Families and children

This bill sets the base budget for the state Department of Health and Human Services agencies overseen by the Social Services Appropriations Committee at about $8.6 billion total for the next fiscal year, including about $1.6 billion from the General Fund.

H.B. 50 would state in law that parents may seek and receive help from the Child Protection Ombudsman.

The bill would let a parent petition a court for custody or visitation time with their child when the child lives with the other parent or a spouse or former spouse, even if the permanent custody order was entered before the law changed.

H.B. 108 would direct 75% of certain federal Social Security survivor and disability benefits received for children in state custody into protected accounts for those youth, up from the current 25%.

H.B. 190 expands Utah's employer childcare tax credit so businesses can claim it for contracting with offsite licensed childcare providers, not only for building or running an onsite center.

The bill lets the state Office of Recovery Services keep collecting court-ordered spousal support after child support ends, within the original order's time limit.

This bill would require health care providers and the companies that run medical record systems to let parents see their minor children's medical records.

H.B. 303 would set rules for court-ordered mental health therapy for children when parents disagree, including using insurance when available and considering ability to pay.

This bill raises the yearly limit on online marriage license fee money that can go to the Utah Marriage Commission from $400,000 to $600,000.

H.B. 333 amends last year's adoption records law so that a birth parent in a closed adoption can ask the court to seal records before the child turns 18, rather than only once the child is an adult.

This bill changes rules for guardians ad litem, the court-appointed advocates for children, in juvenile and family court.

The bill exempts licensed child care providers from the food service establishment rules that apply to restaurants.

The bill would let children in DCFS foster care keep their current mental health therapist when they move to a new family or leave custody, as long as the child is already receiving therapy.

This joint resolution encourages strong family units, focusing on marriage and intact families raising children.

This joint resolution urges Congress to remove federal tax and benefit rules that penalize people for getting married.

This bill adds about $454.7 million in supplemental spending to the state's 2026 fiscal year budget for various state agencies, and reduces general fund and income tax fund spending by $25.8 million.

S.B. 12 extends the expiration date of Utah's Alternative Dispute Resolution Act from July 1, 2026 to July 1, 2036, so the law keeps existing rather than ending.

S.B. 32 removes one line from last year's child torture law and moves that provision to a different section of the Utah Code, where the sponsor says child torture already appears in the murder section.

This bill extends the Interdisciplinary Parental Representation Pilot Program's end date to 2031.

SB 73 would require websites where at least a third of content is adult material to verify visitors' ages, and would place a 2% excise tax on paid access to such content, collected by the Tax Commission.

The bill would abolish the common-law cause of action for alienation of affections, which lets a person sue someone, such as a spouse's sexual partner, for interfering with their marriage.

This bill would end Utah's recognition of common law marriage, so couples who live together and present themselves as married without a licensed, solemnized ceremony would no longer be treated as married under state law.

This bill makes a set of technical changes to Utah's child welfare laws.

The bill extends an existing Medicaid rule that ties reimbursement rates for autism-related services to the same annual inflation adjustment used for other services, so those rates stay close to rates for other children.

The bill would let a party in a protective order case ask the court to find, by clear and convincing evidence, that the other party knowingly submitted false information to get the order.

This bill would clarify that a person carrying a firearm on daycare or K-12 school premises must carry it concealed.

H.B. 183 would change the word "gender" to "sex" throughout Utah's state code, so that the code uses the defined term "sex." Certain references, such as those to the Utah Compact, would stay unchanged.

The bill shortens from four years to one year how far back past child support can be owed in certain parentage cases, such as those involving divorce.

H.B. 216 would remove the current exclusion of Social Security Disability Insurance from the income a court may consider when calculating child support.

This bill would require large AI companies to publish plans for keeping users safe and to disclose risks.

H.B. 315 would add a free human development video of at least three minutes on fetal development to eighth and tenth grade health classes, within existing curriculum.

H.B. 317 would add a formal definition of the term "social health" to Utah's public education standards.

This bill clarifies the meaning of "position of special trust" in Utah's child sexual abuse law by defining terms such as uncle, cohabitant, and partner.

The bill sets child support for children placed with the state or a relative through juvenile court or DCFS using a low-income table, and it clarifies that parents with very low income owe no support in those cases.

The bill changes Utah family law so courts must consider attorney fees and costs in more cases, including actions to establish or modify orders, not just enforcement.

This bill extends the Child Care Advisory Committee for three more years so it can keep operating.

The bill would require courts to report convictions for animal abuse offenses into the state child welfare (DCFS) records system, so caseworkers can use that information when deciding on children's cases.

This bill would let a juvenile court authorize an investigative warrant so the Division of Child and Family Services can access and check on a child when there is a credible threat of serious harm and access has been refused.

S.B. 214 would create a grant program of up to about $5,000 to help home-based childcare providers open, mainly in rural areas with childcare shortages.

The bill would have the state retrofit one already-owned state building into a childcare center, which would then be leased to a private employer.

The bill would extend a Department of Health pilot that lets state employees bring an infant to work for the first six months or until the baby becomes mobile to all state executive agencies.

This bill would adopt the Uniform Community Property Disposition at Death Act in Utah, setting rules for how community property is classified, divided, and distributed when a spouse dies.