HawaiiSB 12312025–2026 Regular Session (Year 1)SenateWALLET

RELATING TO PARENTAGE.

Sponsored By: Troy N. Hashimoto (Democratic)

Signed by Governor

Summary

Repeals the Uniform Parentage Act of 1973 and updates laws relating to parentage, including enacting portions of the Uniform Parentage Act of 2017. (HD1)

Uniform Parentage ActJHA

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

17 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 0 costs, 15 mixed.

New ways to establish legal parenthood

Beginning January 1, 2026, Hawaii replaces its former parentage law while preserving earlier rights, duties, and pending cases. Legal parenthood can come through birth, adoption, acknowledgment, a court decision, or assisted reproduction and surrogacy rules. Parent-child relationships receive equal recognition regardless of marriage, and Hawaii recognizes parentage decisions from other states and territories. Family court handles these cases, while the Attorney General and child support agency share authority allowed by law. Specified parentage information counts as initial evidence, and acknowledgment-related information can be used in any family court case.

Broader rules for presumed parents

A person can be presumed to be a parent through marriage or living with and openly treating the child as their own. Marriage rules apply regardless of gender and include births within 300 days after a marriage ends. A later marriage also qualifies when the person asserts parentage and files an acknowledgment or agrees to a birth-certificate listing. Court-ordered testing qualifies at 99% probability, using a 0.50 prior probability and a relationship index of at least 100:1. Presumed parenthood brings legal rights and responsibilities, and can be challenged only through the law's court or denial procedures.

Children can have more than two parents

Courts decide competing parentage claims based on the child's best interests, relationships, and possible harm. They can recognize more than two parents when limiting recognition to two would harm the child, without finding anyone unfit. Qualifying functional-parent claims use these rules when more than one other person is a parent or claimant, unless a valid denial is filed. Eligible people who did not sign an acknowledgment, or were excluded from a case without required notice, generally have two years to challenge it. A later challenge needs good cause, and the court may allow a challenge only when it serves the child's best interests.

Consent establishes parents after assisted reproduction

For assisted reproduction outside surrogacy, donors are not parents. A person who consents to assisted reproduction intending to parent is a parent of the child. Consent generally requires a signed record. Without that record, a court can find consent through clear and convincing evidence of an express agreement before conception. The law also allows a consent finding based on specified facts involving two years of living together and openly treating the child as one's own.

Ending genetic surrogacy brings payment rules

Ending a genetic surrogacy agreement releases the parties from its duties, except for specified payments. Each intended parent remains responsible for reimbursable expenses the surrogate incurred through the termination date. Unless the agreement says otherwise, a surrogate withdrawing consent must return compensation unrelated to expenses within 10 days. The surrogate generally cannot face a termination penalty or preset damages, except in fraud cases.

Families get testing rights and limits

Courts generally must order genetic testing when a sworn statement shows a reasonable possibility of genetic parenthood or nonparenthood. The child support agency can order testing only when no presumed, acknowledged, or court-established parent exists besides the birth parent. Testing during pregnancy is prohibited. Testing relatives requires good cause and a finding that the need outweighs their legitimate interests. Testing a deceased person's samples also requires good cause.

Genetic surrogacy needs court approval

Genetic surrogacy agreements generally need family court approval before assisted reproduction begins. The court must find legal requirements met and that everyone agreed freely and understands the terms. Later approval is allowed when everyone agrees before birth. Under an approved agreement, intended parents are parents unless the surrogate submits a witnessed or notarized withdrawal before 72 hours after birth. For unapproved agreements, parentage rules consider consent withdrawal, the child's best interests, and the parties' intent.

Parentage tests carry standards and costs

Qualifying tests identify a genetic parent at 99% probability, using a 0.50 prior probability and a relationship index of at least 100:1. A challenge needs qualifying tests that exclude that person or identify another possible genetic parent. The challenger must advance and pay for further testing; courts must order more testing when results identify multiple possible parents. Beginning January 1, 2026, the agency pays initial costs for Attorney General-ordered testing. The State can recover those costs from a parent, when appropriate, after parentage is established.

