Child Visitation in Utah: Schedules, Supervision, and Changes

In Utah, child visitation is called “parent-time,” and state law sets minimum schedules that a noncustodial parent is entitled to unless a judge finds a different arrangement better serves the child. For a school-age child, the default gives the noncustodial parent alternating weekends from Friday evening through Sunday evening, one midweek evening, up to four weeks of summer, and a specific rotation of holidays. Younger children follow an age-tiered schedule that gradually adds time as they grow. Parents can agree to more time than the statute requires, and courts can order less when safety or other factors demand it.

The Standard Schedule for Children 5 to 18

When parents don’t agree on their own plan, Utah’s default minimum kicks in automatically for children between five and eighteen. This is the floor, and parents are free to build up from it.¹

Alternating weekends from 6 p.m. Friday to 7 p.m. Sunday, starting the first weekend after the decree. The noncustodial parent can elect to pick the child up from school on Friday instead.
One weekday evening (Wednesday if the order doesn’t specify), from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The noncustodial parent can pick the child up from school and keep them until 8:30 p.m. instead.
Up to four weeks of summer parent-time when school is out, which can be taken consecutively. Two of those weeks are uninterrupted; the other two may include a midweek visit by the custodial parent.
A statutory holiday rotation that alternates by odd and even years.

A detail that surprises people: “weekend” under this statute includes snow days, teacher development days, and other non-school days that fall next to the weekend. If school is canceled on a Friday and it’s the noncustodial parent’s weekend, that Friday belongs to them too.¹

The Schedule for Children Under Five

Younger children follow a separate, age-tiered schedule designed around shorter separations and consistency.² The default does not include overnights for infants:

Under 5 months: three two-hour visits per week, plus two hours on each holiday.
5 to 8 months: three three-hour visits per week, plus two hours on each holiday.
9 to 11 months: one eight-hour visit and one three-hour visit per week, plus eight hours on holidays.
12 to 17 months: one three-hour midweek visit, alternating weekends with an eight-hour visit on one and an overnight from Friday 6 p.m. to Saturday noon on the other, plus eight hours on holidays.
18 months to 2 years: one weekday evening (5:30–8:30 p.m.), alternating full weekends from Friday 6 p.m. to Sunday 7 p.m., holidays, and two separate one-week periods of extended time.
3 to 4 years: same weekday evening and alternating weekend structure, with extended summer time increasing to two separate two-week periods.

Overnights aren’t part of the default until 12 months, and full weekend overnights don’t start until 18 months. Once the child turns five, the older-child schedule takes over.

Holidays and Summer

Utah’s holiday schedule is detailed. The statute alternates over a dozen specific holidays between parents on odd and even years, with exact start and end times.¹ Some of the key rotations:

Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Labor Day go to the noncustodial parent in odd years and the custodial parent in even years, running from Friday evening (or school dismissal) through 7 p.m. on the holiday Monday.
Presidents’ Day and Memorial Day follow the reverse pattern: noncustodial parent in even years, custodial parent in odd years.
Spring break belongs to the noncustodial parent in odd years, from 6 p.m. on the last day of school before break until 7 p.m. the day before school resumes.
Independence Day runs from July 3 at 6 p.m. through July 5 at 6 p.m., alternating by year.
Pioneer Day runs from July 23 at 6 p.m. through July 25 at 6 p.m.
Mother’s Day and Father’s Day always go to the corresponding parent, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Thanksgiving alternates by year, typically Wednesday evening through Sunday evening.

Holidays override the regular weekend rotation. If a holiday lands on the other parent’s weekend, the holiday parent gets priority. Parents who want to swap holidays or design their own rotation can do that by agreement; without one, the statutory schedule controls.

