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Terms Used In Vermont Statutes Title 15 Sec. 401

  • Birth: includes stillbirth. See
  • Child: means a person of any age whose parentage may be determined under this title. See
  • Marriage: includes civil union and any legal relationship that provides substantially the same rights, benefits, and responsibilities as marriage and is recognized as valid in the state or jurisdiction in which it was entered. See
  • Parent: means a person who has established parentage that meets the requirements of this title. See
  • Parentage: means the legal relationship between a child and a parent as established under this title. See
  • Person: shall include any natural person, corporation, municipality, the State of Vermont or any department, agency, or subdivision of the State, and any partnership, unincorporated association, or other legal entity. See

§ 401. Presumption of parentage

(a) Except as otherwise provided in this title, a person is presumed to be a parent of a child if:

(1) the person and the person who gave birth to the child are married to each other and the child is born during the marriage; or

(2) the person and the person who gave birth to the child were married to each other and the child is born not later than 300 days after the marriage is terminated by death, annulment, declaration of invalidity, divorce, or dissolution; or

(3) the person and the person who gave birth to the child married each other after the birth of the child and the person at any time asserted parentage of the child and the person agreed to be and is named as a parent of the child on the birth certificate of the child; or

(4) the person resided in the same household with the child for the first two years of the life of the child, including periods of temporary absence, and the person and another parent of the child openly held out the child as the person’s child.

(b) A presumption of parentage shall be rebuttable and may be overcome and competing claims to parentage resolved only by court order or a valid denial of parentage pursuant to chapter 3 of this title. (Added 2017, No. 162 (Adj. Sess.), § 1.)