Parental rights - California
Parental rights in California
1 of 3 questions have been reviewed for California. A question shown as "Not yet reviewed" makes no claim either way.
Educational reference, not legal advice. Nothing here creates an attorney-client relationship. Family law is state-specific and it changes: a statute or case cited here may have been amended, repealed or overruled since the review date shown. Verify against the primary source before relying on anything on this page, and talk to a lawyer licensed in your state about your own situation.
When a non-parent or the state asks a court to override a fit parent's decision about their child, what must they show?
California: Not yet reviewed
Not yet reviewed. This page makes no claim about California on this question.
Can parents' own custody or child-support agreement bind them without a judge approving it?
California: Not yet reviewed
Not yet reviewed. This page makes no claim about California on this question.
One parent enrols the child in daycare, an activity or a private school without the other's agreement. Must the other parent pay a share?
California: Child care share limited to work or education related cost
Statute: Cal. Fam. Code sec. 4062
The court must add child care costs that are actually incurred and related to employment or to reasonably necessary education or training for employment skills. Educational or other special-needs costs are a separate add-on the court may order. This version of section 4062 has been operative since September 1, 2024.
Authority
- Cal. Fam. Code sec. 4062(a)(1), (b)(1) Statute
Childcare costs, if those expenses are actually incurred, related to employment or to reasonably necessary education or training for employment skills, as described in Section 4063, unless those costs are specifically included in the guideline calculation itself. ... The court may order the following as additional child support: (1) Costs related to the educational or other special needs of the children.
How this was checked
Every citation here was checked against the primary source rather than a summary. U.S. Supreme Court quotes come from the official United States Reports PDFs published by the Library of Congress, and the reporter page shown is the page the quoted words actually print on. State case quotes come from the Caselaw Access Project's page-anchored text of the official reporter. Statutes and regulations are quoted from the issuing legislature's or agency's own site. Quotes are normalised to plain ASCII, which changes punctuation only, never words. Holdings are distinguished from dicta and from concurrences and dissents, which bind nobody, and contrary authority is included and labelled. Not yet reviewed is NOT a finding: it means nobody has read that jurisdiction's law for this question yet, and such a row carries no claim at all. No authority found is a different and weaker statement: a search was run and turned up nothing on point, which is not proof that nothing exists.
Dataset last reviewed 2026-10-17.