How Judges Decide When Parents Disagree

A judge can’t order any schedule without finding, by a preponderance of the evidence, that it serves the child’s best interests.³ The statute lists specific factors the court weighs, including:

Evidence of domestic violence, physical abuse, sexual abuse, or psychological harm to the child or a household member.
How far apart the parents live.
Whether the noncustodial parent has demonstrated the ability to keep the child safe and cared for.
Whether the noncustodial parent can provide food and shelter during visits.
The child’s own preference, if the court finds the child mature enough to weigh in.
Whether the noncustodial parent is incarcerated.
The parent’s involvement in the child’s school, community, and religious activities.
A chronic pattern of missing or canceling scheduled visits.
Keeping siblings on compatible schedules.
Whether a very young child is still nursing.

On the child’s preference, Utah law gives “added weight” to the wishes of a child 14 or older, though a teenager’s preference alone is never controlling.⁴ Younger children can be heard too if the judge considers them sufficiently mature; there’s no hard cutoff.³

Judges also watch the co-parenting dynamic. A parent who undermines the child’s relationship with the other parent through alienating behavior, blocked communication, or badmouthing can face reduced time or additional restrictions.

When Visits Have to Be Supervised

Utah’s default position is unrestricted, unsupervised access. Supervised parent-time is a last resort. A court can only order it after finding that the child would face physical harm, emotional harm, or abuse if left alone with the noncustodial parent, and that no less restrictive option exists.⁵

When supervision is ordered, the court works down a priority list. First it considers supervisors suggested by the parents themselves, usually relatives or trusted family friends. Only when no suitable personal supervisor is available does the court turn to professional monitoring services.⁵ The court must also consider whether the cost of professional supervision would effectively prevent the noncustodial parent from seeing the child at all.

Supervised visitation isn’t meant to last forever. When the court imposes it, it also sets specific goals for the noncustodial parent — completing a substance abuse program, attending anger management, maintaining clean drug tests — and schedules follow-up hearings. The parent can petition to end supervision once those benchmarks are met.⁵

Custom Plans and 50/50 Arrangements

The statutory minimums are a starting point. Parents who cooperate can design their own schedule, including equal 50/50 splits, week-on/week-off rotations, or anything else that fits their family. Courts encourage this and will approve custom plans when both parents show strong communication and the ability to make joint decisions.⁶

For a joint physical custody order, at least one parent must file a parenting plan. The court evaluates co-parenting skills, the parents’ history of cooperating on decisions, and whether the arrangement genuinely benefits the child.

Changing an Existing Order

Utah law allows parent-time orders to be modified when circumstances change. The standard depends on what is being changed. For joint custody orders, the petitioning parent must show a “material and substantial” change in circumstances and that the modification improves the child’s best interests.⁷ For parent-time schedules specifically, a “change in circumstances” is enough — the word “substantial” is missing from that provision, so the threshold is somewhat lower.

Common grounds include relocation, major shifts in work schedules, and the child’s developmental or educational needs. Courts give substantial weight to keeping an arrangement in place when the child is thriving, so “I’d prefer something different” rarely succeeds without evidence the current setup no longer works.⁷

You file the modification petition in the same court that issued the original decree, using the same case number.⁸ If a joint custody order includes a dispute resolution clause, both parents must attempt that process in good faith before the court will hear the petition.⁷ Filing a frivolous or harassing petition can result in the court ordering you to pay the other parent’s attorney fees.

Moving 150 Miles or More

A custodial parent who plans to move 150 miles or more from the other parent’s residence must give at least 60 days of advance written notice. The notice must state that the parent will follow the statutory parent-time provisions or another agreed schedule, and that neither parent will interfere with the other’s court-ordered time. Skipping the notice can result in contempt of court and seriously undermine the moving parent’s credibility if the schedule ends up being litigated.⁹

When the Other Parent Blocks Visits

When one parent interferes with court-ordered parent-time, Utah offers an expedited enforcement process. The other parent can file a motion asking the court to enforce the schedule, and courts often prioritize make-up visitation to restore missed time.¹⁰

Willful denial of court-ordered parent-time can bring contempt findings, which carry fines, attorney fees, or jail in extreme cases. Courts may also impose supervised exchanges to prevent future interference.

