Three changes to Utah child support law take effect in or around 2026, and two of them affect nearly every parent with an order. The largest is a change in how child care costs are handled: instead of reimbursing the other parent after the fact, orders will carry an ongoing monthly child care payment. The others tighten enforcement, with expanded driver license suspension for parents in arrears and interest on late payments beginning in 2027. Here is what each one does, who it affects, and what to do about it.

1. Ongoing child care payments in every order (effective July 1, 2026)

House Bill 463, passed in the 2025 session, rewrote how Utah handles work-related child care. Under the old system, the parent who paid for daycare submitted receipts and the other parent reimbursed their share, which produced constant disputes about what was owed and when.

Beginning July 1, 2026, Utah law creates a rebuttable presumption that every child support order includes a recurring monthly payment from the obligor for child care expenses. The amount is set using guidelines from the Office of Recovery Services, and the payment generally continues until the child turns 13. Parents can propose a different amount, and a court can set the payment at zero if no child care expense is expected, but the default is now a fixed monthly figure rather than reimbursement.

The same law requires divorce decrees to include a child support order with medical expense provisions, the ongoing child care provision, and a notice about the Office of Recovery Services. If your decree was entered before July 2026 it is not automatically changed, but the new model will apply when the order is modified, and a parent who is paying or receiving child care reimbursement inconsistently may want to modify to the fixed payment.

What to do: if you have a child under 13 and a support order, find out what the ORS guideline figure would be for your case. If it is materially different from what you pay or receive now, a modification may be worth filing. If you are entering a new order, expect the child care payment to be part of it and make sure the amount reflects actual expected costs.

2. Expanded driver license suspension for arrears

House Bill 248, passed in the 2026 session, clarified and expanded the Office of Recovery Services’ authority to suspend a parent’s driver license for unpaid child support. Under the amended provisions in Utah Code 26B-9-502, suspension can be triggered when arrears reach a set threshold or when a parent has missed full payments for 60 consecutive days. The threshold in the bill is high, aimed at the most delinquent cases, but the 60-day trigger reaches parents who have simply stopped paying.

Utah already suspended professional, recreational, and driver licenses for child support arrears; the 2026 change makes the driver license provision clearer and easier for ORS to use. A parent who has lost a job and cannot pay should file to modify immediately rather than fall 60 days behind, because a license suspension makes it harder to earn the money to catch up. Our 2026 enforcement guide covers the full set of ORS tools and how to respond to them.

3. Interest on delinquent child support (effective July 1, 2027)

Delinquent child support in Utah will accrue interest at 6 percent per year under Title 81, Chapter 7, beginning July 1, 2027. Utah has long treated unpaid support as a judgment that accrues interest once reduced to judgment; the change makes interest run on delinquent payments by statute. The practical effect is that arrears grow faster and the cost of waiting to address them goes up. A parent with arrears has a window before mid-2027 to get a payment plan or a modification in place.

What did not change

The income shares formula, the guideline tables, the 111-overnight joint custody threshold, and the modification standards under Utah Code 81-6-212 are unchanged for 2026. Support still ends at 18 or high school graduation, whichever is later. The rules for imputing income to a voluntarily unemployed parent are unchanged. If someone tells you the formula changed, they are likely describing the child care provision.

What to do now

Parents receiving support with a child under 13 should ask whether the fixed child care payment would be higher than what they collect through reimbursement. Parents paying support should know that the ongoing payment replaces open-ended reimbursement claims, which is often to their advantage. Anyone behind on support should act before the 60-day trigger and before interest begins in 2027. And anyone with a pre-2026 order that no longer fits their life should consider whether a modification now gets them into the new structure on their terms.

CoilLaw handles child support orders, modifications, and enforcement defense throughout Utah. If you want to know how the 2026 changes affect your order, bring it to a consultation and we will run it.

This article is general information about Utah law, not legal advice for your situation.