Tex. Fam. Code § 160.204 · Subchapter C. PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP
PRESUMPTION OF PATERNITY.
Text — Current through the 89th 2nd Called Legislative Session, 2025
(a) A man is presumed to be the father of a child if:
(1) he is married to the mother of the child and the child is born during the marriage;
(2) he is married to the mother of the child and the child is born before the 301st day after the date the marriage is terminated by death, annulment, declaration of invalidity, or divorce;
(3) he married the mother of the child before the birth of the child in apparent compliance with law, even if the attempted marriage is or could be declared invalid, and the child is born during the invalid marriage or before the 301st day after the date the marriage is terminated by death, annulment, declaration of invalidity, or divorce;
(4) he married the mother of the child after the birth of the child in apparent compliance with law, regardless of whether the marriage is or could be declared invalid, he voluntarily asserted his paternity of the child, and:
(A) the assertion is in a record filed with the vital statistics unit;
(B) he is voluntarily named as the child's father on the child's birth certificate; or
(C) he promised in a record to support the child as his own; or
(5) during the first two years of the child's life, he continuously resided in the household in which the child resided and he represented to others that the child was his own.
(b) A presumption of paternity established under this section may be rebutted only by:
(1) an adjudication under Subchapter G; or
(2) the filing of a valid denial of paternity by a presumed father in conjunction with the filing by another person of a valid acknowledgment of paternity as provided by Section 160.305.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 821, Sec. 1.01, eff. June 14, 2001; Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 610, Sec. 10, eff. Sept. 1, 2003; Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 1248, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 2003.
Amended by:
Acts 2015, 84th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1 (S.B. 219), Sec. 1.055, eff. April 2, 2015.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Current through the 89th 2nd Called Legislative Session, 2025
- Official file
- https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.160.htm
- Text hash
- sha256 2cd6e2a48b30b3e1550618c695595eb7dd00b3bc634acb946f0ac916f642a379
- Composed by
- compose_tx.py 2026-10-05: the Legislative Council's chapter files read in document order; verify_tx.py's independent reading (lxml DOM walk) agrees character for character
BenchPath cards that rely on this text
- 266th District Court Local Rules (Erath County)
- 266th District Court Administrative Order — Dissolution When a Child Is Born During Marriage and the Husband Is Not the Biological Father (Erath County)
- 266th District Court Standing Order — Property and Conduct of the Parties in Divorce and SAPCR (Erath County)
- 266th District Court Standard Criminal Discovery Order (Erath County)
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Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.