When a parent goes further — refusing to return a child, hiding the child, or keeping the child past the scheduled return with intent to interfere — Utah’s custodial interference statute applies. Penalties escalate:¹¹

Class B misdemeanor: the baseline offense for withholding a child from a parent entitled to custody or visitation.
Class A misdemeanor: applies if the parent has been convicted of custodial interference at least twice in the previous two years.
Third-degree felony: applies if the parent removes the child from the state during the interference.

An affirmative defense exists if the interference was based on a reasonable belief that the child needed protection from abuse and the parent reported the concern to the Division of Child and Family Services or law enforcement before acting.¹¹ A generalized belief that the child is “better off” with the interfering parent is not enough.

Mediation Before Trial

Utah requires at least one mediation session in contested divorce proceedings. If a respondent files an answer and issues remain unresolved, both parties must participate in good faith before going to trial.¹² Costs are split equally unless the court orders otherwise or the parents agree to a different arrangement.

Sessions are confidential. Any agreement reached can be submitted to the court for approval and become legally binding. Either party or the mediator can request an excuse for good cause, and domestic violence is the most common reason judges waive the requirement. If mediation fails, parents retain the full right to litigate.

Grandparents, Deployment, and Tax Claims

A few situations sit alongside the main parent-time rules and often come up.

Grandparents can petition for visitation, but they face a high bar. Utah law creates a rebuttable presumption that a fit parent’s decision about grandparent visitation serves the child’s best interests, and the grandparent must overcome that presumption by showing factors such as prior caregiver status, the death of the grandchild’s parent, or unreasonable denial of contact.¹³ Simply wanting to see a grandchild is not enough when a fit parent objects.

Active-duty military parents have federal protections. If a parent-time modification or enforcement action is filed while a service member is deployed or within 90 days after release from service, the military parent can request a stay of proceedings for at least 90 days by providing a letter explaining how duties prevent them from appearing and a commanding officer’s statement confirming leave isn’t available.¹⁴

Finally, on taxes: the parent-time split affects who claims the child. Under IRS rules, a “qualifying child” must live with the claiming parent for more than half the tax year, which usually means only the custodial parent qualifies by default.¹⁵ The custodial parent can sign IRS Form 8332 to release the claim to the noncustodial parent for the child tax credit and related credits.¹⁶ The Earned Income Tax Credit is different — it always goes to the parent the child lived with more than half the year, regardless of any release.

1
Utah Legislature. Utah Code 30-3-35 – Minimum Schedule for Parent-time for Child Five to 18 Years Old
2
Utah Legislature. Utah Code 30-3-35.5 – Minimum Schedule for Parent-time for Child Under Five Years Old
3
Utah Legislature. Utah Code 30-3-34 – Parent-time — Best Interests — Rebuttable Presumption
4
Utah Legislature. Utah Code 81-9-204
5
Utah Legislature. Utah Code 30-3-34.5 – Supervised Parent-time
6
Utah Legislature. Utah Code 30-3-10.2 – Joint Custody Order — Factors for Court Determination — Public Assistance
7
Utah Legislature. Utah Code 30-3-10.4 – Modification or Termination of Order
8
Utah Courts. Modifying Parent-Time
9
Utah Legislature. Utah Code 30-3-37 – Relocation
10
Utah Legislature. Utah Code 30-3-38 – Expedited Parent-time Enforcement Program
11
Utah Legislature. Utah Code 76-5-303 – Custodial Interference
12
Utah Legislature. Utah Code 30-3-39 – Mediation Program
13
Utah Legislature. Utah Code 30-5-2 – Visitation Rights of Grandparents
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3932 – Stay of Proceedings When Servicemember Has Notice
15
Internal Revenue Service. Qualifying Child Rules
16
Internal Revenue Service. Form 8332 – Release/Revocation of Release of Claim to Exemption for Child by Custodial Parent