Parenting Time: Children Come First

Parenting time, formerly called visitation, details the schedule that each parent spends with the children.

Some courts order that one parent will have “reasonable parenting time,” leaving it up to the parents to decide the schedule. Others prefer to spell out specific parenting time (which days and hours) in the divorce judgment.

• Parenting time orders can be changed if a parent demonstrates a change in circumstances.
• Failure to pay child support is not an acceptable reason to deny parenting time.
• The law allows for compensation for parenting time that has been wrongfully denied.
• A parent can be fined or sentenced to a jail term for wrongfully denying parenting time.
• If parents have joint custody, neither parent may move more than 100 miles from the child without court approval.
• Minor children may not be permanently moved out of state without the court’s permission.