Caregiver Affidavit Perjury in California: What Happens If You Lie

The Affidavit Is Signed Under Penalty of Perjury

When you sign the Caregiver's Authorization Affidavit under Family Code Sections 6550–6552, you are making a legal declaration under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California. This is not a formality — it carries real legal weight and real consequences for false statements.

The affidavit warns that a knowingly false declaration may be punishable by fines or imprisonment under California law.

What Counts as a False Statement

The affidavit requires you to declare specific facts. A false statement would be:

Claiming the child lives with you when they do not. The affidavit requires that the minor reside in your home. If you sign the affidavit to help a child enroll in a better school district but the child actually lives with someone else, that is a false statement about the core requirement.

Claiming relative status you do not have. Items 5–8 are restricted to qualified relatives within the fifth degree of consanguinity or affinity. A family friend who checks Item 5 and claims to be an aunt when there is no blood, marriage, or adoption connection is making a false declaration.

Misrepresenting parental notification. If you check Item 6a (advised parent, no objection) but never actually contacted the parent, or check Item 6b (unable to contact) when you know exactly where the parent is and simply chose not to call, those are false attestations.

What Does Not Count as Perjury

Honest mistakes about the degree of relationship. If you genuinely believe you qualify as a fifth-degree relative and are technically outside the line, that is an error in understanding the law, not a deliberate false statement. Perjury requires willful intent to deceive.

A change in circumstances after signing. If the parent was truly unreachable when you signed Item 6b but later became available, the affidavit was truthful at the time of execution. You are not retroactively committing perjury. If a parent later becomes reachable and objects, you cannot continue relying on the Item 6b declaration to claim authority.

Using the affidavit for its intended purpose. Some caregivers worry that the mere act of signing the affidavit without a parent present could be seen as overstepping. It is not. The affidavit was designed specifically for situations where a parent is unavailable. Signing it truthfully is exactly what the law intends.

The Good-Faith Protection for Institutions

On the other side of the equation, Family Code Section 6550(c) protects a person who relies in good faith on a completed affidavit to provide medical or dental care, without actual knowledge of facts contrary to its statements. Under subdivision (d), that person has no duty to investigate further. This statutory protection covers reliance for providing care, not school enrollment decisions.

This protection is what makes the affidavit system work — institutions can accept the form at face value without conducting a background check on every caregiver. The signer remains accountable for statements on the affidavit, while the institution's protection depends on good-faith reliance without actual knowledge of contrary facts.

The Real Risk Is Not Perjury — It Is Rejection

For most kinship caregivers, the perjury concern is theoretical. The practical risk is the opposite: filling out the form correctly and truthfully, then having it rejected by a school clerk or clinic receptionist who does not understand California law.

Our California school and medical consent guide walks through each item of the affidavit so you can complete it accurately, and includes the escalation tools you need when the truthfully signed form meets institutional resistance.

See more California guides →