Arizona House Bill HB2762

Arizona 2025 Regular Session

• Introduced: 2/10/25

Caption

Custody; parenting time; child preference

Summary

HB 2762 would amend Arizona’s child-custody statute governing legal decision-making and parenting time by adding a new rule for older children’s preferences. Under the bill, if a child is at least 14 years old and sufficiently mature to express a preference intelligently and voluntarily, the child would have the right to choose which parent they want for custody and parenting time, and that choice would be treated as presumptive unless the court finds it is not in the child’s best interests. The bill leaves the existing best-interests framework in place, including the court’s duty to consider the child’s relationships, adjustment to home/school/community, the mental and physical health of the parties, domestic violence, child abuse, coercion, and other relevant factors. The measure also preserves the requirement that courts make specific findings on the record in contested custody and parenting-time cases. In practical terms, HB 2762 would shift Arizona law from a system where a mature child’s wishes are one factor among many to one where a qualifying child’s preference would carry presumptive weight in the court’s decision, subject to judicial override when necessary to protect the child’s best interests.

Impact

HB 2762 would amend A.R.S. § 25-403, the statute that governs how Arizona courts decide legal decision-making and parenting time. The main legal change is the creation of a presumptive right for children age 14 or older, if sufficiently mature, to select the parent with whom they want to live or spend parenting time, while still allowing the court to reject that preference if it is inconsistent with the child’s best interests. The bill would therefore affect family court custody determinations, parents involved in contested custody disputes, and children old enough to express a preference.

Sentiment

Based on the bill text and the absence of committee testimony or recorded votes, there is no documented public debate in the provided materials. The bill’s framing suggests support for giving greater weight to the wishes of older, mature children in custody cases, while still keeping the best-interests standard as the controlling legal principle. Because no voting history or transcript is available, the overall sentiment cannot be measured from the record provided.

Contention

The likely point of contention is the bill’s shift from considering a child’s wishes as one factor to making the preference of a 14-year-old presumptively controlling. Supporters would likely view this as recognizing the autonomy and maturity of older children, while opponents may argue it could pressure children, destabilize custody arrangements, or reduce judicial flexibility in difficult family situations. Another possible area of concern is how courts would determine whether a child is sufficiently mature and whether the preference was expressed voluntarily, especially in cases involving conflict, coercion, domestic violence, or parental manipulation.