Fam. Code, § 3020 · Chapter 1. General Provisions
Fam. Code, § 3020
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) The Legislature finds and declares that it is the public policy of this state to ensure that the health, safety, and welfare of children shall be the court’s primary concern in determining the best interests of children when making any orders regarding the physical or legal custody or visitation of children. The Legislature further finds and declares that children have the right to be safe and free from abuse, and that the perpetration of child abuse or domestic violence in a household where a child resides is detrimental to the health, safety, and welfare of the child.
(b) The Legislature finds and declares that it is the public policy of this state to ensure that children have frequent and continuing contact with both parents after the parents have separated or dissolved their marriage, or ended their relationship, and to encourage parents to share the rights and responsibilities of child rearing in order to effect this policy, except when the contact would not be in the best interests of the child, as provided in subdivisions (a) and (c) of this section and Section 3011.
(c) When the policies set forth in subdivisions (a) and (b) of this section are in conflict, a court’s order regarding physical or legal custody or visitation shall be made in a manner that ensures the health, safety, and welfare of the child and the safety of all family members.
(d) The Legislature finds and declares that it is the public policy of this state to ensure that the sex, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation of a parent, legal guardian, or relative is not considered in determining the best interests of the child.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2019, Ch. 551, Sec. 2. (SB 495) Effective January 1, 2020.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=FAM§ionNum=3020.
- Text hash
- sha256 c5feca2d5097c8332014b3d25f1085c7657eebd1e7df4312dc83c1637594535d
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
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This section cites
Provisions in this library that the text above cites, as it prints each citation. A range cited as “ss. 61.13-61.16” links its first and last provisions.
Family Code
Cited by 9 provisions
Provisions in this library whose text cites Fam. Code, § 3020. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
Family Code
- Fam. Code, § 3004Printed as Sections 3011 and 3020
- Fam. Code, § 3011Printed as Section 3020
- Fam. Code, § 3027.5Printed as Section 3020
- Fam. Code, § 3040Printed as Sections 3011 and 3020
- Fam. Code, § 3044Printed as Section 3020 | Sections 3011 and 3020
- Fam. Code, § 3100Printed as Section 3020
- Fam. Code, § 3161Printed as Sections 3011 and 3020
- Fam. Code, § 3162Printed as Sections 3011 and 3020
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