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Legal Information: Florida

Custody

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Updated: 
October 6, 2023

What is a parenting plan?

A “parenting plan” is a document created to establish the roles of each parent when it comes to making decisions about your child’s education, health care, and physical, social, and emotional well-being. The parenting plan must:

  1. describe in detail how the parents will share responsibility for the daily tasks associated with raising the child;
  2. include the time-sharing schedule with specific information about the time that the child will spend with each parent;
  3. describe the methods and technologies that the parents will use to communicate with the child, such as email, phone, etc.;
  4. lay out who will be responsible for:
    • any and all forms of health care; Note: If the judge orders shared parental responsibility over health care decisions, the parenting plan must provide that either parent may consent to mental health treatment for the child;
    • school-related matters, including which address should be used for determining the child’s school registration; and
    • other activities.1

In creating the plan, the parents’ relationship, any history of domestic violence, and other relevant factors must be taken into consideration. A parenting plan can be developed and agreed to by the parents and approved by the judge. However, the judge might decide to make his/her own parenting plan if s/he does not approve of the plan agreed to by the parents or if the parents cannot agree on a parenting plan. In these cases, the judge will create the parenting plan after hearing evidence and testimony from both parents.2

1 F.S.A. § 61.13(2)(b)
2 F.S.A. § 61.046(14)