Illinois Parentage Act

The Parentage Act governs how the legal relationship between a child and a parent is established, recognized, and disputed, covering parentage arising from marriage, birth, acknowledgment, genetic connection, and the conduct of a person who has functioned as a parent. It sets out who may bring a parentage proceeding and where, how courts take jurisdiction and issue temporary and final orders, how competing claims among presumed, acknowledged, adjudicated, and de facto parents are resolved, and the effect a parentage determination has on the parties and on the child. It also provides a non-judicial route through a signed acknowledgment of parentage, with rules on execution, rescission, later challenge, and recognition in other states, and it directs that parentage be determined without discrimination based on a parent's marital status or gender or the circumstances of the child's birth.

Editorial summary generated from the text of this act. It is not part of the statute — read the sections below for the operative language.