Is family law on the NextGen bar exam? Yes — twice over, in two different ways, and the date that separates them matters more than any doctrine in the subject. From the first administration in July 2026 through February 2028, family law appears on every exam with the law provided: a question set or performance task hands you the statute or the opinion and grades what you do with it. From July 2028, family law becomes the ninth Foundational Concepts and Principles subject, tested like Contracts or Torts — fourteen of its topics from memory, the rest with or without provided resources.
This post is the second era. NCBE announced the addition in October 2023 at the request of jurisdiction high courts, put a draft out for comment in July 2024, and published the final NextGen Family Law Subject Matter Outline on November 20, 2024, for use beginning with the July 2028 administration. Everything below is read from that outline and NCBE's content-scope pages on September 20, 2026. If you're sitting before July 2028, the provided-resource guide is the post for you; if you're the Class of 2028 or later, keep reading.
Two eras, by administration
| You sit in | Family law is tested | What that demands |
|---|---|---|
| July 2026 · February 2027 · July 2027 · February 2028 | In skills questions only, with legal resources provided | Framework fluency and fast statute reading — not memorization |
| July 2028 and after — including the 24-state wave: California, New York, Texas, Florida and the rest | As a full Foundational Concepts subject | Recalled knowledge of the 14 starred topics; recognition of the other 13 |
The switch lands on the largest cohort in the transition: every jurisdiction that starts NextGen in July 2028, plus every earlier adopter, tests family law doctrinally from that date. The 2028 guide lists the 28 jurisdictions; the point here is that a May 2028 graduate anywhere on that list should treat family law as a memorization subject from now.
The July 2028 outline, topic by topic
NCBE's outline has five parts and 27 tested topics. Starred topics (★) "require an examinee to rely solely on recalled knowledge and understanding of the topic; they will be tested without provision of legal resources." Unstarred topics "may be tested with or without provision of legal resources" — and when tested without them, you're expected to recognize that the topic is in play.
| Part | Topic | Starred? |
|---|---|---|
| I. Marriage requirements and limitations | A. Limitations on who may marry (bigamy; age and consanguinity variations) | — |
| B. Procedural requirements (license, residency, who may officiate) | — | |
| C. State-of-mind requirements (knowing and voluntary entry) | — | |
| D. Common-law marriage and the putative-spouse doctrine | — | |
| E. Void and voidable marriages | ★ | |
| F. Interstate recognition of marriages | — | |
| II. Separation and dissolution/divorce | A. Grounds (fault vs no-fault; the role of interpersonal violence) | ★ |
| B. Jurisdiction (decrees and related orders; divisible divorce; PKPA, UIFSA, ICWA, UCCJEA) | ★ | |
| C. Preliminary and interlocutory orders or agreements | — | |
| D. Premarital, marital, separation and divorce agreements | ★ | |
| E. Division of property (classification, transmutation, community vs marital vs hotchpot, equitable vs equal, factors, debts) | ★ | |
| F. Maintenance/alimony | — | |
| G. Child custody (categories; best-interests factors; parents' rights in the divorce context) | ★ | |
| H. Child support (guidelines, deviation, extraordinary expenses, emancipation) | ★ | |
| I.1 Modification of decrees — maintenance | ★ | |
| I.2 Modification of decrees — child support and custody (including relocation) | ★ | |
| J. Enforcement of decrees (contempt, full faith and credit, attacking final orders, interstate support enforcement) | — | |
| III. Parentage and the rights of parents and nonparents | A.1 Establishing parentage — married, unmarried and nonbiological parents | — |
| A.2 Assisted reproductive technology | — | |
| B.1 Rights and obligations of married parents (outside divorce) | ★ | |
| B.2 Rights and obligations of unmarried parents | ★ | |
| C. Custodial disputes between parents and third parties | ★ | |
| IV. Termination of parental rights and guardianships | A.1 Jurisdiction to terminate (UCCJEA, ICWA) | ★ |
| A.2 Voluntary termination (consent) | ★ | |
| A.3 Involuntary termination (presumption of fitness; grounds vary) | — | |
| B. Legal guardianship | — | |
| V. Adoption | Procedures and grounds; qualifications, home studies, consent, birth certificates, post-adoption access; ICWA | — |
Fourteen starred, thirteen not. Notice the shape: the divorce chapter — grounds, jurisdiction, agreements, property, custody, support, modification — is mostly starred (eight of its eleven topics), while marriage formation, maintenance, enforcement, parentage, involuntary termination, guardianship and adoption are the recognition-only topics. That's the memorization map.
