15C V.S.A. § 401

This is the official text of 15C V.S.A. § 401, part of Vermont’s V.S.A — part of the compiled statutory law of Vermont, published by the state as "V.S.A." 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.

§ 401. Presumption of parentage

Official statutory text

(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.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

Need a lawyer in Vermont?

Find a Vermont 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.