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Legal Information: Iowa

Custody

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Updated: 
November 3, 2023

Who can get custody?

When married parents separate or get divorced, either one or both parents can get custody of the child.1

If the child’s parents are not married, and the father has not signed an acknowledgment of paternity, then the mother has sole custody of the child unless a judge has ordered something else. However, after legal fatherhood (paternity) is established, the father has an equal right to file for custody or visitation.2

1 IA ST § 598.41
2 IA ST § 600B.40(1)

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