The parent-child relationship can be established by one of eight methods under the Uniform Parentage Act. A parent child relationship is established when: 1) when a woman gives birth to a child, except when the birth is pursuant to a valid surrogacy contract; 2) the Court makes an adjudication of a person’s parentage; 3) a child is legally adopted by a person; 4) there is an affidavit and doctor’s certification of assisted reproduction; 5) an unrebutted presumption of parentage exists; 6) a man signs an acknowledgement of paternity under penalty of perjury which is not rescinded or successfully challenged; 7) a person consents to the assisted reproduction of that person’s spouse or partner; or 8) a valid surrogacy contract exists.
A presumption of parentage exists when one of the following factors are met: 1) the person and the child’s mother or father were married to each other or in a domestic partnership with each other when the child was born; 2) the person and the child’s father or mother were married to each other or in a domestic partnership with each other and the child was born within 300 days after the marriage or domestic partnership was terminated; 3) the child was born during or within 300 days after the parents were engaged in an invalid marriage or domestic partnership; 4) after the child’s birth the person and the mother or father married or entered a domestic partnership and the person voluntarily asserted parentage in writing; or 5) the person resided in the same household as the child for the first two years of the child’s life and openly held the child out as the person’s own child. A presumed father may sign and record a denial of paternity, but that denial is only valid if there is a signed valid acknowledgement of paternity signed by another, and the presumed father has not previously acknowledged his paternity or been adjudicated as the father.
When a child has a presumed parent, a proceeding to establish the parentage of another man must be brought not later than four years after the birth of the child. When adjudicating paternity the court can order genetic testing to determine parentage. However, when a child has a presumed or previously adjudicated parent or acknowledged father then genetic test results may only be introduced in adjudicating the parentage of another person unless the other person and the presumed, previously adjudicated or previously acknowledged father agree.
The Court in a parentage action may enter a parenting plan/residential schedule as well as an order of child support for the children.