Two of the outline's own rules keep it honest. "Where the applicable law is noted in this outline, that law is controlling. In all other cases, if specific statutory rights and remedies are tested, the applicable legal resources will be provided." And: describing a topic's scope "does not indicate greater importance or testing frequency of the topic." A starred topic asks for the framework — the categories of custody, the best-interests factors, the property-division approaches — not any one state's guideline formula, which the outline repeatedly describes as varying by jurisdiction.
The statutes the outline names
Four acts recur across the jurisdiction, modification, enforcement, termination and adoption topics, and the outline expects you to know when each applies:
- Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (1997) — custody jurisdiction and enforcement, and jurisdiction to terminate parental rights.
- Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (2008) — support jurisdiction, modification and interstate enforcement.
- Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act — custody jurisdiction and modification across state lines.
- Indian Child Welfare Act — jurisdiction in divorce-related custody, termination and adoption proceedings.
The outline also flags where family law crosses other subjects: the right to marry and the right to direct a child's education sit in the Constitutional Law outline; premarital and marital agreements borrow the Contracts rules on incapacity, duress, mistake, fraud, illegality and unconscionability; divorce jurisdiction overlaps the Civil Procedure topics on personal jurisdiction, notice, venue and transfer. NCBE says outright that questions may test topics from more than one subject area, and family law is where those seams show.
How it will be tested
Like the other eight subjects, through every item type. From July 2028, family law can appear in the standalone multiple-choice block — select-one and select-two — where a starred topic will be asked from memory. It stays in the integrated question sets and performance tasks, where the outline says topics "will be tested using tasks from the Foundational Skills outline": counseling a client on a custody modification, drafting or editing a separation agreement, a research task on interstate support enforcement. The difference from today's provided-resource items is only that a starred topic may arrive without the statute attached.
Who needs to memorize it, and who doesn't
- Class of 2028 in a NextGen jurisdiction, or anyone sitting July 2028 or later: memorize the 14 starred topics; be able to recognize the other 13. If Family Law is still on your elective menu, take it — the 2028 guide makes the same point about Evidence and Business Organizations.
- February 2027, July 2027 and February 2028 takers: the provided-resource skill is the whole job. Learn the frameworks so a provided statute lands in a slot, then practice cold-statute reading under a clock. Memorizing doctrine the exam will print for you is the worst hour-for-hour trade available.
- Legacy UBE takers: NCBE's current MEE subject list no longer includes family law, so the legacy essay day won't ask for it; the vs-UBE comparison covers the rest of what moved.
- Retakers who fail February 2028 and return in July 2028: you cross the line between eras. Plan the retake as if family law were a new subject, because for scoring purposes it is.
How to practice it now
Our Family Law hub is organized to the outline's shape: five topics — Marriage; Dissolution, Property & Support; Custody & Parenting; Parentage; Termination of Parental Rights, Guardianship & Adoption — with 178 exam-format questions, notes and flashcards, and the first topic free with an account. The questions are written in both multiple-choice formats and the explanations name the framework the item turns on, which is what a starred topic asks you to carry into the room.
Sequence it the way the outline's stars suggest. Divorce first — grounds, jurisdiction, agreements, property, custody, support, modification — because that's where eight of the fourteen stars sit and where every uniform act above shows up. Then parents' rights and third-party custody. Then the recognition-only topics, lightly: marriage formation, maintenance, enforcement, parentage, termination grounds, guardianship, adoption — enough to spot them in a fact pattern and read a provided statute quickly. Put the starred frameworks on a flashcard floor early; they're lists and factors, which is what flashcards are for.
And keep the dates straight. Through February 2028 the exam will hand you the family-law rule; from July 2028 it will ask whether you brought it.
