Establishing Parentage

Establishing and Confirming Legal Parent-Child Relationships

Every child deserves the security of knowing who their legal parents are — and every parent deserves the legal recognition and rights that come with that role. In Nevada, parentage defines the legal relationship between a parent and a child, including the right to custody, visitation, and decision-making, as well as the duty of support.

At The Cooley Law Firm, we help families establish, confirm, or protect parentage through Nevada’s evolving family building laws. Attorney Shelly Booth Cooley has been deeply involved in modernizing Nevada’s adoption statutes, including AB 227 (83rd Legislative Session, 2025), which brought long-overdue clarity and inclusivity to the laws governing parent-child relationships.

What Is Parentage?

“Parentage” means the legal recognition of a person as a child’s parent — whether that parent is biological, intended, or adoptive. Once parentage is established, that parent has all legal rights and responsibilities regarding the child, including:

  • Custody and visitation
  • Decision-making for education and health care
  • The obligation to provide financial support
  • The right to be listed on the child’s birth certificate
  • Inheritance and other parental benefits

How Parentage Can Be Established in Nevada

Nevada law recognizes several paths to establishing legal parentage, depending on a family’s circumstances:

    1. Presumptions

Under Nevada law, a man is presumed to be a child’s biological father in certain situations, even without a formal court order or genetic testing. These legal presumptions help determine parentage and the rights and responsibilities that follow.

A man is presumed to be the father if:

      • He is married to the child’s mother at the time of the child’s birth, or the child is born within 285 days after the marriage ends by divorce, annulment, death, or legal separation.
      • He lived with the child’s mother for at least six months before conception and continued living with her through the time the child was conceived.
      • He and the mother tried to marry before the child was born — even if that marriage was legally invalid — and:
        • The child was born during that attempted marriage, or
        • The child was born within 285 days after the end of that relationship.
      • He has taken the child into his home and openly treated the child as his own, showing his intent to be recognized as the child’s father.

These presumptions can be confirmed or challenged through the court if parentage is disputed, but they form the legal foundation for determining a father’s rights and obligations under Nevada law.

    1. Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity or Parentage

Unmarried parents may sign a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity/Parentage filed with the State Registrar to establish legal parentage without a court proceeding.

    1. Court-Ordered Parentage

When parentage is disputed or uncertain, either parent (or the State) may file a petition asking the court to determine parentage. This may involve genetic testing or other evidence under NRS 126.

    1. Assisted Reproduction and Surrogacy

Under NRS Chapter 126, Nevada law fully recognizes parentage arising through assisted reproduction and gestational carrier agreements, confirming that intended parents — regardless of gender or marital status — are the child’s legal parents from birth.

    1. Confirmatory Adoption

With the passage of AB 227 (83rd Legislative Session, 2025), Nevada now offers clear, modern options for parents to confirm or secure legal parentage through adoption, even when parentage is already presumed.

Under AB 227, parents may use a Confirmatory Adoption process to formally establish parents’ legal status — ensuring recognition across all jurisdictions, securing equal parental rights, and providing their child with a clear and permanent legal record of family.

This process is especially valuable for:

      • Couples who built their family through assisted reproduction or surrogacy
      • Unmarried partners seeking to confirm parentage rights
      • Parents who have relocated to Nevada and wish to ensure recognition of their parentage order or relationship here

Confirmatory adoption under AB 227 gives Nevada families the peace of mind of a court order confirming what has always been true — that they are their child’s legal parents.