The present study describes 21 cases (17 females and 01 male) of 12 year old patients, or younger, with diagnosis of SLE, that were submitted to renal biopsy. The histologic study demonstrated 10 cases of membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (Class IV-WHO); 4 cases of focal proliferative glomeru-lonephritis (Class III-WHO; 2 cases of mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis (Class II-WHO) and 2 cases of membranous glomerulonephritis (Class V-WHO). Three cases were excluded. In this study the incidence of lupus nephritis in children was small, similar to what has been described by other authors, and presenting unfavorable histologic patterns.