Financial Programs

Parents include natural parents, adoptive parents, and step-parents.

Natural Parents

When a woman’s name appears on the birth record of a child, she is a natural parent.

The man is the natural parent when relationship to the child is established. Relationship can be established for a child when:

The parents have a solemnized marriage at the time of conception or birth; or

Through a court action naming a man as the father; or

A man signs a voluntary paternity acknowledgment form with Office of Recovery Services (ORS) or Vital Statistics; or

A man signs form 941 acknowledging his relationship to the child.

Special Consideration for Refugee households who do not enter the U.S. with birth certificates:

Refugee families who enter Utah as their primary state of resettlement are allowed to use any documentation from a Resettlement Agency in Utah that verifies the parental/family relationship.

Refugee families who enter Utah as their secondary state of migration may provide verification from the Resettlement Agency from the previous state if that documentation will verify parental/family relationships.

If this documentation is not available from the previous Resettlement Agency, the household may provide proof they were eligible to receive public assistance benefits from the previous state, as long as the benefits received in the previous state required proof of parental/family relationships.

Step-parents: A step-parent is married to a natural parent through solemnized marriage or common-law marriage. See policy 221-9 for information on common law marriage.

Adoptive Parents: Adoptive parents (regardless of gender) are the legal parents of the child and bear all the rights and responsibilities of natural parents.

The relationship of the adoptive parents to the child can be verified by:

The new Birth Certificate of the child verifying the relationship to the parents, or

Court adoption documents verifying the legal adoption of the child by the parents.