Parental rights - Washington
Parental rights in Washington
2 of 3 questions have been reviewed for Washington. 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 Family law is state-specific and it changes: a statute or case cited here may have been amended, repealed or overruled since the review date shown.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?
Washington: Harm or detriment required
Statute: RCW 26.11.040(2)-(4)
Washington's nonparent visitation chapter presumes that a fit parent's decision to deny visitation is in the child's best interest and does not create a likelihood of harm. The petitioner must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the child would likely suffer harm or a substantial risk of harm without visitation, and only then does the court weigh best interest, also on clear and convincing evidence.
Authority
- RCW 26.11.040(2), (3) Statute
It is presumed that a fit parent's decision to deny visitation is in the best interest of the child and does not create a likelihood of harm or a substantial risk of harm to the child. ... To rebut the presumption in subsection (2) of this section, the petitioner must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the child would likely suffer harm or the substantial risk of harm if visitation between the petitioner and the child were not granted.
Can parents' own custody or child-support agreement bind them without a judge approving it?
Washington: Not yet reviewed
Not yet reviewed. This page makes no claim about Washington 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?
Washington: Shared only as ordered or agreed
Statute: Wash. Rev. Code sec. 26.19.080(3)
Day care and other special child rearing expenses sit outside the economic table and are shared in proportion to income as ordered by the court. Washington then adds a claw-back that matters when the service was never used: a parent who pays ordered day care that is not actually incurred must be reimbursed once the overpayment reaches 20 percent of the annual amount.
Authority
- Wash. Rev. Code sec. 26.19.080(3) Statute
Day care and special child rearing expenses ... are not included in the economic table. These expenses shall be shared by the parents in the same proportion as the basic child support obligation. If an obligor pays court or administratively ordered day care or special child rearing expenses that are not actually incurred, the obligee must reimburse the obligor for the overpayment if the overpayment amounts to at least 20 percent of the obligor's annual day care or special child rearing expenses.
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.