Over the last decade, legislation addressing issues facing military parents has become a national trend. With the number of custody and visitation issues among military families growing, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws drafted the Uniform Deployed Parents Custody and Visitation Act (UDPCVA) to allow states to adopt a procedure for courts to use when faced with this unique situation. Nearly every state has as provision addressing custody and visitation of deployed parents.
So far, 10 states have enacted the Uniform Deployed Parents Custody and Visitation Act while several other states have introduced and/or enacted similar legislation supporting deployed parents and their families.
The majority of states have some statutory provision addressing the custody and visitation rights of military parents. Each year several states introduce legislation to enact the UDPCVA or other similar legislation. This legislation is tracked in NCSL's Child Support and Family Law Legislation Database under the "Custody and Visitation - Military Parents" topic.
Below is a map illustrating the states that have legislation, a description of the Uniform Deployed Parent Custody and Visitation Act, and a 50-state survey of how states currently address the issue.