Alaska Stat. § 11.51.120

This is the official text of Alaska Stat. § 11.51.120, part of Alaska’s Stat — part of the compiled statutory law of Alaska, published by the state as "Stat." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

Not legal advice. This page reproduces the official text of a government statute for reference only. Laws change, and how a statute applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.

Criminal nonsupport.

Official statutory text

(a) A person commits the crime of criminal nonsupport if, being a person legally charged with the support of a child the person knowingly fails, without lawful excuse, to provide support for the child.

(b) As used in this section “support” includes necessary food, care, clothing, shelter, medical attention, and education. There is no failure to provide medical attention to a child if the child is provided treatment solely by spiritual means through prayer in accordance with the tenets and practices of a recognized church or religious denomination by an accredited practitioner of the church or denomination.

(c) Except as provided in (d) of this section, criminal nonsupport is a class A misdemeanor.

(d) Criminal nonsupport is a class C felony if the support the person failed to provide is monetary support required by a court or administrative order from this or another jurisdiction and, at the time the person knowingly failed, without lawful excuse, to provide the support, (1) the aggregate amount of accrued monetary child support arrearage is $20,000 or more;

(2) no child support payment has been made for a period of 24 consecutive months or more; or

(3) the person had been previously convicted under this section or a similar provision in another jurisdiction and (A) the aggregate amount of accrued monetary child support arrearage is $5,000 or more; or

(B) no child support payment has been made for a period of six months or more.

(e) In addition to the provisions of (c) and (d) of this section, criminal nonsupport is punishable by loss or restriction of a recreational license as provided in AS 12.55.139 .

(f) In this section, (1) “child” means a person (A) under 18 years of age; or

(B) 18 years of age or older for whom a person is ordered to pay support under a valid court or administrative order;

(2) “child support” means support for a child;

(3) “without lawful excuse” means having the financial ability to provide support or having the capacity to acquire that ability through the exercise of reasonable efforts.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

Need a lawyer in Alaska?

Find a Alaska lawyer
About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.