Parenthood forms bring rights and deadlines

Birth providers and state agencies must offer acknowledgment help, including forms, legal explanations, and access to trained staff. An eligible person's signed acknowledgment becomes a legal parentage finding when filed with the Department of Health; another person's established status can make it void. Some presumed parents must file directly with that department, while the child support agency supplies training and reviews facility programs annually. A signer can cancel within 60 days of signing, or before an earlier child-related agency or court proceeding. Later challenges require fraud, duress, or a material factual mistake, and support duties continue unless a court suspends them for good cause.

Parents face limits on denying parenthood

For children not conceived through assisted reproduction, spouses have a process to rebut presumed parenthood after 300 days without sex or shared residence. A court can waive notice to an unreachable spouse after diligent search and clear and convincing affidavit evidence. If the biological parent is known, both spouses and that parent can submit affidavits to establish the biological parent's status. Separately, a witnessed or notarized denial requires someone other than the birth parent to file an affidavit accepting parenthood. That denial process is unavailable after a prior parentage judgment or an acknowledgment that remains legally binding.

Support can start during parentage disputes

Beginning January 1, 2026, a court or agency can order temporary child support when it finds support appropriate. Eligible payers include presumed, acknowledged, alleged, or petitioning parents, the birth parent, and people identified by genetic testing or clear and convincing evidence. Someone already covered by an unreversed or unvacated support order also qualifies. A judge can also recommend a court-approved financial agreement without declaring the payer a parent. That agreement must consider the child's best interests and the likelihood of proving or disproving parentage; no payment amount is set.

Support orders require records and coverage

Child support orders must require both the paying and receiving parties to file and update identifying and location information. That information goes to the state case registry through the child support agency. Orders must also address responsibility for accident, health, or sickness insurance when coverage is available at reasonable cost. Separately, parentage case records must include each party's Social Security number.

Surrogacy contracts cannot force medical choices

Gestational surrogacy agreements that meet the law's requirements are enforceable. For noncompliant agreements, courts decide rights and duties based on the parties' intent when they signed. Parties harmed by breaches of gestational or genetic surrogacy agreements can seek legal remedies. Courts cannot force surrogates to undergo insemination, embryo transfer, medical procedures, or to end or continue a pregnancy. Genetic surrogacy remedies can include orders enforcing parentage rights or duties, subject to the law's limits.

Surrogacy orders recognize intended parents

Surrogate births follow the law's surrogacy parentage rules rather than its separate rules for other assisted-reproduction births. Parties to a gestational surrogacy agreement can seek an order naming intended parents on the birth record. The order excludes the surrogate and the surrogate's spouse or former spouse from parenthood. An intended parent's death after embryo transfer does not end the agreement's parentage protections. After death before transfer, the agreement must provide for parenthood after death, and transfer must occur within 36 months or birth within 45 months.

Student support needs proof before nineteen

Beginning January 1, 2026, the child support agency must warn families about possible suspension of education-related adult-child support. Notice goes to the adult child and custodial parent at least three months before the child's nineteenth birthday. Before that birthday, they must provide proof of current full-time enrollment or acceptance and plans to attend full-time next semester. Without that proof, future support is subject to suspension.

Parents get clearer child naming rights

Beginning January 1, 2026, the person who gave birth chooses the child's given and family names when parents are unmarried and parentage is not established. For a child born through a gestational or genetic surrogacy arrangement covered by the law, the intended parents choose the name.

Court representation pay limits cover more cases

Beginning January 1, 2026, representation pay limits also cover cases under chapter 346, part X, alongside chapter 587A cases. The maximum is $3,000 for work before the case's initial decision and $1,000 for each later review hearing. Higher payment requires extraordinary circumstances needed for fair pay, the applicant's attestation, and the court's administrative judge's approval. These amounts limit compensation for representation; they are not stated charges to households.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

Troy N. Hashimoto
Democratic • Senate

Cosponsors

There are no cosponsors for this bill.

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 147 • No: 11

Senate vote • 4/16/2025

Senate Floor Vote

Yes: 21 • No: 2

House vote • 4/4/2025

House Floor Vote

Yes: 43 • No: 5

House vote • 4/2/2025

House Floor Vote

Yes: 47 • No: 3

House vote • 3/20/2025

The committee on JHA recommend that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The ...

Yes: 8 • No: 1

Senate vote • 3/4/2025