Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: Alaska law makes an adult child liable for a poor parent’s support, but only after the state’s welfare department directs it and the child refuses; a private nursing home cannot sue under this statute directly, and no reported case has ever applied it against a child.
What Alaska actually sets out
| What the statute sets out | What it says |
|---|---|
| Alaska Stat. Sec. 47.25.230 | “Every needy person shall be supported while living and upon dying, shall be given a decent burial by the spouse, children, parents, grandparents, grandchildren, or siblings of the needy person, if they, or any of them, have the ability to do so, in the order named.” |
| Civil only, enforced by the state or a municipality | “Every designated person who fails to support the needy person when directed by the department to do so… shall reimburse the state or a municipality for the funds expended… and these sums with interest and costs may be recovered by the state or a municipality of the state in a civil action.” |
| The reciprocal duty in a separate section, AS 25.20.030 | “Each parent is bound to maintain the parent’s children when poor and unable to work to maintain themselves. Each child is bound to maintain the child’s parents in like circumstances.” |
| Cap or time limit | No dollar cap or statute of limitations appears in the text of either section. |
| Case law | No reported Alaska case applying either section to compel an adult child to pay a parent’s care costs was found. |
How it works in practice
- Liability under Sec. 47.25.230 attaches only after the state welfare department directs support and the relative refuses; a nursing home cannot sue directly under this section, only the state or a municipality can, to recover what public funds it already paid.
- The reciprocal duty in Sec. 25.20.030 runs both ways, parents must support poor children and children must support poor parents in like circumstances, with no separate enforcement procedure written into that section itself.
- Liability under Sec. 47.25.230 is capped, in effect, by ability to do so for every relative named, spouse, children, parents, grandparents, grandchildren and siblings, in that stated order.
What a filial responsibility statute is, why most of them sit unused, and which state is the one with documented recent enforcement is explained on the filial responsibility laws by state page. How this fits alongside the other two mechanisms that can turn a parent’s medical debt into a living person’s debt is explained on who actually owes medical bills after a death, and what a nursing home may and may not ask a family member to sign at admission is on the admission agreement traps page. This page is the record for Alaska.
What this page does not settle
- Alaska’s General Relief Assistance program, the funding scheme Sec. 47.25.230 sits inside, is itself a narrow, state-administered category, and whether the needy person definition it depends on carries its own numeric income or asset threshold could not be confirmed from the two sections read for this page.
- This page reads the state’s own current code and 1 other primary source. A state can amend or repeal this section without the page around it changing, and a detail specific to your situation, such as a pending Medicaid application or a prior period of estrangement, can change which part of the statute applies.
- A statute existing is not the same question as whether it has ever been used. Enforcement history, where it exists at all, is noted on this page; where none was found, that is stated plainly rather than left blank.
- Every quotation here was read against the source on September 4, 2026. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and the statute’s own defenses and procedural requirements matter as much as its liability language.
Whether this statute actually reaches a given family’s situation is decided by a court on the specific facts, not by this page. Nothing here is legal advice, and no one should sign anything or send money on the strength of a web page.
Sources
- Alaska Statutes Sec. 47.25.230 (Alaska State Legislature)
- Alaska Statutes Sec. 25.20.030 (Alaska State Legislature)
The sources above were retrieved and read against the state text on September 4, 2026. Every quotation on this page was checked against those bytes.