that your child is within both the height and weight limits for the orientation they’re sitting in (front-facing vs. rear-facing).
Installation: Check your seat for common installation errors that are easy to overlook, and get professional help if you’re unsure. Thomas recommends a routine weekly check to ensure that the installation is still fully tight and secure.
What This Means if You're Planning to Buy a Car Seat This Year
If you are buying one now, there’s good news: Some car seat manufacturers already have models out that are compliant with the new standards.
That said, it won’t always be obvious which car seats meet the new standards. “Some manufacturers specify on the product page or packaging if the car seat is 213a compliant,” Thomas says, “but they are not legally required to.”
You can find the top car seats Consumer Reports has lab-tested for crash protection in our ratings. Sort our car seat ratings by the “crash protection” column to find the models that rank “Best.”
What’s Next for Car Seat Safety
As part of our nonprofit public safety mission, Consumer Reports experts often push for regulatory changes based on data we independently evaluate. CR supports these child car seat safety regulation updates and participated in rewriting and updating the standard. “CR submitted comments during the public comment period for the side-impact protection Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in April 2014. CR also conducted feasibility testing of the side-impact NPRM in March 2015 and published those findings here,” Thomas says.
While the new regulations represent progress, Thomas says there’s more work to be done. “We would love to see NHTSA incorporate more elements of the real-world rear-seat environment into their test setup, such as a front seatback surface and a floor. This would be more representative of real back seats, evaluate the potential for head contact with the front seatback, and encourage more innovative designs that can improve crash protection, such as the load leg.” CR’s car seat crash testing program includes a simulated back seat, floor, and front seatback surface for the purposes of better simulating real-world crash conditions.
For now, these updates are one step closer to fewer devastating injuries and deaths in side-impact collisions.
