Is Utah a 50/50 Custody State?

No. Utah does not presume that children should split time 50/50. The law presumes joint legal custody, meaning shared decision-making, and leaves the physical schedule to what is best for the child. A court can order equal parent time, and many parents agree to it, but it has to be shown to work for that family.

Legal custody vs. physical custody

Utah separates two questions:

• Legal custody is who makes major decisions about school, health care and religion. Utah Code 81-9-205 creates a rebuttable presumption that joint legal custody is in the child's best interest. Domestic violence, a child's special needs, or distance that makes joint decisions impractical can overcome it.
• Physical custody is where the child lives overnight. Joint physical custody means each parent has more than 30% of overnights and both contribute to the child's expenses.

Joint legal custody does not mean equal time. The statute says shared decision-making is not based on equal periods with each parent, because a child's best interest often calls for a primary residence.

What the statute actually says about 50/50

Utah Code 81-9-204(7) says the custody law creates no preference for or against joint physical custody or sole physical custody. It gives the court "the widest discretion" to choose a parenting plan, and it says gender alone cannot be the reason to prefer one parent.

Subsection (11) of the same section sets a baseline: absent real or substantiated potential harm, a child does best with "frequent, meaningful, and continuing access" to each parent. That principle pushes toward substantial time with both parents, but not toward a fixed split.

Utah's three standard schedules

The optional schedule adds a weekday overnight and stretches alternating weekends to Monday morning. For child support it counts as joint physical custody.

What a 50/50 schedule looks like in Utah

Under 81-9-305, unless the parents agree on another pattern, equal parent time runs on a fixed weekly rotation:

1. One parent has Monday morning to Wednesday morning.
2. The other parent has Wednesday morning to Friday morning.
3. The parents alternate Friday morning to Monday morning.

Exchanges happen when school starts, or at 9 a.m. with no school, which keeps most handoffs at school. Each parent also gets two uninterrupted summer weeks with 30 days' notice, and on this schedule those weeks outrank every holiday except Mother's Day and Father's Day. Parents may write their own holiday schedule; if they can't agree, the court assigns the statutory holidays. See our 2026 holiday parent-time guide.

To order equal time over one parent's objection, the court has to find that it serves the child, that each parent has been actively involved in the child's life, and that each can make the schedule work. Distance between the two homes and to the child's school is a listed consideration. In our experience, equal time across two school districts is hard to make work.

The factors a Utah court weighs

The court must consider any domestic violence or abuse, intentional exposure of the child to pornography or harmful material, and anything that endangers the child. It may then consider a long list of factors in 81-9-204(4), including:

• coercive control by a parent (added in 2026 by H.B. 303) and psychological maltreatment
• each parent's understanding of the child's physical, emotional, educational and medical needs
• parenting and co-parenting skills, including encouraging the child's relationship with the other parent
• who has been the primary caretaker, and earlier arrangements where the child did well
• emotional stability, substance abuse, moral character and financial responsibility
• keeping siblings together, and bonds with the child and extended family
• the child's own wishes, weighed by maturity; a child 14 or older gets added weight but does not decide (see what age a child can choose)

For joint custody specifically, 81-9-205 adds whether the parents can make decisions together, live close to each other, both helped raise the child, and can shield the child from their conflict.

What 50/50 means for child support

Equal time does not cancel child support. On an equal schedule, the lower-earning parent is treated as having 183 overnights, and the higher earner usually pays a reduced amount. Our child support calculator guide works an example.

Building a case for more time

Courts look for a record of involvement: school pickups, medical appointments, a home near the child's school, and a workable plan for communication. If you are asking for equal time, or opposing it, our Utah child custody attorneys can help you show the court what it needs to see. Call 385-955-3533 or contact us.

Common questions