A system and method for determining when a child safety system is present in a passenger seat in a vehicle and restrained, including at least one of: a) two lower anchors each including a lower anchor sensor, or b) an upper anchor including an upper anchor sensor; an occupancy sensor; a seatbelt buckle sensor; a microprocessor control system in communication with at least one of the sensors. The microprocessor control system includes executable code to: provisionally determine whether the child safety system is detected in the passenger seat; determine whether at least one of: a) a strap is connected to each lower anchor and b) a tether is connected to the upper anchor; determine whether the seatbelt is buckled; and verify the presence of a child safety system in the passenger seat. Executable code can also be included to detect strap and tether tension.